I've got a suggestion for your boulevard garden: Make the grade of theI agree Connie's suggestion is a good idea. Keeping as much water on your dirt to infiltrate gradually to the subsoil is far better than run-off which contaminates our rivers and lakes, and increases flood potential.
boulevard strip lower than the grade of the sidewalk and curb. Not so
steep that someone will trip and fall -- just a gentle swale. This will
allow your boulevard to capture a significant amount of the stormwater
that rolls off the sidewalk.
This boulevard swale will not only hold more water for your plants (your "real" grass might even flourish), but also it will keep a significant amount of water out of the street and out of the storm drain.
If this were a common practice in Minneapolis, a tremendous amount of storm water could be diverted from the city's storm sewers. This simple landscaping technique could improve impact on water quality in the Mississippi River.
Most of our boulevards look mounded. This is generally not a design
choice, but rather a gradual heaving of soil from growing tree roots and
dust and debris deposited on boulevards from snowplowing. You can
expect your boulevard swale to fill in 10-15 years. But this
maintenance of your boulevard every decade or so is well worth the water
quality impacts.
On my mounded boulevard, to lower much of it to a swale would mean damaging and exposing the roots of an elm and a pair of linden trees. They have a tough enough go of it living in that narrow, salt-polluted strip of land without my cutting up and drying out their roots. So we planted our boulevard without even touching the sod, although removing it and making a swale would be better for the watershed. Trees are just too valuable. Making a swale and/or rain garden might not be an option for people with nearby trees.
Chris Johnson Fulton
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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