Street gardening

josusa47 · August 2020

I've just been down one side and up the other of the small, quiet, secluded street I live on, pulling weeds out of the gutters and pavements. I started wondering if anyone else does this? Or is this just me being my usual weird self?

With little traffic to squish them, about a dozen different plants grow undisturbed. I think it's enlightened self-interest to pull them out; fewer seeds around to take up residence in my garden. Everyone on my side takes care of their gardens. There are five trees in the pavement, each with its little rectangle of bare earth. Three of them have been adopted by the occupants of the nearest house, and are bright with flowers.

Blue Onion · August 2020

I pick up trash, and swept the gravel/debris from in front of my two neighbors houses when doing my own gutter.. but leave their weeds alone that grow up in their sidewalks, guttering, or cracks in the road.

Loxley · August 2020

I am thinking about sowing some wildflower seeds in the roadside verges - specifically Viper's Bugloss and Daucus carota. They're managed as a 'bee highway' according to the local authority but they're not very diverse in species or floriferous.

Lizzie27 · August 2020

@josusa47, we saw somebody do just that the other day, looked like a father and teenage son. I keep chucking flower seeds on the bare strip of earth the road side of our fence as it looked so bare when we had the old hedge removed. Apart from the daffs that I planted and some forget-me-nots, nothing else has yet emerged. I've also strewn some allium and love-in-the-mist seeds in hope.

B3 · August 2020

We water the nearest young tree

LG_ · August 2020

I weed the tree pits occasionally, and planted crocuses in the one outside my house and my neighbour's. I've sown seeds / planted the odd small plant along the whole road, but few have survived the drought conditions (I have watered, but not enough). I have more plans though...

Fire · August 2020

We have planted bulbs under all our street trees and prune the planes, that put up base shoots all through the summer. Fairy gardens have been appearing under the trees during lock down. Little salvia Bumbles are appearing under trees down the street, turning out area slightly red.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/ko/zefjd9iaop0j.jpg

A plane tree was taken out by the council last year and we planted it up with a community plot last week.

This pic below is of Malacki putting in wild flower seed. We covered the plot with netting untill there is some earth covered, to put off cats, dogs, humans and foxes. So far, so good. A group of street neighbours have got to together to water and tend it. We chose plants liked by pollinators.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/yh/visja4dwnjio.jpeg

It's lovely to see verbena bon and ox daisies and tomato plants growing in the roadside gutters. I regularly dig out verbena seedlings and pot them up. They seem to like it. No, the toms will get nowhere, but it's a good sign. It's better than finding crisp packets.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/gj/9zmls7nzoh32.jpg

Blue Onion · August 2020

That is amazing @Fire, you have so much more faith in humanity than I do. I love the community plot idea, being people together. Beautiful!

Fire · August 2020

Faith in humanity? I have been growing under the street tree by my house for about six years and nothing much has happened. And there has been a fairly robust fairy garden. Nothing has been nicked or purposely trashed. Occasionally bikes do crash into the plants and bits break off, but the plants chosen are robust. They stand dog pee and bikes pretty well. The more planted up the plot is, the less problems there are. At the start, the plot was sparse and people didn't notice the small bulb shoots, so they got trodden on. Now we have put pebbles around the edges and have chosen larger plants (with shallow roots) and people walk around them. We find people want to walk down our streets on their way home to say hello to the fairies. More hanging baskets are appearing year on year (great for flats with no gardens) and many more front gardens are being tended. So something seems to be working.

We have started a garden club and a crafting club since lock down - sewing and growing, making and baking. Loads of neighbours have been growing veg for the first time ever. We had a picnic yesterday and people bought some of their harvests to share and it was quite wonderful. Some of the lockdown creations are shown here on our daily blog. Last week was Harvest Week.

@Blue Onion - Is Utah not friendly to street gardening?

Blue Onion · August 2020

@Fire Not like that. I can’t speak for all of Utah, or course, just my small city in a rural area three hours drive at motorway speeds from a shopping mall. Remote and rural. Some sidewalks have those strips of grass between them and the road.. but not my neighborhood. The sidewalk is directly next to the road, nothing but the curb between. We did have the starts of a gardening club prior to the pandemic, but that has all stopped now. People here aren't into gardening in the way you lovely British are.. hence why I am on your forum. We have no equivalent for U.S. gardeners, despite our massive population.

I am amazed by the success you've had for so many years.. it inspires me to reach out to my neighbors in some way.

Loxley · August 2020

Blue Onion said:

People here aren't into gardening in the way you lovely British are.. hence why I am on your forum. We have no equivalent for U.S. gardeners, despite our massive population.

Ah, I don't know about that... there are exceptions, like this guy, who's blog taught me the excellent word 'hellstrip'

http://www.rhonestreetgardens.com/search?q=hellstrip

Street gardening

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