Jardin destock - Long

photos : Yann Monel et (un peu) Wagon

The lock keeper’s house in Long bears witness to the history of a village whose strategic position, shaped by the crossing of the Somme River and the operation of its lock, long structured inland waterway trade. Today, with the development of river tourism and the passage of the cycle route along the former towpath, the site has become a key gateway to the natural territory of the “Baie de Somme – Three Valleys”. Destock Garden is rooted in this dual reading, both heritage and landscape-based, while supporting the site’s new uses.

The project evokes the memory of fluvial transport while revealing a form of “nature at work”. The garden is conceived as a wild space, as if a barge had left part of its cargo behind on the riverbank. It is colonised by a plant palette drawn from wastelands, composed of species historically spread along canals through the movement of goods. These plants demonstrate the capacity of living systems to establish themselves on poor, well-drained soils typical of fluvial infrastructures.

The diversity of origins translates into a sequence of flowering events unfolding throughout the year, encouraging a form of ordinary yet rich biodiversity, visible from the lock keeper’s house. The garden thus becomes a place for reading and understanding living landscapes at the scale of everyday experience.

This spontaneous vegetation is protected and framed by a wooden structure that supports a line of deck chairs. Oriented both towards the passage of boats through the lock and towards the village’s built heritage, it invites visitors to pause and observe. Cyclists and walkers find here a place to stop, at the intersection of landscape, history and contemporary uses, on the threshold of the future Somme Picardie Maritime Regional Nature Park.

A project produced by Art & Jardins Hauts-de-France www.artetjardins-hdf.com