‘Vertical garden’ brightens up gray landscape on Quezon City road

Workers (upper and lower photos) tend to the more than 3,000 plants hanging on the metal fence stretching for 180 meters on Kalayaan Avenue, Quezon City. The beautification project put a much-needed touch of green welcomed by the nearby slum community. PHOTOS BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

On this busy Quezon City street, the gray concrete landscape suddenly offers a refreshing stretch of green that somehow hides the urban blight behind.

For half a year now in Barangay (village) Central, over 3,000 hanging plants on sidewalk fences have been a welcome sight on Kalayaan Avenue, a “vertical garden” that extends for about 180 meters from Masigla to Maparaan streets.

“The residents like it. Some even thought it was a barangay project when it’s not,” said barangay chairperson Josephine Velasco, who credited the idea to Mayor Herbert Bautista.

Velasco said the mayor suggested erecting a wall of hanging plants when she requested a beautification project in her community, which is predominantly a shantytown.

“That area (along Kalayaan) is a slum area which covers about 6,000 square meters of government land. So we wanted to brighten up the view somehow,” the official said.

Construction of the metal fence started six months ago, and the plants—each contained in small black plastic pots—soon followed, painstakingly strung by wire on the mesh. Among the plant varieties “on display” are golden philodendrons, callisia and pinya-pinya.

City Hall workers have since looked after the vertical garden, replacing wilted or damaged plants.

Velasco said there was a time when only a single tree on Masigla Street offered a patch of green in the area. “Now I’m encouraging my neighbors to help water the plants. After all, this project is for us.”

“The color is easier on the eyes. It somehow brightens up the mood of the community,” she noted.

Another resident, Salvador Estornenos, 66, appeared pleased that his grandchildren, who have known no other playground but the dusty sidewalks, can now run and prance about along a wall of leaves and vines.

“It’s now rare to see green in the city. At least we have real plants to see when we go out of our houses,” Estornenos said.