Out on the Streets: Wrap-up for March


Many thanks to all of you who took part in the first Out on the Streets last month - it was a fine set of contributions from everyone and I thought I'd add this flower bed I passed a week ago to wrap things up until June. It has a companion which I showed you last year and even more unbelievably this one's on the main road into Chippenham. The structure behind it is Brunel's railway bridge - another listed building and deemed to be such a grand entrance to the town it's floodlit at night. On that basis you'd think the planting would be more than one bed of mainly red mulch plus vast expanses of grass with daisies wouldn't you? Oh well, I suppose it's better than the subway that was there before. I promise a much more positive example from Chippenham in my next post on public planting and it will still feature that red mulch!

If you haven't looked at Out on the Streets for a while, I can thoroughly recommend the diverse range of posts chosen by those who participated. Debbi discovered a fantastic community garden, Lucy showed us the typical kind of tree planting found on our highways here in the UK, Mr McGregor's Daughter treated us to a Florida roundabout (more on roundabouts soon) plus some good commercial planting within walking distance from her house. In contrast, Julia was pondering some guerrilla-style gardening when she visited Tesco's whilst Happy Mouffetard found a living sculpture in Birmingham of all places. Anna found stylish plantings in France whilst Rob kept with the French theme by showing us some sunny pollarding from his new home country. Still on the subject of trees Greenwalks pondered the value of the trees we see on the streets - I'm currently researching a follow up piece to this - if you're interested in public planting, then Greenwalks is worth visiting frequently as it focuses on that awkward 'parking strip' between front garden and pavement (sidewalk). Raingardener also wrote a piece on these in her home town and I also found a post by Philip Bewley about a great tree planting project in San Francisco.

Finally Susan at The Bicycle Garden showed us the water hungry non-native planting at the campus where she teaches. She also has news on exciting developments and hopefully a change in thinking along more landscape/climate sensitive lines. I wish her and her colleague Jason well in their presentation this week.

That's it folks - you can find the links to all these posts, and more here. Otherwise, I'll see you in June for another Out on the Streets!

Comments

  1. Susan Tomlinson16 April 2009 at 13:21

    What's up with the red mulch? Why would we think that's attractive? And certainly they could do something a bit more grand than that?

    Ah well. We have so much work to do. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP16 April 2009 at 14:25

    Hi Susan - yes for one of the town's main flower beds it could be heaps better and the red mulch is hideous. Mulch by all means, but the normal colour wouldn't look so offensive.

    The council have just decided to spruce up the entrance to Monkton Park (which is just off the High Street) - that's been long overdue. Note to self - must go and take some pictures of what they're doing...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Monica the Garden Faerie16 April 2009 at 15:56

    I'm ready for June--not only will I show a nicely planted roundabout, but I'll show a not so nicely planted one! Ooh, contrast.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rob (ourfrenchgarden)16 April 2009 at 20:39

    Hi Veep

    This is a great idea 'out on the streets'.

    Now about that red mulch......

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Intrepid Explorer (Maggi)16 April 2009 at 21:48

    I NEED to comment because WV is grand. How good is that?
    I will try to do much better for June. Although I live so close to Nottingham I rarely go there. Having done so on March 31st I was quite stunned by the roundabouts. While driving though it's a bit tricky to take any pics. VP you should write in my report 'must try harder'!
    I will comment on the progress on the road too.
    Red mulch is a trifle bizarre ...;

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP16 April 2009 at 22:33

    Monica - I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with :)

    Rob - glad you like it, especially as you 'contributed' without realising it!

    Maggi - I'm coming to Chelsea - see you there? Looking forward to your view of Nottingham as I've only been there briefly.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anna16 April 2009 at 22:39

    Look forward to the next round VP. Shame about that mulch :(

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom17 April 2009 at 04:05

    VP, If it doesn't get rained outw, I am going to have the mother of all On the Streets post for you tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  9. RURAL 17 April 2009 at 04:47

    Thanks so much for participating in Anna's Gardening by Letters project. You can't imagine how exciting and wonderful it was to open up all the parcels, and cards. I am simply overwhelmed. Everyone is very kind, and creative.

    Jen
    Muddy Boot Dreams

    ReplyDelete
  10. VP18 April 2009 at 08:46

    Anna - I'm looking forrward to seeing your contribution for June :)

    Debbi - promise you'll post about it right now - I can't wait!

    Jen - welcome! I'm so glad you liked your letters and you did a lovely post about them on your blog :)

    ReplyDelete

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