We were involved with this project from a very early stage – which is always the best way – and alongside a favourite Architect of ours, Jaime Romano from Ibiza, and the client. It was a new build but I had known the previous house and the location well beforehand, so I had a good idea of what might grow and do well in the location.
Firstly we had to consider the significant drop in level from the finished floor of the house to the gate onto the beach, and for this reason I designed a long L-shaped series of steps along nearly the whole of the rear boundary. They incorporate a small area of lawn, and lovely planting beds with lines of planting including Caladium, tuberose and Agave.
This site was all about enhancing the view to the sea, and creating the feeling that the planting migrated from the outside, through the house and into its wonderful courtyards and small outside spaces, so that they all became part of one composition. We used plants which would evoke the colour used within the main structure of the house – a lovely blue/grey colour. So the main feature palm was the Bismarckia palm together with Aechmea fasciata as underplanting, both of which evoked this colour and spirit well. We used over-scaled cream clay pots along the poolside as well as containers against the upright columns of the house planted with white frangipani and underplanted with Tradescantia.
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