Buy a drip irrigation system, fill the pot saucer with water, leave the curtains halfway down to let in some light, ask the neighbor to come over and water them… There are various resources available to try to ensure that the plants survive. to holiday periods. But in Pozuelo de Alarcón they have added one more variable. Leave them in the care of the City Council.
The town hall of Pozuelo, which has the highest average income (26,367 euros per year) and the lowest unemployment rate in all of Spain (5.6%), has set up the first horticultural nursery service so that the residents of the Madrid town can leave on vacation without worrying about what they will do with their plants while they go to the beach.
Nearly a thousand specimens spend each summer “their vacations” in the Environmental Education Classroom, which helps to keep indoor or outdoor plants in good condition. Although they also have a hospital to recover from illnesses if necessary. The project has phytopathologist Óscar Domínguez every Wednesday to analyze the particular situation of each plant and be able to “give it a personalized diagnosis”.
In fact, the Hospital de Plantas has a heated greenhouse for the winter season and, in summer, the plants are kept under a shading structure and irrigation by microdiffusion. In addition, it has a binocular magnifying glass, with the possibility of projecting to observe and show possible harmful pests.
One of the volunteers for these projects, Bernardino Rodríguez, has explained how evaluation and care work. “If the problems are not serious, they are informed of the treatment to follow and the neighbor takes their plant. If the plant is very sick, we leave it hospitalized in the UVI area for recovering plants and, with the treatment that Óscar Dominguez indicates, the volunteers participate in the care of the plant and we follow it up,” he indicated.
“We want to spread our passion for nature and that passion can start by caring for a small plant. We don’t want going on vacation to be an inconvenience or an excuse for not having a plant,” said Miriam, environmental educator at the Pozuelo classroom. Towers.
This service, which is completely free and accepts plants only on Wednesday mornings, is available until September 15.
