There is a particular look to a new house on this coast: the architecture is finished, the pool is filled, and the planting is obviously three months old. It undermines everything.
The trick is sequence, not budget
Established gardens on new houses are almost never a matter of spending more. They are a matter of planting first. Get the structural trees and the hedging into the ground while the house is still on paper, and by the time you move in they have had two growing seasons.
At Casa Solana the olives went in eighteen months ahead of completion. Visitors assume they were always there, which was exactly the intention.
What to plant early
Anything slow. Olives, cypress, holm oak, and the structural hedging that will eventually give you privacy. These are the elements that cannot be bought later at any sensible price.
Leave the perennials, the lavender and the herbs until the building work is finished. They establish in a single season and they will only get trampled by the trades.
Protect what is already there
If the plot carries mature trees, spend money on protecting them during construction rather than replacing them afterwards. Root compaction from site traffic kills more established olives than any disease on this coast, and it is entirely avoidable with a fence and a firm word.
