Why can’t our squares be gardens all year round?
St George’s Square in Valletta will take on new life as a fantasy garden as part of the Valletta Green Festival which was launched yesterday.
While this festival usually sees the square adorned with beautiful arrays of flowers, this year the garden features mature trees up to three metres high and is spread over an impressive 42.82 meters by 27.53 meters, giving visitors ample space to wander and explore.
The pictures shared of the garden show how the square – which is one of Valletta’s largest and most central open spaces – has been transformed into, quite frankly, a much better version of its usual self.
It begs the question: why can’t be we have our urban squares favour the greenery of plants and trees permanently, rather than keeping them as open – and somewhat barren – spaces with nothing in them?
We can see that there is something of a penchant for, even when refurbishing gardens, creating spaces which are more devoid of greenery rather than trying to combine an open space with trees.
St George’s Square is a good example of this: an expanse which serves as a centre piece in the capital city. However, in summer particularly, there is nowhere for people to seek shelter from the sun and to just enjoy being there.
Imagine how much better this space would be if the authorities decided to excavate a few tree pits, plant trees in them, and place a couple of benches under each?
The same principles should then be held for community areas around the country: be it village squares, playgrounds, gardens or otherwise. Greenifying these areas would draw more people to them.
As things stand it is a pity that people must wait for a week-long festival every year to enjoy something like St George’s Square being as it is this week.
The Valletta Green Festival in itself is a great initiative, not just because it places a focus on the environment and on issues relating to environmental enforcement – but especially because it shows us a portrait of what may be possible if we had to really think of the environment in a holistic manner. It shows us that Malta can be more beautiful and that it can be greener.
Really, it’s up to the necessary stakeholders to see that and do what they must and make the necessary investment in order to make it happen.
As this newspaper has consistently said, it’s time to make the environment a true cornerstone of everything we do – and what better way to start than by improving our public spaces by making them greener and more attractive so people can actually enjoy them?