Graça Courtyard Garden
Graça, Lisbon · 2024
Behind a townhouse sat a neglected courtyard — good bones, poor drainage, and no reason to step outside. The brief was a quiet, low-maintenance room that looked composed from the kitchen window in every season.
The challenge
The enclosed walls trapped heat and cast deep shade on one side, so a single planting palette would never work edge to edge. Old paving held water against the house.
Our approach
We split the courtyard into a sun terrace and a shade border, relaid falls to a new soakaway, and centred the composition on a salvaged limestone fountain to draw the eye and soften street noise.
The outcome
An evergreen courtyard that needs little more than a seasonal tidy, with the fountain giving the space sound and movement through the summer.
How we built it
Four phases, priced up front.
Every phase was scoped in the estimate before we broke ground, so the owner always knew what came next and what it cost.
- 1
Site assessment
Shade mapping, drainage check, and a written estimate before design.
- Shade and heat mapping wall to wall
- Drainage and falls survey against the house
- Itemised estimate agreed up front
- 2
Design
Two planting zones and the fountain position set on a scale plan.
- Sun-terrace and shade-border zones defined
- Salvaged fountain positioned as the focal point
- Evergreen palette chosen for year-round form
- 3
Build
Paving relaid to a new soakaway, fountain set and plumbed.
- Falls corrected and soakaway installed
- Stone paving relaid and repointed
- Fountain set, plumbed, and recirculating
- 4
Planting & handover
Structural evergreens, grasses, and a low-touch care plan.
- Olive, box, and grasses planted to plan
- Drip line run to every bed
- Seasonal care plan handed over
Planting palette
Chosen for the site's light, soil, and exposure — built to hold its form on minimal water.
- Olea europaea (olive)
- Agapanthus africanus
- Stipa tenuissima (feather grass)
- Buxus sempervirens (box)
- Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine)
Materials & structure
The hard landscape that carries the planting and the years of use ahead.
- Salvaged limestone fountain
- Reclaimed clay paviers
- Corten steel edging
- Gravel soakaway bed
- 45
- m² transformed
- 7
- weeks on site
- 12
- months of interest
Want a garden like Graça's?
Book a site visit and we'll price your property the same way — a fixed, itemised estimate before any design work begins.
Site visits across Lisbon and the coast. Written estimate within five working days.