Surrounding us is what the Portuguese term 'mato' which in Australian means 'bush' There is no English equivalent because in the UK we regard our countryside as neither the Portuguese or Australian do. For them it is something uncontrollable, something not to be ventured into, something a bit hostile and something quite definitely to keep out of the garden. However, as this is our natural surroundings it seems natural to incorporate it into the feel of any garden development we do so that the garden does not stick out like a sore thumb on the hillside.

Growing around us is mountain scrub - cistus, lavendar, thyme, strawberry tree, cork trees, eucalyptus, and other similar which we have not yet identified. So we decided that any planting should be in keeping with our surroundings and colour should be kept subdued so as not to intrude upon the landscape. Also any plants that seeded or spread rapidly should be avoided so that we did not affect the endemic species.

The first planting to naturally come to mind was a herb garden

The two pictures above show the first area to be tackled between the garden and the pool.

 It's a sloping site and once we had cleared the grass and covered the area with black mulch for 6 months it looked like this:

But it soon began to come together:

Working on it:

and with some terracing using stones that are lying all around it takes shape:

However we are always aware that the more we develop the more maintenance we give ourselves so we have resolved only to develop the area immediately surrounding the house and no more. Famous last words?