And it's about time that the traditional grass boulevard was redesigned to lower its environmental footprint and to improve its beauty. I am a strong supporter of well designed and planted boulevards. Some 10 years ago while I was at Park & Tilford Gardens we transformed our grass boulevards into colourful masses of hardy landscape roses, mixed shrubs and a large and lovely wild grass border. The result was improved beauty, interest and lower maintenance.
Not everyone likes a planted boulevard, probably because they have not been shown how to plant it so that it does not impede traffic visibility, affect sight lines to the house and how to keep it low maintenance. Without question a planted boulevard requires less than half the maintenance that a grassed boulevard requires. And planted boulevards enhance the community's garden for everyone's benefit.
We do have many good examples of planted boulevards across the North Shore but most of these are municipal projects, not residential. The average homeowner is probably unwilling to plant on city-owned land for fear of reprisal from the city. To be clear, the boulevard, or road right of way, as engineers refer to it, is located on the road side of your home's city water connection, which is also the end of your property.
No municipality will allow the installation of hard landscape items like walls, pergolas, rocks, benches and so forth on the boulevard without review and permit. However, most progressive cities will allow and encourage replanting of the grassed boulevard as long as the new planting does not impede traffic visibility or affect pedestrian access to the sidewalk. And the homeowner agrees to maintain the new boulevard planting.
To plant your boulevard keep in mind that the right plant for the right place is the only way to design a good boulevard planting. Plants should be chosen to tolerate the summer heat, rain splash, salt spray in winter and all of the other harshness that comes with growing next to 120 C summer-temperature asphalt and concrete.
Generally the boulevard adjoining most homes should be planted with groundcovers and small growing shrubs, perennial and annuals. Those plant's heights should not exceed half a metre or about two feet. Keeping the mature plant height low will allow traffic visibility to be maintained and pedestrian access will not be impeded. As well, low-growing plants do not provide a place for criminals to hide. Good plant choices for the boulevard include hardy and low-growing landscape roses, small grasses and groundcovers like kinickinick, spurge and ajuga. There are also many perennials that are suitable for the boulevard like lady's mantle, some potentillas, hardy geraniums, dwarf phlox, sages, lavender and catmint to name a few with so many more choices waiting for us to try them.
I have seen several homeowner-planted boulevards around the Metro Vancouver region and most are beautiful to look at, low maintenance, and a real enhancement of the community. But not all good intentions are well thought out.
One particular boulevard planting included tomatoes grown on five-foot steel stakes, two large rhododendrons and some gangling perennials that flopped onto the roadway. Not at all a good design, but at least that person tried. That planting was ripped out soon after I saw it and replanted with grass.
We cannot all meet with success in our first efforts, so I encourage everyone not to give up and plan well before you plant.
There are those food security keeners who would like to plant vegetables on the boulevard. I strongly believe that planting food crops on the boulevard is bad policy and should not be allowed for health reasons. After all, would you want to eat food grown on the boulevard that is contaminated with microrubber particles from passing car tires and bioaccumulated full of car exhaust pollution like nitrogen oxide? Not to mention rainsoaked road-spray that is full of leaking car oil, antifreeze and transmission fluid that will permeate the soil and eventually biomagnify its way into the vegetables grown on the boulevard. I would not, and therefore I strongly recommend that no person grow food on boulevards, not even a single strawberry. Instead, grow vegetables in your back yard or in the front yard if you are not near high traffic roadways.
Planting up our boulevards is an excellent way to enhance the Garden of Earth.
Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist, garden designer, writer, consultant and organic horticulture teacher. Contact: [email protected].
