Villa Gardens

Our aim has also been to sensibly add colour and texture to the property in that it is a careful balance between the two extremes of Zen (too little) and garden centres (too much), and where bold splashes of colour are the complement rather than the main theme.  Spain has a riot of colourful and interesting plants that grow natively here, plus a host of imported species that thrive as well.

The garden is split up into areas: shrubberies and trees flank both sides of the carpark just in side the main entrance, with aloe vera, date palm ice-plants, bougainvillea, cactii, ficus, strelitizia etc, and olive tree, bougainvillea and honeysuckle at the far end of the pool.

Walking down the side of the house, you arrive at the far end of the pool next to the pool bar, then to your right is the summer kitchen and bbq area, with a nicely cut ficus tree in the middle!   From here, steps lead down to the lower back patio, which is at the level of the orchard.

To the right, the patio has grape vines, supported by pillars and steel beams and at the end of this area is the Guest House, which has a line of aloe vera at the end of the patio and its own shrubbery facing the orchard: a dedicated villa garden.  The walnut tree is at the far end of the guest house.

Directly in front of the stairs is the CrocPit and slightly to the right of it is the golf practice net, reaching into the orchard.

To the left, a raised paved walkway extends all the way down to the bungalow, with more grape vines supported by arches of pillars and rail sleeper cross-beams.  Gold Moroccan lanterns provide low-key lighting along the pathway at night.

The pathway crosses in front of the bungalow and with three steps you arrive at the dedicated patio and carpark for the bungalow.

The plant life has two categories: Views, as in good to look at, and Use, as in you can utilise it some way.  Some appear in both lists.  

Note: Use in this case means it is intended for clients, as in pick-your-own.  Pick as much as you like of anything you like from the garden or orchard when they're in season and away you go.

Neither herbicide nor pesticide nor fertilizer of any kind is used on the garden or orchard: everything just grows naturally, and wow! does it grow. Guests are encouraged to help themselves to as much as they like (fruit rather than the flowers).

BOUGAINVILLEA	CACTUS
FIGs	GRAPES
HIBISCUS	DATE PALM
OLIVES	PODRANEA  RICASOLIANA
ORANGE BLOSSOM	RIPENING ORANGES...
PASSIFLORA	PANDOREA JASMINOIDES

A little more detail on the villa garden plants:

Oranges -  when in season, there are more oranges than stars in the sky... well, it seems like that.  Pick enough oranges to fill three large plastic bags worth from one tree and you wouldn't think you had taken any.  Freshly squeezed orange juice from oranges you took from the tree 10 minutes before is better than anything from a supermarket.

The two mandarin trees are dwarfed by the other trees, so produce only a fraction of the orange crop, and have a very short fruiting time.

Nispera - is a blink-and-you-will-miss-it fruit: for the uninitiated, nispera looks like large golden teardrop plum with a slight peach fuzz... despite the peachy attribute it is actually part of the pear family – the name is a dead giveaway... nis'pera'. 

It has a delicate but very sweet flesh, and unfortunately they ripen extremely quickly as if they are in a hurry to hurl themselves off the branch, which is a shame as it's too difficult to eat that much.  Next year we are thinking of harvesting the fruit to make jam or marmalade (does anyone have a method to make nispera brandy?).

Fresh aloe vera – very different to aloe vera from the bottle, despite being a bit messy to handle. It is a superb after-sun remedy, and exceptionally good for the skin in general.

Walnuts - They look like green passionfruit in the early stages of growth, but gradually the green skin splits and withers and opens much like a four or five-petal flower revealing the familiar walnut shell shape. 

Again, since no fertilizers nor pesticides are used, these walnuts are very brown in colour (as compared to commercial nuts, whose shells are a light tan colour).  Eventually the nuts fall out of the withered skin to the ground, or, armed with a long stick, it is easy to knock the branch to dislodge them.  Crack one open and the nut inside is again very dark brown, and has an intense flavour… natures’ bounty!

For those with more exotic tastes, many large snails are to be found in nooks and crannies around the shrubs in the gardens and in and near the trees in the orchard.  We have notes for any guest wanting to try and prepare garlic snails for their dinner.

You can jump to the page that gives more information of what we can actually do with the produce from the villa gardens.