Elegance in Outdoor Design.

Sometimes we make split-second decisions, and those decisions change our lives. Hiring Margalida to design our garden was one of those. Undoubtedly, the most significant of the last few months. The difference between surviving COVID-19 lockdowns, and being able to gaze through the windows with joy, excitement, and hope every morning. 

We began dreaming of a garden in our grey, desolate, hyper-modern and sterile terrace as soon as we rented our current apartment in Vienna. We dreamed of a English cottage garden, wild, leafy, and abundant but doubted (did not believe at all!) it was even remotely possible given the space available to us. When Margalida told me it was possible, I chose to trust her and dream, all while planting bulbs in pots and asking this land for the roots I desperately needed.

By midwinter, in the sunless darkness  of January 2020 and with the threat of COVID looming in the horizon, Margalida began working in our garden. From the very first meeting I realized her work was filled with pure magic.

When Margalida showed me her first drawings, I felt my heart burst with joy. And when I saw the final design, in the middle of Austria’s (first) strict quarantine, I knew this garden would change our lives.

I could describe the practical reasons why hiring Margalida made our life easier and they would be many and true. I could tell you how much simpler it was to create a beautiful garden because we knew exactly what to purchase, and what to do at every step (what to install first and how, what to buy for each stage, which soil to choose for each plant, where to place each type of plant). I could tell you how vital it was to have her help at a time when all purchases had to be done online and I lacked both a car and the possibility to go anywhere, anyway.

And yet, describing those things, though wonderful, would not be even close to enough to explain the energetic shift that took place when we set up the arches Margalida designed for us, the deeply transformative experience of caring for each and every plant, every tree, every seed that we nurtured from the start…or what it meant to witness LIFE amid the crisis we were (and still are) going through. Instead of a terrace, we now have a secret garden, a magical space, a sacred corner, full of life, in our home. A place that goes well beyond what I could have ever imagined possible for a terrace.

We have a garden that accompanies us, shelters us, nurtures us and makes us happy every single day of our lives. A garden that didn’t just prevent us from going insane when we couldn’t step out of our home, but a garden that MAKES US HAPPY. A garden that saved our lives. A garden we’ll take care of, and we’ll continue to see grow and evolve each month, each season, each year. A garden that gave us a future to look forward to.

And that, is priceless.