The Young Orchard Garden
In a single year, an open field at the foot of Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains has become a garden for family and friends to gather in. The owners wanted a garden their grandchildren could grow up in, and a view from the terraces, where they would spend their days.
The newly built house once stood alone in a young olive orchard, its terraces facing bare earth and a view that ran straight to a border of trees. Alexander and Jennifer Warren-Gash took on the project together. Jennifer created the outdoor living, and Alexander designed a garden made for connection, linking the living areas to one another and the home to the surrounding landscape.
Jennifer planted a large old olive right on the terrace and filled pots with evergreens, bringing the garden and the home together. Comfortable and atmospheric, day or night, the terraces are rooms you never want to leave.
Alexander designed the garden to carry the relaxed elegance of the terraces out into the landscape. Close to the house the planting is structured, growing wilder as it moves away until it opens into a meadow deep enough to hold the eye. The view now unfolds in layers all the way to the trees.
“Comfortable year round and ready whenever you arrive. It’s the kind of terrace you never think about, you just live on it.”
— Jennifer Warren-Gash
With the pool set apart from the house, linking the two was high on the owners’ list. Alexander lined the path between them with feature olives, rosemary and other Mediterranean classics, and the meadow carries on all the way to the pool.
There, Jennifer furnished the pool terrace to be comfortable for all-day lounging and easy to care for. Its table, made to her design by a local carpenter, is light enough to move between sun and shade.
THE GARDEN PLAN
Planted so that something is always at its best, the garden is made for every season. In spring the herb garden shines, with a table for four set for breakfast in the morning sun. By October the meadow grasses are at their finest. On colder nights, the fire pit keeps everyone outside a little longer.
On a recent stay, with friends filling the house, one guest spent an afternoon on a sun lounger by the pool painting the view in watercolour, a view that a year earlier had been nothing but a dusty field.
“Whenever you visit, some part of the garden is shining. In April it’s the herb garden, and come October it’s the meadow grasses.”
— Alexander Warren-Gash
Project Credits
Mashamba Design
Garden Design and Outdoor Living
Architect Santiago Fiol Architect
Grupo Jimenez Construction
Almond Grove Interiors Interior Design
Johanna Gunnberg and Alexander Warren-Gash Photography
Genia Tkacheva Videography