Payesa house in San José

Payesa houses are the soul of rural Ibiza. Any work on their gardens must respect the restraint of the whitewashed volumes, the sabina-beamed porches, the wells and the dry stone walls. For this project in San José we took the traditional gardens of the Ibicenco countryside as our reference: little lawn, plenty of shade, productive species and an organic layout that follows the natural topography.

We restored the existing dry stone walls using traditional techniques, without mortar, and created a new terrace bed for a herb garden. Paving was resolved with local gravel and natural stone slabs, avoiding any industrial material.

The south of Ibiza is the driest part of the island. That is why we favoured species suited to the climate: olives, carobs, figs, almonds, sabinas, rosemary, thyme, lavender and succulents such as agaves and aloes. The whole plant palette is native or naturalised and, once established, needs minimal watering.

We added a small kitchen-garden corner with culinary herbs and a bed of nectar-rich plants to support biodiversity. The result is a living, productive garden deeply in keeping with its payés surroundings.

We installed a self-compensating Rain Bird drip system with a Wi-Fi controller and a rain sensor. The system is organised into independent sectors for trees, aromatics and the kitchen garden, so flow rates and frequencies can be tuned to each area's needs.

Thanks to the combination of native species and programmed drip irrigation, water consumption fell by more than 60% compared with the previous system, without affecting plant health.