I have a client that would like to remove the right away and create a native plant design consistening of red, yellow, and white. I'm not the best at designing and a few of these species I haven't worked with so I'm not sure how tolerant they would be of snow/salt, and if they would blend well together. I have a mix of white yarrow, gaillardia, orange milkweed, blue grama grass, indian grass, mountain mint, coreopsis palmata, Rudbeckia, white prairie clober, new jersey tea, rattlesnake master, columbine, and red lobelia.
TIA!!!
by Daniibrady
12 Comments
My first concern is height. Some of those plants, like gaillardia and mountain mint, can get pretty tall. Be mindful of their placement to try preventing them from flopping onto the sidewalk.
Gardening in the towns right of way/easement may run afoul of local ordinance.
The home owner should reach out to the town hall to determine if such an endevour is permissible. I would suspect removing the towns sidewalk or digging up the easement could be a problem for the home owner and /or the contractor.
I would push them to remove their front lawn for natives instead. If the city has to complete utility work in the ROW easement they will not replace all the landscaping.
Does she have visitors that park in front of the house? This can make it difficult for passengers to get in/out. May want to incorporate a small paver path for someone getting out of a car.
You designed that much bigger than the right of way.
Also definitely don’t put a boulder on the right of way – that’s going to be a nightmare for car doors and might damage snow plows if the area gets large enough snowfalls that they can’t always tell where the curb is
Good point! Maybe group taller plants at the back to keep things tidy and avoid sidewalk chaos.
No rocks/boulders in the ROW. Honestly would just stick to small plants for that area, or leave it be as is.
Your proportions look off, I would resize the plants to give your client a more realistic idea of how tall this will be
I think indian grass can get too tall for that placement and limit visibility for pedestrians and drivers. Also, slender mountain mint could be a good option for a shorter mint.
What softwware did you use for the pretty mockup?
Blooming boulevards has a lit of experience with this. You could check out their website: [https://www.bloomingboulevards.org/](https://www.bloomingboulevards.org/)
It seems anti-social to keep a lawn and then push all the plantings right up to the sidewalk and the hell strip so they limit access. If they want to win over the neighbours to native plant gardening, it would be much more effective to remove the lawn and feature how amazing well-planned native gardens can look. Then in stage 2, they could landscape closer to the sidewalk with low-growing plantings that don’t block visibility or sidewalk access.