Greening your city

I don't live in a large city, but I'd like us to do more to green the streetscapes and business landscapes.


Portland isn't perfect, but their street plantings, "hell strip" plantings (that's the strip between the street and sidewalk), and containers are a big improvement from what I normally see.

Of course Portland has the perfect benign climate for container plantings, and tough site plantings.


But, this is what I saw in the downtown Pearl District of Portland today, and think about what you could encourage in your community. I know I'll be going home with good ideas about what to try.

Let's get planting...

Anything we plant - anything green - helps take up CO2 -- plants convert CO2 to sugars and produce oxygen -- that conversion is why there's life on Earth. Perhaps our local planting efforts are minor, but all of us that garden DO collectively have a positive effect. Green spaces instead of asphalt, adding trees, shrubs, and perennials -- this adds up as an antidote to urban/suburban heat islands.

But it seems like it's time to actively promote greening our communities, new residential areas, commercial developments, etc. Certainly this has been important for awhile, but why not step up our efforts?

The largest city near us -- Greenville, SC -- is having a difficult time passing a tree ordinance. Our traditional 'don't tell us what to do with our property' stance in SC has emerged. But, really, trees vs. asphalt? Which is better for us?