Garden Design in Santanyí

Our studio is in s’Alqueria Blanca, in the municipality of Santanyí. We have been building gardens here since 2008 — which means we are not describing this corner of the island from a catalogue. We know which plants come through August on this soil, and which ones the estate agent’s landscaper puts in every spring and replaces every autumn.

What makes gardens here different

The soil is thin and the rock is close. Across much of the municipality you hit marès — the soft golden sandstone the whole south-east is built from — half a spade down. That decides what can be planted where, and it is why we build up planting positions rather than assuming there is earth beneath.

The salt reaches further inland than people expect. Towards Cala Llombards, Cala Figuera, Cala Santanyí and Portopetro the sea air scorches anything that has not evolved with it.

And this is one of the driest parts of Mallorca. Santanyí sits in the Migjorn demand unit, which entered drought alert status in July 2026. That is not a headline for us — it is the condition we design for every day.

The garden that still works in a dry year

Everything we have learned here points the same way: build the garden around the water there is, not around the water you would like.

That means planting that treats a Mallorcan summer as normal, ground that is covered rather than bare, and irrigation dosed plant by plant instead of a single programme for the whole garden. The detail is set out under drought-tolerant gardens and irrigation.

Marès, and the stone of the south-east

The walls, the old terraces and half the village houses are marès. A garden here that ignores it looks imported.

We use stone from Mallorcan quarries for paths, block steps and dry stone walls, matched in tone to what already stands on the plot. Laid on compacted ground rather than concrete — which, as a rule, also means no building licence. More under Mallorcan natural stone.

Two kinds of property, two different jobs

Almost everything we do here falls into one of two categories, and they are not variations of the same commission.

The village house. In Santanyí town, s’Alqueria Blanca and Calonge the plots are small, walled and overlooked. The work is about privacy, shade and making a courtyard feel larger than it is: one good tree rather than three, climbers on the walls, a paved area that reads as a room, and planting that carries scent because you are always within a metre of it.

The finca. Out between the villages the scale changes completely. Here the question is not what to plant but where to stop — how the garden meets the field, which old olive or almond stays as the centre of the composition, and how you move through it. Large drifts of few species, dry stone where the ground has to be held, and long views left open.

What we take on

Design. A survey of the site, a planting plan, levels, the position of paths, steps and terraces, and the irrigation designed alongside it rather than after.

Construction. Ground works, natural stone, walls, planting and irrigation, carried out by our own team rather than subcontracted piece by piece.

Existing gardens. A great deal of our work here is not new build. It is a garden somebody else made that has stopped working: an irrigation system nobody ever adjusted, planting that was wrong for the position, a lawn that has become a monthly argument with the water bill.

The first two summers. A planting scheme is not finished on handover. It needs someone watching how it establishes, adjusting run times, and replacing the few plants that never took.

Where we work

Santanyí town, s’Alqueria Blanca, Calonge, Cala Llombards, Cala Figuera, Cala Santanyí, Portopetro and Ses Salines — plus the fincas in between, which is where most of our work is.

We are round the corner

That matters more than it sounds. A garden is not finished on handover day: it needs someone through the first two summers, adjusting the irrigation and seeing what has taken. Being fifteen minutes away is the difference between a garden that establishes and one that is left to manage on its own.

Come and see us, or we will come to you. J&P Design, s’Alqueria Blanca, Santanyí — since 2008.