It took four weeks to create, complete and install this living art piece, with the first planting in April and May. The palette includes hot pink New Guinea impatiens, red double-begonias, pineapple coleus, ripe strawberries and green peppers.

"Back to Eden," a living work of art created by Michigan horticulturalist, Dave MacKenzie, has been placed, by public vote, in the top 25 in ArtPrize, which maintains to offer the world's largest art prize.

Dave MacKenzie's vision of the future is one in which buildings, homes, bridges, parking lots and roadways are covered in greenery. That philosophy served as inspiration for this 2013 installation.

"Landscaping is, of course, an art form in and of itself, and there are competitions that address that," said MacKenzie, president of Hortech, a nursery and plant wholesaler that designs and manufactures LiveWall and LiveRoof, which are organic plant-based architectural systems. "But using plants on a vertical canvas as an actual medium and entered in the world's largest art competition, could be a first."

The project, located at the B.O.B., a popular ArtPrize venue in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., is a 1,400-square-foot, multidimensional visual expression of horticulture comprising 60 varieties of 2,500 perennial, annual and edible plants. Highlights include hot pink New Guinea impatiens, red double-begonias, pineapple coleus and ripe strawberries and green peppers. Various colors and textures are tied together with a tendril of purple vining.

MacKenzie estimates it took four weeks to create, complete and install, with the first planting in April and May. Its canvas needed daily refining to keep it ready for this fall's competition, including removing spent flowers from the annuals, and guarding against frost that could injure some of the more frost-sensitive foliage. A specially designed protective cloth was kept close at hand in case of cold weather. Team members took turns maintaining the work.

On September 24, Back to Eden was voted by the public into the Top 25 of over 1,500 entries and maintained this high ranking until the competition ended on October 6.

According to MacKenzie, the living wall plants perform important ecological functions by purifying air and water, cooling and insulating, feeding birds and butterflies and people. In urban areas, these systems create green space where land is mostly unavailable and very expensive, which is why living wall construction is on the rise throughout North America.

Mackenzie's work is familiar to the city of Grand Rapids, where his projects include the living walls at the city's new Downtown Market and at John Ball Park Zoo, where a recently installed green wall accompanies two of his other green wall designs.

ArtPrize is an independently organized, annual, international art competition with a $200,000 top prize decided by public vote. Time Magazine named ArtPrize one of "five festival events you won't want to miss in 2013." It runs for 19 days, covering three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids. Art from around the world is on display free of charge. Every year, ArtPrize distributes $360,000 awarded by public vote and $200,000 awarded by a jury.