OOTS: Latest Wrap Up


It's a while since I kicked off Out on the Streets in August, so it's high time I thanked you for your contributions and summarised the findings of this edition. Once again there's a lot of variety to report :)

Helen was surprised to find good quality planting on an industrial estate in Toronto whilst Monica once again showed us why Chicago is regarded world-wide as a leader in public planting. Anna found an example of the common British style whilst on her travels in Portsmouth.

I wrote about Love Parks Week, which prompted Helen to revisit and share the Rosetta McClain Gardens with us. She also found some fantastic living moss walls whilst on holiday in Iceland.

We had several streetwise wildlife gardening examples: Mr McGregor's Daughter showed us the planting in parking spaces can be wildlife friendly and I responded with a UK example showcased by Garden Organic. The Constant Gardener found some sedum rooves gracing her local supermarket's trolley park.

Mr McGregor's Daughter returned with a healthy report on what she found at her local chiropractor's whilst Fennel and Fern was tempted to dine on the chillis and chard she found.

I grabbed Garden Rant's piece on the state of planting at US public schools (NB not that same as UK public schools) and then I had a wake up call re the impact of spending cuts in our public sector. In contrast I found an improvement in Chippenham, particularly with trees.

We had fantastic new contributors in the shape of Town Mouse who told us about the Boulder Greenway System and Ryan found planting being used to solve the problem of rainwater runoff in San Francisco. This latter example struck me as an opportunity we should be considering in the UK as we become increasingly urbanised.

In addition to my bumper news round up, I'd like to congratulate Cricklade - the sole Wiltshire representative - on their gold medal in the Britain in Bloom awards this week and also highlight that Bristol Zoo was awarded Best Park at the same ceremony. Here's a fun video I found this week of their time lapse gardening technique:




The top picture is of Litomysl in the Czech Republic's take on an annual bedding scheme. Out on the Streets will return in December for another sparkly festive addition, but I will be continuing with my own posts under the Public Planting label in the meantime. Check out the second of my reports from the Palmstead workshop tomorrow.

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