At the JARDINS DE PHILIPPE

Who can be behind Aux Jardins de Philippe on this dirt road in Arundel? There’s certainly activity, but no gardener in sight.

I finally meet the enigmatic gardener on his steps and, all ears, discover a fascinating life. Philippe Lamarre worked for ages in the upper reaches of technology. This computer counselor specialized in inventory management and production, working with multinationals. Having lived in Paris, he missed Quebec, but not the traffic, work, sleep routine. So he decided to return to the area where he had spent his childhood after his three children were grown. “One day, I’ll come back” he had engraved on his internal hard drive, with a special thought for agriculture, inspired by his parents’ passion for flowers.

Three years ago, after having taken a course at the CFAM* on the rudiments of market gardening – a practical training course with the very popular Jean-Martin Fortier – and studied the works of Eliot Coleman, Philippe became the owner of a three-acre plot of land and launched into clearing the trees from it by hand.

Whether you’re assembling aeronautical products or doing market gardening, the logic is the same, he told himself. He favours the “prototype” approach: start small, observe, implement. After having tested more than 20 varieties of vegetable, he selected those that gave him the best results. Today, he concentrates on kale, basil, squash, ground cherries and garlic. He has gone from 300 to 3,500 garlic plants and sees 35,000 of them for 2019.

Philippe joined the Brigade team, which develops pestos from his vegetable garden. This summer, he’ll share their booth at the Mont-Tremblant Summer Market and will have a stall at the Brébeuf flea market on Saturdays and Sundays. Agrotourism projects and construction of his principal residence are on the drawing board. Philippe needs a hand in the fields, but he’s not the kind of guy who would ask…. Note to those interested.

*Centre de formation agricole de Mirabel

By the same author: The farm called La Récolte de la Rouge (Click the image below)