Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Garden Gawk: Public Spaces in the City of Wautoma

Actually, this is the widest space pictured here and part of a commercial space pf a business which sells a few potted plans, pots, statues, antiques, etc. catering to tourists.
I'm always gawking at gardens.  Maybe I'm a garden stalker.  Sometimes I take pictures.  I usually don't even get out of the car.  Sometimes I don't even stop the car. Thought I'd share.  You might find some images inspiring, weird, or wonder, "what is going on there?".  I have THAT thought a lot.

Newspaper box as garden art?  I will qualify this as being the backside of a planting that is adjacent to a municipal parking lot.
Someday (?) this will look pulled together...

This hellstrip is the narrowest piece of "hell" I've ever seen.  It is a two foot wide space between two parking lots reclaimed by the Waushara County Master Gardeners.

The sign should say Wetlands "Parking", as the space around the sign is just about the whole park.

This rustic metal sculpture is a good value-added...

But they should have stopped right there.  The bo-dingly value-added butterfly on a wire just adds that trash garden aspect too prevalent here in Waushara County.

I suppose this was the best they could do, hiding these utilities on the back of a park sign, again it is more a "parking sign".

Another hellstrip

If the gardeners of the public space are lucky they have a fence as a backdrop...

...all too often it is an open space between parking space and street.


None of these spaces is ever watered.  The plants included tend to be drought tolerant perennials and natives.  I suppose it is better than expecting a tree to survive in the space allowed; something you see a lot of in larger cities in Wisconsin.  Did you know the life expectancy of a city street tree is just seven years?

2 comments:

  1. I actually like the hellstrip plantings. I'm surprised about the seven years. That must be an average. Could it reflect some trees dying in the first year or two and then the remainder lasting a lot longer? That's the impression I get where I live.

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    1. The 7 years is an ANLA stat. It might be the time between planting and having trees removed because they look like crap. Some of these perennials are more long-lived than that. Yes, I do sort of like these hellstrip plantings. They could be a lot worse.

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