Here are examples of my city's landscaping around city buildings, all of which we gardeners hate and want to see improved/updated. But the city proudly posts photos of their beds to local social media and people (some) DO love it. Are there examples of better landscaping around public buildings we could show people, for inspiration and assurances? (Esp if they still want color.)
We're in a Maryland suburb of DC, Zone 7B.
by Simple-Air-5385
2 Comments
These beds are a classic case of polka dot planting. The city is just dumping flats of cheap annuals into bare mulch and calling it a design. There is absolutely zero structure here. A landscape needs bones to hold it together which means you need woody shrubs and evergreens. Without that base layer this whole setup turns into a barren mud pit for six months out of the year the second the first frost hits.
If they want color and you want it to look professional you have to plant in sweeping connected masses. Tell the city planners to look at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton or the US Botanic Garden right in your backyard. They need to start with a backbone of native evergreens like inkberry holly and then layer in structural grasses like switchgrass for movement. Once the bones are set you drop in large flowing drifts of tough native perennials like coneflower and tickseed.
That approach gives the public the loud color they want but builds an actual living ecosystem instead of a disposable seasonal flower bed. It cuts down on their labor and mulch budget because the plants physically touch and shade out the weeds. They need to stop planting little isolated clumps of tulips in an ocean of woodchips and start designing a connected structural landscape.
Start by edging them…