If you live in a city like Seattle, then you’re probably familiar with parking strips. Typically you’ll find them “beautifully” covered in an non-native lawn mix, with a standard set of street trees, not all bad. If you’re lucky, you may even find one that has been completely paved over. In all seriousness, parking strips are prime real estate and what the gardening world calls a “hellstrip.” This plot of land is surrounded by concrete, concrete, and more concrete. Concrete absorbs the Earth’s blazing sun which causes everything around it to heat up as well. Parking strips then become incredibly dry therefore giving it its name “HELLstrip.” It can be very difficult to decide what to grow in a space like this. If you are lucky enough to have an established street tree, then you are probably able to plant some shade tolerant plants or grow some lawn, but anything you plant will be on the hunt for viable root space. You may ask us, is lawn a good option for your parking strip?
Lawn or grass seed isn’t the worst choice for a parking strip, BUT, is the lawn in your parking strip really that happy? Is any of the lawn on our properties really doing anything except adding to our list of maintenance responsibilities? Not to mention, lawn is not able to absorb and utilize sunlight the same way a tree can cool its surrounding areas. Lawn in the heat of summer is no better than concrete, becoming a heat sink and warming surrounding space. Its not the worst option as said above, but why not utilize your parking strip as a resource for pollinator plants? We need to invite more pollinators into our cities to strengthen our pollinator pathways. Now, what is a pollinator pathway?
Before city development, a pollinator pathway was essentially a road map for native and non-native pollinators to find their primary food sources. These were found in lowland prairies and grasslands that contained native wildflowers with plenty of space for pollinators to find habitat. In our current world, most of our natural prairies and wetlands have been replaced by city construction and home developments. This human expansion has destroyed the habitats and natural patterns pollinators have evolved to know long before we humans came around and significantly reduced our pollinator population country wide. Pollinators are vital for our ecosystem to succeed. Without pollination, we don’t have our most important resource, food.
The intention of a “pollinator pathway,” is to reestablish and increase the number of native pollinator communities using native plants. There is a website called “Pollinator Pathways,” and the movement they started has spread throughout the United States. You can register your pollinator garden with them here: https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/register.
Just like a popular clothing trend, we need to make it pop-u-laaar (had to reference Wicked) to plant pollinators. Not only is it super amazing to see pollinators in your neighborhood, but it will also bring beauty. Evergreen trees and shrubs have their place in a landscape, but as we stated above, we have destroyed the land that served as an ecosystem to our pollinators. People ask us how they can make a difference and our answer is to start with a pollinator garden. Even if you don’t have a hellstrip, there’s a very good chance you have lawn somewhere on your property. Start by reducing your lawn and planting a garden devoted to native pollinator plants. The next step is to be patient and see the change that follows for yourself.
Two years ago, I allocated a portion of my backyard to wildflowers after my dogs destroyed my lawn. It has quickly become my favorite spot in my garden. I loved it so much I killed of my lawn in my front yard and dedicated this space to growing a combination of hardy natives and flowering perennials to show my neighbors their yard does not have to be conventionally designed or groomed to be beautiful. It takes time to establish, but the wait it worth it to see and feel the environmental advantages unfolding in front of me. This commitment to your land creates a connection worth building. Species of bees, wasps (they’re beneficial too), flies, beetles, and other beneficial insects/birds consistently find their way to my yard. In result of planting native pollinator plants, my flower production is wildly more successful and my soil health has gone from a light/gray brown to a deep rich brown. Each passing year, more pollinators find their way to my house and I know they are busy at work, but I can’t help but think my garden is helping my neighbors apple trees, and my other neighbors vegetable garden. It’s all connected. When you think about the role a pollinator plays in our ecosystem, it really is a highway that connects our homes and land to each other. Like the roots of a tree, they speak to each other and keep their communities alive. Due to our heating planet, our pollinators are depending on us to make a change no matter how insignificant it may seem to you.
Now that you get the idea of how important this movement is, where to begin? Start with your hellstrip. Pick a sunny spot in your yard that’s covered in lawn or begging for natural beauty. Locate an unnecessary chunk of concrete and remove it. Make space for pollinators in your existing garden, and removed unwanted invasives. Utilize the spaces on your property that are your responsibility to maintain. The city of Seattle already supports planting street trees and they support planting parking strips. They sometimes have height restrictions depending on utility lines, but a meadow filled with pollinators does not have to be more than three feet tall. Your next step is to pick native pollinator plants. Start with a selection of evergreen and deciduous perennials, grasses, and wildflowers. Not only are these plants a food source in spring and summer, but in fall and winter, they are shelter. This part of your yard will be low maintenance once established and inevitably an educational cutting garden for you and your loved ones. The goal is to let it spread, don’t be tempted to cut back the seed heads, but let the seeds establish. Birds and other seed dispersing animals will help repopulate our native species which have greatly dwindled.
We created a Pacific Northwest Native Pollinator plant list:
Resources:
We also recommend checking out Northwest Meadowscapes Conservation Seed Co.! They are a Washington local seed company and have so many helpful resources when it comes to growing a meadow and working with native plants. Check out their website here:
https://www.nwcb.wa.gov/pdfs/PacificLowlandrx8.pdf