FIRST VERTICAL GARDEN IN THE SAN JUAN METRO AREA CARIBE LANDSCAPING CONTRACTORS WINNERS OF THE ll EDITION JUANA MORALES AWARDS

THE ABOVE mentioned company, is not a small time low baller, arrive by night, disapeared by day, landscaping company. They have 125 employees and billing above the four million dollars in PUERTO RICO, USA. The JUANA MORALES AWARD is given to the genius of those in landscape maintenance for installations in which lack of
imagination, any sophistication, counterfeit and bad copied gardens are evident.

YOU may wonder about the concept of vertical gardening. There are more than two
possibilities. One, the visual effect of a vine or climber through a wall or trellis. Or planting in front of a wall to create such effect, as in our discussion. The stupidity displayed on this intallation, is enhanced when
you do your research and find that no ONE, attempts to create a vertical garden on both sides of a fence/wall, for logical, pragmatic reasons.

This aberration is at Munhoz Rivera Avenue, Western Bank Plaza and it certainly
cost a bundle for the ignorant customer, the bank. But robbing from a thief.....There are two 10' high by 20' (approximately), 8 to 12 inches thick space galvanized frame
In the middle of it, some sheet rock, in the back a cyclone fence, followed by some
mysterious black fabric, followed by a chicken fence.

Yesterday, around 11 AM, I noticed this employee mixing potting soil with water in a wheel cart, something of an oddity. After wards he climbed in a ladder to place the mix inside on top of the wall described above. You have to see it to believe such cretinism. Between all the materials, fabric and metal, they stuck coconut fiber and the mix in a space not bigger than tree inches from top to bottom. On this vertical
wall, a black rubber tube protruded in the back for irrigation.

What is wrong with the picture? If you want to understand, get a glimpse of correct VERTICAL GARDENING, visit the site. PATRICK BLANC, Murs Vegetaux, is how
he describes his creations, more art than an ordinary, with total lack of aesthetics
expensive, dull winner installation .

The concept is pretty similar to hydroponics, the plants selected SHOULD NOT use soil, as many do in nature! Irrigation, minerals and nutrients dissolved, is automated. But I could not find any vertical garden with plants in both sides. The back of the wall is ugly with the chicken fence showing. They had cut many five square inches rectangles to stick
the bromeliads.

The plants selected for Vertical Gardens as perceived by PATRICK BLANC, the pioneer, should have contrasts in color, size, texture and shape. Our friends from Toa Baja, selection? Bromelia voladora,
more Bromelias, some abused Fern (Helecho macho), Dianela and some cilindrical hanging ugly weed looking ropes. No contrast in any of the mentioned possibilities, and a lack of aesthetic value.

What will be the destiny of this installation? Considering that I have written over
fifty articles on maintenance, one thing is certain.
The chicken wire will rot and fall into pieces, along with the coconut fiber. Plants
such as these may survive, at least fifty percent, but without any nutrients/minerals
since the hose observed will be just for water.

Another example of the PUERTO RICAN GARDEN LANDSCAPE INSTALLATION SYNDROME. Lack of aesthetics, worn out, vulgar plant selection, inability to design something original in concept/realization, and intelligent, cost effective, systematic maintenance possibilities.

If the person/people responsible for this ugly vegetative installation, had taken some time to study without
the urge of making quick money, (lots of it), with a little thought to the concept of
beauty, pragmatic maintenance, installation, the results would have been admirable.
What I see, is ugly, costly, an difficult to keep up.