Lorenza Bartolazzi, Luca Catalano AND Claudia Clementini
A rendering of the garden at Vieux Craonne. The garden is planted with more than 33 varieties of flowering bulbs in memory of the 592 soldiers, many of whom were Italian, who lost their lives April 16, 1917.
Collectif Escargo
At Vimy, Montreal-based landscape artists have created a garden called Flag to commemorate Canadian soldiers. Blooms like white flags echo the universal symbolism of peace.
Thomas Van Eeckhout AND Mathieu Allain
At Le Quesnoy, a commemorative garden in memory of New Zealand soldiers is known as The Assault of the Ramparts, seen in this rendering.
Dan Bowyer and Andrew Fisher Tomlin
At Thiepval, France, a single seat 33 metres long sits gently on the ground in this woodland garden, linking the past, the present and the future.
This November, a dozen new gardens which combine art, nature and a global approach to commemoration in this centennial year of the armistice of the First World War officially opened to the public. Another four Gardens of Peace will be built in the spring of 2019.
The gardens of remembrance have been created near the memorial sites of the First World War in the Hauts-de-France region located north of Paris and situated by the English Channel at the point closest to England. The Battle of the Somme claimed the lives of more than one million men and women. More than 24,000 Canadians were killed, wounded or went missing on the Somme.
At Vimy, in northern France, 3,598 Canadians were killed and another 7,000 wounded. The bodies of 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France during the First World War were never recovered.
Like Canada, there are many countries around the world whose brave soldiers fought for freedom and died in the trenches and battlefields which scar the landscape in northern France. Which one of us today does not have a family connection to those who fought in the First World War? We are still only a few generations away. My grandfather fought at the Battle of Passchendaele, where he was exposed to mustard gas. His younger brother was killed.
The Gardens of Peace, an extraordinary project conceived by Art & jardins — Hauts-de-France and the First World War Centenary Partnership Programme, look to the future to create hope and reconciliation. In addition to the garden created at Vimy that honours Canadian soldiers, the Gardens of Peace commemorate the soldiers from France, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Australia, Portugal, Scotland, Italy, England, Wales, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and Morocco who came together as one to fight a common enemy.
Earlier this week, I talked to Karyna St-Pierre, who travelled to northern France from Montreal for a whirlwind two-day visit to all 12 of the gardens and in particular, Flag, the garden created at the Canadian Memorial Park in Vimy near Arras. St-Pierre, Julie Parenteau and Pierre-Yves Diehl are the three creative minds at Collectif Escargo, a design firm in Montreal.
It was only last spring, just as winter was ending, that Collectif Escargo learned of the project organized by Art & jardins — Hauts-de-France, submitted their design and was named a winner of the Jardins de la Paix competition in Vimy.
"We were very inspired by the site of Vimy Ridge," St-Pierre says. The battlefield terrain has been preserved and is still visible. The garden created by Collectif Escargo is inspired by Canada’s boreal forest and snow-covered landscapes. Located between two pine trees, inside a rectangle within another rectangle, numerous Amelanchier Canadensis (serviceberry), a woodland shrub or small tree native to eastern North America, are planted in the middle of a meadow of white flowers.
"We didn’t want to interrupt the nature of the landscape made by war," St-Pierre says, "so (we) chose Amelanchier Canadensis for its medium height, which would not interfere with the view of the landscape." Amelanchier, with its pale grey trunk, was also selected for its star-shaped white flowers. "Stars are universal symbols," St-Pierre says.
Several species of spring-flowering plants that have white blossoms have also been planted in the alkaline soil. Many of the species selected for this garden are familiar to local gardeners and are common to moist woodland areas in Western Canada. They include Anemone, Aruncus dioicus (Goat’s Beard), Philadelphus lewisii (Mock Orange) and Symphoricarpos albus (snowberry).
The white flowers are like so many white flags, their light colours dancing in the wind, echoing the universal symbolism of peace. A small track of white sand leads visitors to a long bench built from a fallen beech tree, which grew in a forested area at Vimy Ridge. European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) is one of the most common tree species in France.
"The garden is something that is luminous and light,"St-Pierre says, "and is a good complement to the site." The experience of creating the garden has been very emotive, she says. That same intense feeling has been aroused in each one of the many garden designers who have participated in the Gardens of Peace project.
English landscape architect Andrew Fisher Tomlin has also been visiting the gardens. Fisher Tomlin and Welsh landscape architect Dan Bowyer have designed their garden, Through a Woodland Gently, at Thiepval in memory of 442,000 fallen soldiers. "The garden is inspired by the ribbon of history that connects both the past and the future," Fisher Tomlin says. "It will prompt a gentle, thoughtful reflection on those who fought in the Battle of the Somme and how we can prevent this happening again."
The main structure, Fisher Tomlin says, is a single seat 33 metres long which sits gently upon the ground within a quiet part of the woodland at Thiepval. The bench, crafted from Welsh oak and Portland stone, winds its way around existing trees such as European Beech and oak growing in the woodland. New plantings will include the seeding of primroses — primarily Primula vulgaris but also Primula veris, commonly called cowslip.
A mix of woodland edge flowers will be sown including Agrimonia eupatoria (church steeples), Bellis perennis (English daisy), Digitalis purpurea (foxglove), Geum chiloense (avens) and Hypericum perforatum (Saint John’s Wort).
The garden called 592 near the village of Vieux Craonne commemorates 592 soldiers, many of whom were Italian, buried nearby. Designed by Italian landscape architects who live and work in Rome, the garden, planted among trees, features a tight frame of stakes meant to symbolize the fallen soldiers and has been planted with 33 varieties of bulbs, including red tulips. There will be a succession of blooms from spring to fall.
At Le Quesnoy, Belgium landscape artists commemorate the memory of New Zealand soldiers and local residents with a garden called The Assault of the Ramparts. The garden features walls that are 12 metres high as well as the use of terracotta bricks, a common material in Flanders.
The Garden of the Third Train was designed by a Franco-German team of three designers. Located in the Compiegne forest where the armistice was signed Nov. 11, 1918, in a railway carriage, the designers have landscaped the pathway which leads to the clearing. A long, low bench set with dozens of mirrors illuminates the space with reflections of the sky and foliage in the image of a third train, the train of peace.
Warren Otto, an academic adviser with the military support office at the University of Manitoba, is the Maple Leaf Legacy Project regional representative for Manitoba and northwest Ontario. Over the years, Otto has visited numerous cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, including two visits to France in spring and fall of 2017.
The Commonwealth War graves are in 150 countries, Otto says, and are characterized by fine horticultural maintenance involving more than 900 gardeners. The cemeteries are designed as living places and are meticulously planted with a mixture of low-growing plants.
Otto hopes to visit the Gardens of Peace sometime in the future.
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