Beautifying the Boulevard With Native Plants

I’ve been wanting to replace the grass strip between the sidewalk and street with native plants for a long time. Really since we moved in to our home back in 2016. Though I tend more toward bypassing rules that seem less important, my partner is a true rule follower. So when he told me I couldn’t just plant things because the city technically ‘owned’ that land I was kind of stuck. It was less about the rule that planting was prohibited and more about the potential consequences, namely hours of labor, tending, and love torn up in a second because it violated the rules of manicured lawns.

So I waited, watched, and pondered while building my garden spaces elsewhere. Raised beds in the back yard, planting and replanting the front flower beds to find a mix of plants for a bit of cheer all throughout the growing season.

But the boulevard project remained top of mind. Every week I watched my partner mow the strip, thinking about the energy being used to mow it all the while wishing I could have biodiverse life there instead. Then this spring I saw it! My city’s parks department had passed an initiative that allowed residents to apply to beautify commonly desolate areas like boulevards, traffic circles, and street corners. AHA! A rule abiding strategy to get what I wanted, this was a win for me!

The parks department program encouraged native plants

The suggestion to use primarily native plants was a pleasant surprise in the Parks Department project guidelines. The initiative had strict requirements about plant height (no more than 30 inches), which fair enough, pedestrian, pet, & bicyclist safety is always important. Along with the planting ‘rules’ they had a list of suggested plant species, all of which were native. So I pored over the materials to identify the plants I could actually source. It’s surprisingly difficult and expensive to source native plants, however I was able to source seeds, some bare roots, and eventually 3 trays of 50 seedling plants.

I submitted an official application that showed a rough schematic of my plan, listed my materials, plants, and maintenance plan. After about a month the parks board approved my plan and it was time to plant.

A reminder to always ‘call before you dig’. It’s super easy you can do it online and don’t have to talk to a soul. I submitted the online form to digger’s hotline to make sure I knew where all the utilities were located. The only thing in the boulevard was the water stop/shutoff thing which was right at the surface and easy to work around.

Removing the Grass

Once all the locates were completed my dad brought the rototiller and tilled the boulevard, shallowly first to cut the grass roots, then after we picked most of the grass out, he tilled more deeply. It took my dad, partner, and myself around 2-3 hours of work to get the grass removed. It started to rain right when we finished up the grass removal and rained for the next three days. So planting had to wait. I had effectively ‘beautified’ my green boulevard into a 60 ft mud puddle.

Planting

I started planting the weekend after we removed the grass. I have never put so many plants in the ground at once. I live in an urban area with a smallish urban yard. My raised garden beds are relatively small as gardens go. So in my mind, planting would take me about 2-3 hours even though there were so many plants, 150 of them were just 3 species so it seemed like I should get some economies of scale. Well turns out, planting 150 plants is not fast, even if they are the same plant, you still have to dig 150 holes and cover 150 plants. I spent 5.5 hours planting the boulevard.

So which native plants did I choose?

I chose plants that shouldn’t grow taller than 30 inches. But some plants will get taller than 30 inches. The strategy for those is to trim them early in the early season before flowering to maintain a shorter height without harming flowering. I hope that trimming strategy works, I read about it online and have no real word experience to say it does.

Plant List

• 50 plants: Hairy Beardtongue Penstemon hirsutus
• 50 plants: Whorled Milkweed Asclepias verticillata
• 50 plants: Prairie Violets Viola pedatifida
• 3 plants: Blue-stemmed Goldenrod Soldiago caesia
• 3 bare roots: Prairie Smoke Geum triflorum
• 3 bare roots: Ohio Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiensis
• 3 bare roots: Button Blazing Star Liatris aspera

Finishing touches & maintenance

When I was finished planting I spread a thin layer of straw in an attempt to retain moisture and discourage weeds. The final touches were a couple of signs. The first sign says “Prairie in Progress: Pardon the Mess. Critical pollinator habitat can take 3-5 years to establish, but it’s worth the wait”. The second sign says “Native Prairie Plants Please Do Not Spray or Mow”. I put this one on the property line next to the well-manicured lawn of my neighbor, in case their lawn service is feeling overzealous.

I planted the boulevard about a week ago and it’s doing pretty well so far. The Hairy Beardtongue Penstemon hirsutus is doing well and a few are blooming. The whorled milkweed Asclepias verticillata is still small but not wilting. I suspect the Prairie violets Viola pedatifida are being eaten by rabbits. I accidentally pulled some of what I think is going to be Ohio Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiensis that I planted as a bare root. I was overzealous and thought it was quack grass. That stuff survives on gravely highway sides though so I think it will come back.

Future plans for adding native plants

I will be sowing seeds this fall to really fill in the space. Native plant seeds almost all require cold stratification. I can get away with cold stratifying in the refrigerator but I think they’ll do best if sown in the fall. At least I hope so, it’s a bit of an experiment for me. I typically see a lot of space in landscaping, it creates a cleaner sharper look. But for this project I am going to be battling grass and weeds. My goal is to over seed and let the native plants crowd out the grass and weeds that don’t provide the same habitat for our native pollinator species.

List of native plant seeds for Fall sowing

• Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta
• Lead Plant Amorpha canescens
• Wild Lupine Luipinis perennis
• Prairie Phlox Phlox pilosa
• Spring Beauty Claytonia Virginica

Where did I get all my plants and seeds?

I found all the plants for this project at Prairie Moon Nursery which specializes in native plants for my specific area. If you’re able to, purchase plants native to your specific region and geography.