“… Fernando is a Spanish landscape designer who, after studying at the Escuela de Paisajismo y Jardinería Castillo de Batres (landscaping and gardening school in Madrid), continued his training by working as a gardener at Newby Hall in Yorkshire. He fell in love with English gardens and, upon returning to Spain, began to experiment in a family garden near Estepa, inspired by the example set by Beth Chatto and her gardening with drought resistant plants.
When education, experience, passion and a desire to experiment come together, the results are generally excellent. And when this is combined with artistic ability – which one must innately possess or there is nothing to be done – the results are those of Fernando.
When I saw the photos of his gardens, they impacted me in a way that was similar to what I felt when I saw a photo of Mas de las Voltes for the first time. Although in this case, the photos stirred other sensitive fibers, those of color, exuberance and floral design. The reserved fibers of the English borders; the difference being that photos of an English border have never stirred this feeling in me, the emotion of seeing an English garden that was very different from English gardens, and something new and exciting. I thought about these photos a lot, trying to recall when I had experienced this sensation before, until a name finally flashed in a corner of my brain: Torrecchia, by Dan Pearson. It’s not that I found so many similarities between Pearson’s garden and Fernando Martos’ gardens, but starting from here it was easy for me to figure out what the element was that was drawing me to look repeatedly at these photos: the conjunction of the English design with the Spanish countryside, the superposition of elaborate compositions of perennials in front of a background of holm-oak woods, dry farming and enormous skies. (…)”.
MIGUEL RECIO, A Spanish Accent in the New Wave of Perennials,
blog Arañazos en el cielo