Mexico City: Vertical Gardening, an Urban Nursery & More

– By Sarah, Marketing Maven at Habitat Design

A few weeks ago I went on a trip to Mexico City, and the amount of parks and general greenery really blew me away. Here are a few photos of all the flora I saw on my trip:

Above is the San Ángel Flower Market. This is just the outskirts, as the market extends into a massive array of stalls on the inside.

The market is chock full of colorful floral displays — some of them massive. They’re very different than floral displays we’re used to here in the US, and some of them almost look Ikebana-like.

Vertical gardening is huge in Mexico City (as well as Guadalajara). The installment above pretties up a boring part of Avenida de los Insurgentes — the longest avenue in Mexico City.

Here’s more vertical gardening — this time on the side of a hip, new mall.

Above is Viveros de Coyacán park, which is actually a combination tree nursery and park. A brilliant idea (especially for a city combating air pollution), the nursery in the park was founded by Miguel Angel de Quevado in the 20th century. The goal was to provide seedlings for the reforestation of the city & its surrounding area’s badly damaged forests.

Above — Joggers running around the popular jogging path within the Viveros de Coyacan park. You can see the bright, young seedlings there in the background. This park grows an astounding one million seedlings per year!

Most every neighborhood I explored in Mexico City had a park/garden in the center, and even parks down the center of busy neighborhood streets. Above is a jungle-y garden in the Roma district of Mexico City — looking especially green because it had just been raining.

Overall, Mexico City was a beautiful and exciting city (not dreadful, scary and dirty like you hear on the news) and I highly recommend a visit if you ever get a chance!