Gardening in the unpaved area between the sidewalk and street-the planting strip-is satisfying and straightforward to do! You may beautify your neighborhood with gardens in the planting strips as well as enhance the curb enchantment of your home, attract pollinators to your backyard, or present further house for growing vegetables. Planting strip gardens additionally create a safe and welcoming place for folks to walk.
As a way to plant in the gardening strip, a Street Use permit is required. However, as lengthy as it meets our pointers beneath, the permit is free!
Vital Note: Gardening exterior a planting strip space (in, for example, the gravel shoulder) will not be allowed and will require overview by a subject expert. Permits for gardening outdoors a planting strip area doesn’t incur a permit price, but might incur a review fee.
Step 1: Plan your backyard
Location, Location, Location!
Before you design a backyard in your planting strip, be sure to verify that your future backyard doesn’t conflict with underground utilities or massive tree roots. Name 811 to request the placement of all nearby underground utilities.
Design your garden!
Your new garden can embrace low-growing perennials, ornamental grasses, shrubs, herbs, or edible plants. We’ve established some pointers so that you can make the many of the planting strip whereas still guaranteeing accessibility of the touring public. When designing your garden, you need to comply with these pointers:
Planting
– Plants ought to have a most mature height of three toes (.9 meters)
– Plants within 30 ft (9 meters) of an intersection should have a most mature height of 30 inches (76 cm)
– Plants inside 10 toes of a driveway (three meters) ought to have a most mature height of 30 inches (76 cm)
– Underneath timber, plants shouldn’t be planted inside four feet (1.2 meters) of the trunk
– If there’s a parking lane next to the planting strip, there should be an 18 inch-huge (45.7 cm) touchdown strip flush with the curb. It may be planted with low-growing groundcover or turf, a mulched floor, or set with pavers, bricks, or stepping stones.
Raised Beds and Fixed Objects
– Mounted objects, including raised beds, needs to be setback a minimum of 1 foot (30 cm) from the sidewalk edge, 3 feet (.9 meters) from the curb face, and 5 toes (1.5 meters) from utility poles, hearth hydrants, and other utility constructions
– Planting strips have to be a minimum of 6 ft (1.82 meters) huge to install raised beds
– The maximum top of raised beds is 18 inches (45.7 cm)
– The utmost size of raised beds is forty toes (12.19 meters)
– Allow three feet (.9 meters) between raised beds for pedestrian access between the street and sidewalk
– On streets with out a sidewalk or curb, raised beds must be set back eleven ft (3.35 meters) from the sting of the pavement
– Raised beds shouldn’t be made with creosote-handled timber because it is toxic. We don’t suggest utilizing other varieties of handled lumber.
Choose Your Plants!
We advocate together with native and drought-tolerant plants within the plant palette to your garden. We have listed some examples beneath:
Groundcovers
Wild ginger (Asarum caudatum)
Blue fescue (Festuca galuca)
Shore juniper (Juniperus conferta)
Creeping bramble (Rubus pentalobus)
Periwinkle (Vinca minor)
Perennials / Ferns / Grasses
Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina)
Pacific Coast Iris (Iris «Pacific Coast Hybrids»)
Evergreen candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Bee balm (Monarda didyma «Petite Marvel»)
Low shrubs (some pruning could also be required to take care of maximum top)
Low Oregron holly-grape (Mahonia nervosa)
Dwarf olive (Olea europaea «Little Ollie»)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Mount Vernon cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus «Mount Vernon»)
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
Take a look at the Seattle Inexperienced Issue Plant Checklist for an in depth listing of plant suggestions!
Remember: planting strips are shared public spaces, so it is necessary to decide on plants that will not obstruct the sidewalk or reduce visibility at intersections and driveways!
Step 2: Draw your plan
After you’ve got finished planning your garden, you’ll want to draw your plan. That will help you with this, we’ve some site plan templates that you should use. Your site plan must present the next:
– Size and width of the work area
– Details of any proposed buildings or planters (i.e. sort, measurement, and installation location)
– Your plant listing
Apply on your permit:
Now that you’ve got designed your backyard and drawn your site plan, you’ll be able to apply for your permit! When you are prepared to do that, click on on the «Apply Now» button in the top proper-hand corner of the web page to start the application process.
When you’ve got used the Seattle Companies Portal earlier than to use for a Restricted Parking Zone (RPZ) permit, any sort of Seattle Division of Development and Inspections permit, or certain Street Use permits, you can use your existing account to apply!
Below Create New choose «Permits-Street Use» and navigate to and select the «Short Term Use» and «Gardening/Planting» document sort.
Once you have chosen the Gardening/Planting permit kind, comply with the step-by-step directions in our How to apply for a Building Permit assist article to continue the applying course of.
If you upload your garden/plant plan on the Attachments page of the applying, choose a Doc Kind of Site Plan and continue to complete the application
Step 4: Plant your garden!
What We Do
Many people in Seattle are excited by putting in vegetable gardens, ornamental plants, or rain gardens in the planting strip adjoining to their properties. We encourage these efforts, as gardens in planting strips present a natural buffer between pedestrians and vehicles, beautify the streetscape, and acquire and filter storm water runoff.
Specifically, we:
– present support and steering for individuals and neighborhood teams eager about gardening in planting strips adjoining to their properties
– difficulty free permits for planting trees, creating voluntary rain gardens, or installing raised beds in planting strips
– provide guidance for 樹木医 植栽 東京 applying for streamlined Street Enchancment Permits for voluntary bioretention
– facilitate individual and neighborhood-primarily based initiatives devoted to greening undeveloped or unimproved right-of-means areas, like community gardens
Are you interested in a P-Patch? Visit the Seattle Division of Neighborhoods P-Patch Group Gardening page.
