Landscaping
Living screens: the best plants for privacy
Hedges, palms and climbers to shield a terrace or a pool from view, without building a wall.
6 min read
Landscaping a villa garden: ten ideas that last
From structure to details, the principles we apply on our sites from Bouskoura to the Palmeraie.
8 min read
Published on July 14, 2026
A beautiful villa garden is not a collection of plants: it is a sequence of connected spaces, designed first for use — hosting, swimming, eating outside, retreating — then planted to last. Here are the ten principles we apply, from the most structural to the finest.
Structure
- Draw solids and voids first: terraces, usable lawn, paths. Planting fills what remains.
- One feature tree per garden room, no more: ancient olive, date palm, carob or jacaranda.
- Evergreen hedges for boundaries (cypress, bay, pittosporum): they hold through winter and frame the view.
Water and soil
- Reduce lawn to what you actually use; the rest in pale gravel, ground covers and beds.
- Buried drip irrigation and a timer from day one; it is the garden's most profitable investment.
- Group plants by water need: Mediterranean together, tropical together, never mixed on the same irrigation line.
Pool and terrace
- Around the pool, only evergreen plants with well-behaved roots: palms, cycads, agaves, Strelitzia reginae.
- On the terrace, large planters rather than many small pots: more coolness, less watering.
Details
- Fragrance at thresholds: jasmine by the door, rosemary along the steps, bitter orange under the bedroom window.
- Low, warm lighting on three or four specimens only; the rest in shadow.
Need the full manual?
Every plant in the collection has a detailed care guide: water, light, year-round calendar and the cities where it thrives.
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