Garden-Secret is a design company that creates beautiful gardens. Guy Hervais is the creative director of Garden Secret. Born and raised in Paris, since his early childhood, he enjoyed wandering around the royal gardens at Versailles, Fontainebleau, the Loire chateaux and all the famous parks to contemplate the finest garden design throughout the centuries, at its very best.
Guy Hervais
Guy has always thought about Life as Beauty to live and to enjoy... like taste, elegance, originality, unity, and exigency, to the highest standards… As a renowned art director and photographer for well-known international companies and publishing houses, he has had fantastic opportunities to visit and be inspired by some of the most exceptional gardens and houses, that he visited over the past 30 years. His passion for gardens, propelled him into garden & landscape design. Some years ago he began creating, beautiful bespoke private books for the most exclusive clients.
“Garden-Secret is offering you a travel through the gardens of Guy Hervais”
Le Pavillon de Galon
Guy & his wife Bibi, lovingly tend to the gardens they have created and restored at their Provençal home in the Luberon region, which has been recently awarded the “Remarkable Garden” title by the French Ministry of Culture & Environment. All year round, hundreds of international guests, from garden lovers to botanical experts, enthusiastically visit Guy’s experiments and landscape installations at their home, the “Pavillon de Galon”. Over the years, Guy has participated in conferences with some of the best garden designers to share points of view. In his own garden, master classes sometimes follow guided visits.
It is here at Le Pavillon de Galon in Provence that we have the chance to create with the Garden-Secret Studio, while experimenting new gardens.
Vision for Gardens
Guy is frequently asked for his “Vision” when creating unique gardens for famous artists, fashion designers, decorators, luxury resorts and palaces. Like “Haute Couture”, he always invents original new harmonies and design perspectives to reach what represents a beautiful garden for him: Light and somewhere unique in Nature, shaped to the individuality of each client. Culturally speaking, Guy is close to Persian, French and Italian gardens and is very attached to the Mediterranean world.
What is your starting point for a new garden?
“First I take a deep breath when I first discover and walk in.
The first sight is unforgettable!
A stroll through the garden with the owners and then I spend time alone, at different moments of the day, even sometimes at night.
Carefully, I listen to its natural sounds, like its music…
and I analyze the soil and existing watering system.
I spend the time needed to discuss with the owners
and share our expectations together.
Then, I create the design and drawings with pastels, inks, crayons, etc… (the ground-plan and several perspective views of the landscape).”
When creating, what is indispensable in a garden?
“Good drawings speak to us all…
I believe that this stage is essential as the very first vision of the project.
The drawings are beautiful and simple.
They are understandable and eventually sensual.
They show the direction of our ideas through shape, colour and harmony
(sometimes dreams are enhanced and come true).
Good drawings illustrate the balance we are looking for.
The work may now begin!”
At the moment, where are you creating gardens?
“India, Provence, the Balearic Islands, Brazil, Italy…”
When creating, what is indispensable in a garden?
“- Light, playing on volumes and the choice of plants.
- A compass, as the creation of the garden depends of the orientation of the sun,
as it moves around the garden all day long.
- A good pair of sunglasses, to be able to look at the garden in backlight.”
