A working day at Vitaverde

Waking up in the morning was never more challenging than on fifth of September of this year. The story begins one month earlier, when I arrived in Greece for my internship at Vitaverde. The Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme gave me the opportunity to learn many new things and to be part of the company’s work and values.

My story here would have never been the same without that day. The team of Vitaverde constructed their second vertical garden in Greece, in Thessaloniki. This made me realise how lucky I am being here this period. How many people in the world have the chance to help building such an inspiring creation or even witness the ongoing development of it? Having this in mind, I decided to make the best out of the day.

I would say that the vertical garden is a story in itself, a story of liberation, an opportunity for freedom of thought and expression. True innovation comes not from the familiar, but from knowing our roots and understanding why things are as they are. The new vertical garden at the I-bank store in Aristotelis square is an outcome of innovation, ideas, hard work, lots of supervision and late working hours. These were the ingredients for creating a unique design and a sustainable construction.

From the infrastructure, metal panels and watering systems, the garden has slowly, but surely taken shape over the past two months. And there we were, the final day arrived and we were ready to give life and visual effects to an ordinary wall. Weeks of planning, phone calls and visits on the spot were then left behind…

Early in the morning, we took our designs, clothes for changing, lots of energy and eagerness to work and went to Aristotelis square. More than 550 plants were brought on spot. They must have been looking forward to their new life and habitat. Wow! That must be a wonderful life. Your role as a plant is suddenly changed by a bunch of people. You are no longer a usual plant in its pot waiting to be watered, but you become the queen of plants, reigning above the people and helping them with your beneficial properties.

Once the plants were transported inside, the hard work began. A few instructions from the team’s landscape architect and we were ready to start. “We start from the right side as it has the biggest plants and it is the hardest work to do.” This was one of the things I learnt here: when you have a plan to accomplish, start with the hardest part and your work will be a pleasure to do. Plant by plant the wall was taking color and shape. A spathiphyllum  here and there, a fittonia next to it and it felt like painting a wall, not only with green paint, but with living green. One by one, empty pots were thrown down on the floor and our clothes became dirtier and dirtier. More than 10 species of plants created an organic design, with linear paths, which can guide you through your thoughts once you start exploring the garden.

The last details such as the metal corners were fixed after the garden was finished. One more hour to clean the place and everything was ready. Stop and stare! It’s unbelievable how a vision was turned into reality and it is such a rewarding feeling to see your plan vanishing from a piece of paper and appearing on a wall in front of your eyes…

Thank you Vitaverde for sharing this experience with me…