Garden Design in Artà

Artà sits in the north-east, on the edge of the Parc Natural de Llevant, one of the few corners of Mallorca where the landscape still occupies far more space than the buildings. That shapes every garden made here — and it should shape it.

The garden doesn’t stop at the fence

All around stand dwarf fan palm, mastic, holm oak, rosemary and cistus. A garden that sets a foreign kind of planting against that reads as imported here more than almost anywhere else on the island.

In Artà we work especially closely with what already grows: the same species, but set in groups, with paths, seating and a handful of deliberate exceptions that visibly mark the garden as a garden. The effect is a plot that looks as though it had simply been listened to.

Wind

The north-east takes the Tramuntana wind with nothing to break it. Wind dries a plant out faster than any irrigation can replace, and a young tree that isn’t properly staked stands crooked after two winters.

The answer is shelter that doesn’t look like shelter: a group of mastic shrubs in the right spot, a low dry stone wall, seating placed in the lee of the house rather than out in the open.

Water

The Artà demand unit stood at pre-alert in summer 2026 — one level below the south-east, but far from normal. And the ground is stony and shallow: what isn’t held gets washed downhill in a heavy rain.

We build up soil at each planting position, cover with almond shell, and dose through drip irrigation plant by plant. More under water and gardens in Mallorca and drought-tolerant gardens.

The plant list that belongs here

We work mostly with what already stands in the nature park next door: Chamaerops humilis, Europe’s only native palm, along with Pistacia lentiscus, Olea europaea var. sylvestris, Juniperus, Rosmarinus, Cistus and grasses.

The difference between this planting and the maquis beyond the fence isn’t the species list — it’s the arrangement: larger groups, clear edges where people walk, and a few deliberate exceptions — a cypress, a group of flowering grasses — where the garden visibly becomes a garden.

Soil that’s barely there

The north-east is stony and shallow. In many places rock sits close to the surface, and what soil there is gets carried downhill in heavy rain.

We build up soil at each planting position rather than filling broadly, and hold the slope with low dry stone walls and shallow terraces. It’s more work in the first year, and the reason the planting is standing well by the third.

Close to the woods

Many plots border maquis or pine woodland. After recent years’ fires it’s simply sensible to keep a zone around the house clear of anything that accumulates dry material — no heaped bark mulch, no brushwood, no shrubs pushed tight against the façade. It can be resolved in the design without the garden looking stripped.

What we take on

Design with a planting plan, ground solution and wind shelter, dry stone walls and paths in natural stone, irrigation, planting, and execution by our own team — as well as reworking existing gardens.

Where we work

Artà, Colònia de Sant Pere, Canyamel, Capdepera, and the fincas in between.

Just bought a property here? See a garden for your new home in Mallorca — what to expect on water, permits and timing.

Let us look at your plot

We’ll come and see the soil, the wind and the surroundings, and tell you what will grow. J&P Design, landscape architects in Mallorca since 2008.