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Planting design
Dry Garden
Planting for wind, salt and no irrigation
- Location
- Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira
- Year
- 2023
- Status
- Planting study
- Scope
- Planting palette, Drainage strategy, Gravel specification
Illustrative sample — this entry demonstrates the project layout and is not a delivered commission. Photography is placeholder.
The study tests a palette that can hold a slope with almost no soil and no irrigation after establishment. Structure comes from rosette plants; movement comes from grasses; silver foliage carries the colour through the dry season.
Drainage is the design. The profile is opened with coarse volcanic gravel, planted pockets are small and deep, and the surface is mulched with the same gravel so that water reaches roots and evaporates slowly.
The result is a garden that reads as an extension of the cliff rather than a collection of plants placed on it.
