Camí salvatge

Location

Barcelona

Size

65 m²

Typology

Naturalistic garden

Year

2024

Client

Private

Botanical excerpt

echinaecea purpurea, hyparrhenia hirta, aloysia triphylla, dietes bicolor, dorycnium pentaphyllum, epilobium canum subsp. angustifolia

What does a naturalistic garden mean in an urban setting?

At first, just a lawn. Empty, uniform, poor in color, in biodiversity, in imagination. Elisabet wanted more life — and to be able to enjoy her garden every day.

We removed the entire lawn and planted cypresses and fruit trees to give the garden height and to screen the neighboring houses. In the center, we drew a path. It meanders between 54 plant species, creating a route reminiscent of walking through a Mediterranean field. We played with height and with layers of vegetation: evergreen shrubs, perennials, rhizomes, and groundcovers. We had just returned from a trip to Corsica, where we had spent time walking through the Agriates Desert in spring. The colors and sensations we experienced there were the ones we wanted to bring into this garden. The planting palette is joyful, and the blooms carry through the entire year. In spring and summer, full pink blossoms and purple inflorescences dominate, while in winter it is the blue tones of the shrubs, the orange tree fruits, and the yellows of the grasses that give the garden a softer look. We love how much it changes from season to season — it makes it feel more real.

Fig. 5
Even in a small garden, we combined different planting layers —trees, shrubs, perennials, and groundcovers— to create a more resilient, low-maintenance plant community.

Fig. 6

Within just a few months, we could already notice the shifting scents and sounds, the wildlife it attracted, and the vitality it created. We sometimes underestimate the impact we can have on biodiversity, even at a small scale.

Beneath the pomegranate tree, we placed a bench as a quiet resting place within the garden — a shady spot to read, dream, and observe. Like being in nature, but at home.

To harmonize the garden with the existing gabion walls, we chose gravel from l’Empordà whose ochre and beige tones match their color. It serves as the base for the path and as a mineral mulch. This gravel mulch retains moisture well, protects the roots from temperature fluctuations, and helps to replicate the composition of the poor, well-drained soils of the garrigue.

Fig. 9