Before and after cactus garden photos Tenerife Puerto de la Cruz.

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The cactus garden on Playa Jardin had been delighting many a holiday home in Tenerife owner for at least 40 years.

See the photo of it depicted below. This is how the manicured small cactus park was before disaster struck. Many holiday home in Tenerife owners took its landscaping design as inspiration for their villa front or back gardens. What they often didn't realize is that the prickly round and tall plants by the old fortress Castillo San Felipe had their roots in beach sand. That gave them automatic drainage, while waters from the gorge flooded it, sometimes, but never too much. A bit of artificial irrigation helped as well, as even those semi desert plants need ground moisture.

It seemed to be one of excellent landscape design ideas for cactus art by a well looked after beach. You could admire the lovely, small cactus garden from as far as the traffic bridge nearby. From there nothing obscured the views of this small Arizona type plant patch. People could also reach it from different corners to admire its cactus arrangement from close up. Something, which looked like a white cross, may have been paving and served as central focal point by its star-like symmetry. Cactea of different shapes and sizes were arranged to round off the almost formal landscaping style.

Cactea destroyed by floods:

Then it rained rather heavily during the day of November 17th of 2009. This continued well through the night. The gorge called barranco in Spanish became a rising river of mountain water with stones, rocks and all sorts of debris. When I went home from the dentist after lunch the day after and looked at it from the height of the bus it had started raining again. I could not believe my eyes. I was awe struck. Withing 1,5 hours at the doctor, this barranco had menacing waterfalls again. However then, the rain was not strong at all. I would not have gone off the bus, though, as I feared worse. So nobody may tell me that what came down this gorge a few hours ago were not floods... By the way, I also noticed that the bridge was almost blocked by rubble underneath with only about a 2foot gap left. I was wondering how the water was supposed to reach the ocean, soon after. This location is only a few meters away from the cactus garden, which merely protected the cactea from then on, perhaps.

A natural gorge for environment preservation:

Landscape design at the merci of weather:

I hear many tourists moan that nobody has put the tiny cactus garden back into place and that beach Play Jardin looks so sad now.

They say: 'Look at the beach debris of this black beach!'

Indeed, the real ugly beach by the cactus garden is just a few steps further on. Can you blame nature for making such a messy beach?
To call the mess debris is perhaps not the right expression, as the ocean didn't wash them on shore. Only one small section of the 650 long shore of Playa Jardin has been damaged. May people be more patient, as it will be more costly to repair. Cleaning up sands and replanting cactea would be the least of the chores. Let the town Puerto de la Cruz solve a new landscaping puzzle, where a gorge must stay in place to save lives above all. Beauty and design is not something which may be taken for granted. Nor man made beach landscapes, such as those of the beaches of Playa Jardin.
Wouldn't you wonder about the beaches' landscaping costs?
Therefore, beware having a holiday home in Tenerife too close to a beach, which is illegal anyway. A barranco may not only be a threat for a cactus garden.

Cactus garden of Tenerife and global warming:

No cactea were planted again in the same area of Playa Jardin by February 2011. However, indigenous low shrubs which are draught resistent could be seen by summer of 2011 in the former cactus location.
Certainly, such plant selection for Playa Jardin's prickly patch will be easy to replace.

Anyway, there is rising environmental awareness in more educated circles of Puerto de la Cruz. Some stories, whose pictures were published concern environmental problems being caused to the ocean. More about this danger for wildlife some other time...

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