Street planters

[syd]

morning,

I'd like to put some planters on my street to cheers it up and stop people dumping stuff. If the place looks loved people seem to behave properly.

Loughborough Junction is my inspiration as it has planters and has gone from a foreboding place to actually feeling quite pleasant.

Any feedback will be welcome.

Cheers,
Syd

[mosy]

Do you mean if you pay for them and take care of them including periodic restocking? If so, I imagine you'd presumably just need permission to obstruct the pavement. The council toyed with the idea IIRC for the high street but rejected it as it's an ongoing cost so I doubt they'd pay and there's no reason why your street should receive special treatment from them. Also planters can be treated like littler bins. If not embedded into the ground, could they be displaced, e.g. pushed into the road, or even nicked?

I'm just thinking out loud so might be wide of the mark.

It's a lovely idea. If you do get the go-ahead from the council, I'm wondering if Tim Lund with one of his gardening hats on (he posts on here occasionally) might be happy to share plant hints and tips.

[Nigel]

I think it's a great idea - there's probably all sorts of bureaucratic barriers ( the barriers that don't stop people putting their wheelie bins on the pavement , cycling on the pavement or parking in the pavement ( actually double parking on the pavement out side the barber near Kent house road )) so ..... why not go ahead? - you might start a movement .

A very good evening
Nigel

[syd]

Hey thanks for the feedback. I think I'll start small and just put some plants around the trees.

[chrisj1948]

We have a strip of concrete between our back fence and the road. It always attracted rubbish, and I had to clean it up regularly. During a couple of years of serious illness I was not able to do this, and it became a dumping ground. About three years ago we had it cleared (there was some nasty stuff there) and in an attempt to discourage the littering /dumping. I placed four enormous planters of geraniums on it. This has worked pretty well. Passers-by say how much they like them, and some are moved to pick up litter of their own volition. It hasn't stopped the littering completely (especially in the winter) but it has reduced it markedly.

Regards
Chris

[leenewham]

I think it's a good idea Syd. Go for it. There is a huge problem locally with litter and I think it's got worse recently.

[syd]

Hi all thanks for the feedback.

I've decided to do some guriella gardening and get a load of wild seeds and chuck them everywhere and see what happens that works apparantly!!

I've found a few good spots when're I think it will make a huge difference.

[mosy]

Good luck. It's normal to rake the ground first and again to lightly cover the seeds - or the birds will think you've provided them with a jolly good breakfast

When I broadcast some once, I couldn't tell if it was flowers or weeds coming up and thus found I'd carefully nurtured a few weeds After that, I planted in shallow drills in diagonal rows, marked either end with a lolly stick or stone, to make it easier to spot the flowers. A teaspoon drizzle along the drills of potting compost doesn't hurt.

You can get cheap wire mini edging fences to help keep cats and dogs off and to identify it as a cultivated area, which might also help deter misc litter.

[syd]

I think I'm going to be a bit relaxed about if and put so many seeds down the birds will be overwhelmed!! If it works great if not no big loss

[mosy]

Jolly good. You can do a Tommy Cooper then: "Jus' like that"