LANDSCAPE DESIGN STUDIO OF SUSTAINABLE MEDITERRANEAN GARDENS
I founded TERRA ASCOLTATA, a studio devoted to creating sustainable Mediterranean gardens, to bring to life a vision of the landscape as a living, breathing process—a continuous dialogue between nature, the local context, and the people who inhabit it.
For me, designing begins with listening:
–to the earth, with its true character—its soil, climate, and native Mediterranean flora;
–to the landscape, as the deep expression of a place—its silences, its light, its sounds, its memory and history;
–to the people who will live in the garden, because every garden is an intimate, personal space that should reflect the values and spirit of those who dwell within it.
MARIA KOSOVSKAYA - MASHA
My name is Maria Kosovskaya (Masha). After years in infrastructure design, I felt the need to slow down and reconnect with the deep, biofilic part of myself that has always bound humans to nature and the essential. In gardens, I discovered a silent language—one that speaks of presence, simplicity, and authenticity.
During my studies as a landscape design technician at the Monza Agricultural School, I immersed myself in the philosophy of the Mediterranean garden: green spaces where water scarcity becomes a gift, drought-resistant plants nurture biodiversity, and low maintenance becomes a source of lasting value.
In 2025, I founded TERRA ASCOLTATA to craft Mediterranean gardens that are water-wise, resilient to drought, and intimately connected to the natural landscape. For me, this is both an ethical and aesthetic response to the global climate crisis—gardens that endure, flourishing with minimal human intervention.
Today, through TERRA ASCOLTATA, I bring to life a vision of greenery that is gentle, conscious, and sustainable. Yet the first seeds of this journey were sown in 2020, when I believed I had no green thumb at all (read more on my blog).