With increasing density in Portland, we have less space to plant. The health of people and our planet depend both on enough trees, plants, and insects and a balance of living creatures to keep global heating and carbon pollution at bay. Our city parking strips are underutilized space that can be planted. An informal survey of parts of our neighborhood indicated that there is plenty of space to plant in parking strips. Our small sample showed 42 percent had trees and grass, and 27 percent had plants as well as grass and trees. It is encouraging that 69 percent have trees planted, but that also underscores that there is still plenty of room for other plants to nourish insects and birds.
The Beaumont-Wilshire community, together with Friends of Trees (FoT), has a goal of planting at least 100 new trees in our neighborhood this planting season.
To get a tree for your parking strip or your yard, sign up online with the FoT at www.friendsoftrees.org by March 2. About 40 Beaumont residents already have signed up for trees. Why not join them in making our neighborhood a greener place to live? The tree planting will occur on April 4, 2020. If you have questions about this FoT project, contact Janet Baker via e-mail (janbak@pacifier.com) or phone (503-288-3441). Keep in mind that planting trees in parking strips requires a city permit. It is essential that our plantings do not block visibility for walkers and drivers. A large camellia is beautiful, but is so big it blocks visibility. It is also important to place paths along the street side of the parking strip, and through it, to allow pedestrian traffic.
What plants work best in parking strips? To support insects and birds we plant for 1) a long diverse flowering season; 2) appropriate flower shapes that easily allow access to pollen and nectar; and 3) relative drought tolerance once established. A mixture of native and non-native flowering plants and trees meets this requirement. My parking strip is a rock garden planted with low-growing flowering plants, such as bulbs, low shrubs like daphne and creeping Oregon Grape, and daisy-shaped and open flowers such as asters and sedums. I also have plants, such as gloriosa daisies, that produce seeds for small birds to eat in fall and winter. These are not all natives, but the insects and birds love all of them, and the extended flowering season of diverse plants for pollinators is important.
A source of information about parking strip and insect-and-bird-friendly plants is “Pollinator Parkways” (www.pollinatorparkways.weebly.com). Beaumont-Wilshire neighbors are working on organizing some assistance with planting parking strips, and we’ll keep you posted.
We have wonderful nurseries in our area, among them Garden Fever, Portland Nursery, and Marbott’s, where you can find plants suitable to plant in your parking strip. We are also fast approaching the season of plant sales where we can find many interesting plants and get the growers’ advice. Coming in the next few months are the Hardy Plant Society sale, Leach Garden sale, the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden sale, Clackamas County Master Gardeners sale in Canby, and Garden Palooza in Aurora, among others. All these sales have an online presence for information.
This article written in 2010 and updated in 2019 is helpful: www.oregonlive.com/kympokorny/2010/08/garden_zone_more_on_parking_st.html