Ponte de Lima Festival: 11 “Sleep” Gardens Evolve Until 31 October

Ponte de Lima International Garden Festival: gardens that change over time

The garden “Dreamlike Space [garden-pavilion]”, created by a Colombian architect for the 2026 edition of the Ponte de Lima International Garden Festival, has included an unplanned extra feature from its earliest days. A bird has built its nest in one of the shrubs forming part of the installation, something neither its designer nor the team of gardeners who built it had anticipated.

The unexpected visitor came as a surprise, yet it also foreshadows the changes these creations undergo during the five months in which they are open to visitors. Renewed annually, the gardens develop continuously throughout the festival.

The plants used in the installations grow and alter the spaces around them. Some are unusual, including the air plants known as tillandsias, which hang in another of this year’s gardens, “Dreamlike Tillandsias”, created by four Portuguese and Brazilian designers. The gardens are also gradually inhabited by birds, frogs, butterflies, dragonflies and other species.

“Gardens have this interesting aspect: the public can visit now, at the opening, then return in a month or two and see how they have changed. I think that is also what makes the festival so appealing, because we can follow their development over a long period,” says Sandra Pereira, Head of the Environment and Green Spaces Division at Ponte de Lima Municipal Council.

She stresses that by the time the event closes on 31 October, the temporary gardens, on display since the 29th, “will be different”.

Eleven gardens explore the theme of “Sleep”

The 21st edition of the festival, themed around “Sleep”, features 11 entries selected through an international competition. Alongside these main installations are 11 gardens created by pupils from Ponte de Lima school groups, as well as the two most-voted entries from the 2025 edition.

Around 25 gardeners were involved in constructing the gardens. In 2027, they will once again set to work on new proposals based on the theme “Smart Gardens”.

“Every year, we have to reinvent ourselves. One advantage of this project is that it keeps us constantly active. For the gardeners themselves, having to study the designs, interpret them and build them, I think it gives them enjoyment and motivates them every year,” Sandra Pereira explains.

Between November and the end of May, the festival site is closed to the public and becomes “a building site” as preparations begin for the following edition.

Gardeners embrace the challenge of temporary gardens

“I really enjoy this work. They are temporary gardens, and that makes it even more enjoyable and challenging. Every year is different, and there is enormous anticipation about managing to meet the deadline for having them ready. It is wonderful,” says Fátima Pereira, who has worked as a gardener at the festival grounds beside the River Lima for seven years.

“It is part of our lives, our everyday routine. We forget we even have a home because we dedicate ourselves completely to the project,” she says. Here, she adds, “we are much more than gardeners: we are carpenters, bricklayers, we do a bit of everything”.

She admits that “it is difficult to take some of them apart at the end, because they are so beautiful, but we already know that the next one will be an even more beautiful work”.