Carlos Eduardo Ricciardi, a 69-year-old Italian-Argentinian who has resided in Lanzarote since 2016, has transformed an open-air plot on Enrique IV Street in the San Francisco Javier neighborhood, filled with waste and garbage, into a beautiful garden with native Canarian plants such as aloe, bougainvillea... and even paintings made with his own hands.
"I've lived on the street for a few years and saw that it was very neglected," he tells La Voz. "It was used as a dump, and the neighborhood dogs relieved themselves inside," he says. "I spoke with the owner, as the plot is for sale, and I told him the idea," he adds.
"I decided to start cleaning and conditioning it with the help of my partner Daniela." "We started in September 2019, little by little planting some plants, giving it color, etc.," he confesses. "In 2022, we finished the essential conditioning," although "I am currently still working on it," he says.
In addition, the garden has wooden paintings hanging that "I myself have hand-painted with acrylic," he assures. For one of the paintings, "I was inspired by a hotel in Playa Blanca," one with "a decoration similar to that of a cave," he adds.
"I'm not considering buying the plot; the price is prohibitive for me," he says. He only wanted to make the arrangement to "set an example and convey that we can all do our part to change our environment, without waiting for everything to be done for us," he emphasizes.
"We can all do our part to change our environment."
"The whole neighborhood is happy with the arrangement," some neighbors have even "donated plants for me to continue decorating the plot, and I have managed to get them to take care of it when I go on vacation," he highlights. And what's more, other residents in nearby streets "have taken the idea to implement it," he affirms.
This retired Physical Education teacher acknowledges that "there was a possibility that they would destroy the garden," but "it was quite the opposite." Although he has been clear from the beginning that "he would do it again if they destroyed it."
"I have managed to change people's attitudes with good vibes and example."
"I have managed to change people's attitudes with good vibes and example," he confesses proudly. "At the beginning, I even spoke with the neighbors who were dirtying the plot, and I told them that I would make them a little corner, but on the condition that they would not dirty it again," he adds. As the days went by, I saw that "they sat down to talk in the corner, but they no longer dirtied it," he says with excitement.
