June 3, 2005
plant for more beautiful streets
In a perfect compliment to our recent tree planting and other reading, I found some neat old stamps at Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space, an urban revitalization blog out of Washington DC.
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I read a discussion (on GardenWeb?) about planting in the space between the sidewalk and the street. The consensus seemed to be that it, indeed, prettifies the street, but that the gardener risks losing it all if the city decides it needs to rip up that area for utilities maintenance or street widening. The risk might also discourage people from planting lovely flowering trees in that area.
They don’t plant enough of them in Texas. The most beautiful neighborhoods here are rich in trees, the tress are what make the area hands-down. I know some people get annoyed with the maintenance involved with trees. Trimming, raking, etc but in a place as hot as Texas a mature tree adds an automatic $1,000 to the value of a home. My neighbors across the street cut down a healthy sycamore. It shaded their driveway and their roof. I asked them why they were cutting it down and they said they were sick of raking leaves!!! My neighbors refer to my back yard as the ‘forest’ which cracks me up. Can you tell I’m originally from Michigan?
It’s wonderful that you guys extended your renovations to the street. If everyone on a street made a small contribution to the planting strip, imagine how gorgeous all our streets would be! There are a few areas here where residents have gone all out with gardening the strips and it’s AMAZING. Yeah, there’s the risk that city engineering will need to tear it up one day to get at utilities, but that’s unlikely and in the meantime it’s so wonderful!