The island of Ibiza attracts visitors for all sorts of reasons. Some come for the hedonistic nightlife, others are in search of the haute-hippy yoga and wellness scene. But turn away from these bustling hotspots, down the winding roads of the hilly rural interior, and you soon leave the man-made entertainments behind and enter an unspoiled land where the air is rich with the whirr of cicadas and the scent of Aleppo pines. By day the ancient olive trees pattern the ground with their shadows and at night the sky is full of stars.
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Juan Masedo has lived in this magical place for the past 30 years, and here he creates gardens of a heightened naturalism that echo and enhance the land that he loves. His intention is always, he says, to harness the power of the native flora to produce an ecological balance between designed spaces and the wider natural landscape.
So in 2018, when he was invited to visit a derelict property in the centre of the island, he could immediately see the potential of the site.
In brief: An Ibizan garden fact-file
- What Private garden
- Where Ibiza
- Size 5,000 square metres
- Soil Generally calcareous rock, with some clay soil in the terraced areas
- Climate Mediterranean
- Hardiness zone USDA 10a
On a wooded hillside in central Ibiza, centuries-old stone walls rationalise the land around this traditional farmhouse into a series of terraces, which Juan Masedo has elegantly transformed into a contemporary garden of native and sun-loving plants from Mediterranean climes.
“This was a casa payesa, one of the old, whitewashed farms that are typical on Ibiza, sitting in a parcel of land that had been cleared and terraced hundreds of years ago,” he says. “The people who once lived here would have been able to grow everything they needed to survive. My client wanted to reuse the terraces to create a vegetable garden that recalled and respected the agricultural history of the land, but also asked for a low-water Mediterranean garden featuring ornamental native plants, olive groves, citrus and other fruit trees.”
Juan does not draw out his designs on paper, preferring to develop a feeling for each site by slowly walking through it to absorb the spirit of the place. “Initially, it may be necessary to bring order to what is already on site – cleaning, clearing, relocating vegetation that can be preserved – but in this way you prepare a blank canvas that is ready to be painted.”
As he walked through this farmland, the image that formed in his mind was rich with texture and colour. “I wanted to use only local materials – sand, gravel and the Ibizan marés stone – and a plant palette that was glaucous and beige, deep green and light purple, with spots of yellow.”
The existing terrace walls, once repaired, provided him with a ready-made organising structure that allowed the garden to be divided into several distinct areas, all serving a particular purpose while blending harmoniously with each other, and with the surrounding landscape.
On the lower slopes, Juan created an orchard of Mediterranean fruit trees and a vegetable garden that together recall when this was a self-sufficient smallholding. Around the house he laid out an ornamental garden with plenty of space for entertainment and relaxation and, at the highest point of the property, taking full advantage of magnificent views out to the distant sea, he sited a boutique-chic swimming pool framed by ancient olives and grape vines.
These different levels are linked by winding gravel paths and stone steps, but most of all they are linked by the planting. Key species are repeated throughout the site and, since many also grow wild in this area, they connect the garden with the vast landscape that surrounds it as well.
The predominant structural plants are those ancestral trees that have provided resources to
the island for centuries – olives (Olea europaea and the wild Olea sylvestris), carob, almond and pomegranate – although Juan has incorporated the Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, to bring
in movement and a touch of romance.
The shrubby layer is also drawn predominantly from native species, including Pistacia lentiscus, Teucrium fruticans and Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus, growing uncontrolled in places and in others gently sculpted to heighten their ornamental qualities.
Many of the plants are used in large masses of simple combinations to heighten their artistic effect. There are great stands of prickly pear, which have a boldly structural impact that is only reinforced by a voluminous skirt of Erigeron karvinskianus daisies and the soft lavender-flowered Limoniastrum monopetalum. Elsewhere there are swathes of plants familiar to gardeners in temperate climates. Achillea millefolium, white gaura, verbenas and salvias are all planted in generous swathes that celebrate their individual characters while enhancing their overall impact.
On a site as steeply sloped as this one, there is a danger that the mechanics of terracing and route navigation could dominate the overall effect, but Juan has blurred and draped every element of the hard landscaping with sensitively chosen plants.
The leathery rounded leaves of native carobs contrast beautifully with the arching, willow-like Peruvian pepper. Both reach a lofty 15m in height, and both produce edible pods that once again recall the agricultural heritage of the site.
Aromatic carpets of Helichrysum cymosum line many routes and creeping thyme and prostrate rosemary spill luxuriantly over walls, across paths and around sun loungers and cushioned sofas.
Like the disparate identities of the island itself, in this garden Juan has brought together elements of functionality, tradition and aesthetics, the ancient and the modern, to produce a place that is gloriously in balance and perfectly at home.
8 top dry garden plants
1. Helichrysum cymosum
2. Myrtus communis subsp. tarentina
3. Helichrysum petiolare
4. Teucrium fruticans
5. Limoniastrum monopetalum
6. Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus
7. Capparis spinosa
8. Pistacia lentiscus
*Holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. †Hardiness ratings given where available.
Useful information
Follow Juan Masedo on Instagram @masedo_jardines