Small gardens of potted plants placed outdoors, on the streets, on patios and terraces, are ubiquitous in the inner city of Lisbon where apartments usually don’t come with outdoor space. Placing plants outside your door claims a small part of the public street as your own and extends your house to the outside. It functions as an informal front yard and is often accompanied by laundry, some incidental objects such as cat litter boxes, a small table, chairs and smaller personal items. The laundry line is always on the frontline of making the private public. Lisbon has pockets of green space and treelined avenues but in general the streets would feel a lot more dreary without these small interventions. They are more likely to be found in older parts of the city where there are lots of opportunities created with stairwells, alleys and nooks. All of the images that I am collecting are taken in the public sphere, on the streets and not in private gardens.
Decorating Lisbon 