Garden design London - here I come!

Travelling and garden design have one great advantage – I can do it wherever in the world I am. It needs some adjustments in plant choice and learning the natural conditions depending on the climate zones, but surprisingly enough it’s easier than one could think of.

In July I will be coming to London, so all possible meetings regarding design inquiries will be possible if you prefer personal vs. online contact.

I have many readers from UK… if you are one of them and if you would like to invite me to beautify your garden or you know somebody who would, just let me know. I would love to do it.
Garden design in London, here I come!

You may have a look at my portfolio here.
On my client's list there are institutions (American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland), companies  (Bridgestone, Comparex) and number of private investors. I hope to see you on this list as well  :) 

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Xoxo,
Ewa

Huh, what's this temperature in Algarve? and rain? and tornado almost...

Temperature in Algarve in May could be really a surprise :) Looking at the thermometer this morning I still have doubts. Maybe the thermometer is broken? But it's produced in Germany, so? Could it break?

 

32 pics of Mediterranean Garden in Algarve, Portugal

Fantastic Mediterranean garden in Algarve, Portugal - that's my base for next weeks. I can't take my eyes off this beautiful garden designed with imagination, exploding with scents, friendly to bees, butterflies and lizards.
With a heavy heart - it was so difficult to choose - I picked 32 photos today just to give you the general glimpse of this private garden, but there is so much more to see. There will be many posts following this one, so stay tuned.

My hosts are Danusia and Tomek, living their life between Poland and Portugal. Thank you for hospitality!!
You saw their garden in Warsaw, Poland, on few occasions already like this last one here and previous here. Today you can see the one they enjoy in Algarve and we can enjoy it with them :) in a way ;)

Before I came here to Portugal, I was listening to the stories why they've chosen this house, but only after seeing it I fully understood their decision.  

In the morning light, you see the house built on hill, so its like crawling on the hill, so does this large mediterranean garden embracing the house.

Nuno, the handsome Portugese gardener tending this garden, said the soil here is very poor, there is a lot of stones just under the surface, so it is a good construction material. 

Lemon trees growing all around the property produce big lemons. Harvesting now and for the next six months! The taste and scent is incomparable to those from the supermarket's shelf.

Below is the main door to the patio and the arcade part before entrance to the house seen above. Doggies are also very happy to use it.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis in orange color flowering indefatigably.

At the swimming pool with the far view to the Atlantic Ocean there is great composition of planting: bougainvillea and hedera climbing the pergola, palm trees, aeoniums embracing the water running feature on the right hand side. 

The arcading part of the house allows to enjoy the cool air, view to the pool and the ocean. 

The redish-pink blooming plant on the pergola is bougainvillea, on the bottom side the hedera (english ivy) is covering the stems.

Currently in bloom french lavender 1,5 m tall (!!) makes great combo with swan's neck agave (Agava attenuata), the softest in touch of all agaves. It only flowers once, producing a tall spike of yellow-white flowers on a curving stem - it gives the plant its common name swan's neck agave.

Clearly visible here on the upper part of the photo the hedera growing on the bottom part of the pergola. Summer kitchen/grill under - wanna party? 

Stone constructed terraces in the sloping garden give the chance to have some flat parts. One of many things I love about this garden - just three modest patches of green grass - I see it as a compromise just in case somebody likes to walk on it.
See the amazing color of bougainvillea? Isn't it competing with the fish as focal point? Who is the winner?   

See the bone structure of the garden? Love it.

Little iron sculptures. Have that weird feeling that whereever I go, this family is looking at me.

Pelargoniums love the algarvian sun. Early morning today, in unusal - somewhat typical here - yellow sunrise light.
They are so big here! One day I will show more of them!

Side terrace on the top of the hill in the upper part of the house.

So many flowers now. I was told that I missed April, the best blooming month in Portugal, but phew! no regrets! Still there is a lot of green and a lot of flowers around :)

See, now we come to more wild and xeric part. Love it!

Thyme 1 m high, grasses and tall, thin cupressus - pretty. I'll ask Nuno about the varieties - he seems to know all about it, so we all know better :)

Pelargonium again - great combo with grasses - this one is Pennisetum alopecuroides - my favourite, I love to use in my designs.

Thanks for staying so far with me :) here in Portugal, in this beautiful mediterranean garden.

There will be more posts coming about Mediterranean plants and gardens, so if you don't want to miss anything Subscribe to Ewa in the Garden by Email and don’t forget to click the confirmation link you will receive by e-mail.

Xoxo,
Ewa

How to choose new mobile phone

The moment of choosing new mobile phone is something bit thrilling like a new date perhaps. You expect something and you get the mix of things you expected and total surprises. Exactly when I was about to choosing new mobile, I got the offer from Nokia to test new Nokia Lumia 1520.

Already after opening the box I loved it! It’s kind of sexy – red cover and very smooth flipping between the apps.If you ask me if these were the only reasons why I liked it, I assure you they were not!

I usually check also the technical parameters. Nokia Lumia 1520 scored pretty well here too.
You can do it easily too. Using online services like this one phonearena.com  you may compare any models you want to choose from.

What’s your favourite phone?

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Is this the last frost this year?

Is this the last frost this year? I ask myself this question from the moment I saw this morning my neighbor white roof – clear indication there is a frost. I don’t need to look at the thermometer. One glance at the neighbor roof and it’s all clear. Especially since the time he fell down the cherry tree that was beautifully screening both houses, I can see very clearly his roof, himself, and his wife, and their kids smoking on the balcony. Always when I think that days of heavy smokers are gone, my dear neighbors make me remember tobacco companies are still making money.

What about you? 1/ Do you smoke? 2/ What is your way to understand the frost outside?

This year Nature plays it differently. Plants are growing and blooming faster and temperatures in Poland since January are higher than usually. I expect last frost days every year around 20st of May.

Sometimes they were down to -8C/17,6F this one was just below 0C/32F . Should I expect more in the coming days?

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Xoxo,
Ewa