The Young Orchard Garden
In a single year, this garden at the foot of Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains has become a place where friends and family gather. The newly built house once stood alone in a young olive orchard, its terraces facing bare field with nothing to draw the eye.
The owners wanted a garden their grandchildren could grow up in, and a view from the terraces, where they would spend their days.
Jennifer and Alexander Warren-Gash took on the project together to create easy outdoor living and a garden designed for connection, linking the living areas to one another and the home to the surrounding landscape.
Jennifer created shaded outdoor rooms for dining and lounging, with an old olive planted directly on the terrace. Pots of evergreens and succulents complete the bridge between garden and home.
“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
Alexander designed the garden to carry the relaxed elegance of the terraces out into the landscape. Close to the house the planting is structured, but gradually it grows wilder, blurring into the surrounding landscape. The effect is an unfolding view that connects the home to the land.
THE GARDEN PLAN
With the pool set apart from the house, Alexander sought to link the two. He weaved pathways through the garden, lining them with evergreen structure, seasonal colour and a meadow full of soft grasses.
At the pool, the terrace is made for all-day lounging and asks little of the owners between visits. Jennifer designed its custom lunch table to be light enough to move between sun and shade as the seasons change.
Since the owners visit Mallorca year round, Alexander designed the garden so some part is always shining. In spring its the herb garden, with its bees buzzing, purple blooms and breakfast table in the sun.
Come October the meadow grasses are at their finest. And on colder nights, the fire pit keeps everyone outside a little longer.
“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 gone gold and pink.”
— ALEXANDER WARREN-GASH
During a September stay, with friends filling the house, one guest spent an afternoon by the pool painting the landscape in watercolour. A scene that just a year earlier had been nothing but a dusty field.
Project Credits
Mashamba Design
Garden Design and Outdoor Living
Architect Santiago Fiol Architect
Grupo Jimenez Construction
Almond Grove Interiors Interior Design
Johanna Gunnberg, Clive Nichols and Alexander Warren-Gash Photography
Genia Tkacheva Videography