The joy of an evening stroll through the garden of Can Antoinette, a restored finca in rural Ibiza cannot be underestimated. Meandering around beds of gold and green, bursting with life, their long delicate stems swaying in the breeze calms the soul and restores the spirit.
At Can Antoinette, the clients are garden lovers and wanted the area around their restored finca to be abundant with naturalistic planting and to forego a traditional grassed lawn.
Water supply always been a huge issue in Ibiza and grassed lawns need a huge amount of water to stay green and healthy, much more than the rest of the garden, so are not the most sustainable choice. Xeriscape gardens are on trend and even the only permitted type of landscaping in some places with hotter, drier climates, due to their drought-tolerant planting and huge saving on water consumption.
The garden gives a wonderful, holistic view from all sides of the house and, instead of looking out to a formal space, the family can gaze onto a myriad of colourful layers of planting and swaying golden grasses, with the gnarled trunks of the olive trees bringing sun-dappled shade.
We designed the space to contain pathways that would meander around the organically-shaped planting beds, bringing more of a journey in which to engage throughout in the garden.
The client requested an informal, naturalistic style garden surrounding the house, without traditional formal borders and planting with the intention to make abundant, mixed planting the focus.
Purple verbena, lavender, Lindheimer’s gaura, rosemary, Russian sage, golden yarrow, silky spike melic and needle grasses to name just a few of the plants we used to create a bountiful and rich landscape.
In terms of the trees we created a separate palm grove with Canary Island palm trees around the outdoor kitchen and sandy area that resonates as a desert oasis and borders the Mediterranean garden next to the house where we planted mature olive trees, bring height and shade to the planting below.
We constructed the large crazy paving pathways with sandstone and turf in between, which brings a green balance, softening the boundaries between planting bed and pathway but, not to the extent of a grassed lawn.
For the palm grove beyond, we installed a large sandy area and set a trampoline into the ground that’s the perfect space for some child’s play.
The finished result is a stunning green space that will enliven the senses and continue growing into a unique, abundant green space and, with the next phase of the project concentrating on a sports pitch and redesign or the outdoor living architecture, we can’t wait to watch this garden grow.
Images by Claire Takacs.
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