This property is located 40km NE of Lisbon, in Ribatejo, one of the hottest regions of Portugal, where water is an ever-scarcer element. The region has a strong agricultural character dominated mostly by grapevines, olive and pine groves, extensive cereal systems and in the lowlands, small vegetable growers, leaving very little scattered areas of native forests. These areas are generally owned by the state and maintained by local shepherds that graze on the meadows.

DOS was approached to re-design the planting in a small countryside property where the existing borders had high water dependency with ill-suited plants and dominant species have started to take over the garden, such as Euryops chrysanthemoides, Osteospermum fruticosum, Pelargonium grandiflora, Agapanthus praecox and Tagetes sp. The main approach to this scheme was to create a palette of robust plants which will stand up to the drought whilst creating the atmosphere of a calm oasis.

Adjacent to the main house, the property has a swimming pool surrounded by borders and a terrace under a wooden pergola with lemon and orange trees, reminiscent of an orchard that was partially kept further down the land.

The land behind the orchard previously served as an intensively planted pine nut production, which were overgrowing the boundary and had to be removed. This area was given to nature with the intention of creating ideal habitats for nesting birds and foraging insects. Once the pines were gone, sunlight to reached the ground for the first time in 2 decades and a beautiful mix of native trees and shrubs started to grow.