No, it’s not a joke! There’s a sort of communal garden in Nogaro, run by someone I go walking with and another chap. Like so many gardens in France, it’s totally separate from its owner’s house, a bit like a single, large allotment. It belongs to a doctor who works in Pau, so doesn’t have time to tend it; Christian and Pierre were looking for a community gardening project and heard of this; they don’t have to pay rent and the doctor no longer has to pay a gardener, so everybody’s happy.

I was invited to go along; by working there one or two mornings a week, you get a share in any produce and, more importantly for me, you can mercilessly pick the brains of all the experienced gardeners there. Of course, the other advantage of this is that I improve my French into the bargain! As we’ve never owned any more than a Victorian back yard before and now have 5000 square metres to keep us from twiddling our thumbs, we’re on a steep learning curve, so I was delighted to go on Tuesday morning.

Everything in the garden is grown organically, the water comes from a well (hand drawn on Tuesday as Christian, who usually brings a generator and pump, was away on holiday) and only natural pesticides are used, made from nettles and other things. At this time of year, it’s mostly watering, cleaning up and harvesting that needs doing; but I was asked if I’d like the two baby walnut trees that had seeded themselves last year. No-one else wanted them, but they’d been looked after during the summer, so I happily helped to dig them up, bag them and bring them home in my bike paniers. With the baby fig tree donated by our neighbour, we’ve got the beginnings of an orchard in the back garden.

A few of the figs from our established tree, in the meantime, are drying nicely. Kieran and Nick have made a solar fruit dryer; it needs a few tweeks yet, to give it better airflow without too much loss of heat, but the first batch of figs is looking, and tasting, good after three days in the sun. I think I’ll cut the next batch in halves to let them dry more quickly and might try sun dried tomatoes too.