An ordinance is a local law enacted by a municipal government that deals with public health, safety, and morals.Some municipalities have ordinances that regulate what a homeowner can and cannot do on the parking or park strip (the strip of land between the street and the sidewalk). Traditionally, many cities have had restrictive rules about what can and cannot be planted in the parking strip. As an example of a parking strip ordinance, the city of …
A parking or park strip is a narrow strip of land between the sidewalk and the street often used as a right of way for public utilities and traditionally planted with street trees and turf. Although the municipality owns the strip, the homeowner is responsible for its upkeep.
Parking strips offer unique, if not challenging, opportunities for water conservation in the landscape. They can be as simple as a strip of low water use turf or gravel or an …
Irrigating the parking strip (also called a park strip) is often a challenge. Parking strips are often long and narrow and in some cases irregular in shape.
Irrigation of these areas is often overlooked, and parking strips can become unsightly. Property owners adjacent to the park strip are required to maintain it. Some ways that that this can be done include the following:
Parking strips can be either water conserving or weed magnets. Parking strips are often “out of sight, out of mind” for many homeowners, especially in older neighborhoods without pressurized irrigation systems and can quickly become weed magnets.
Dragging a hose across the sidewalk is inconvenient and possibly dangerous to pedestrians.
One way to address this issue is to create a water conserving park strip. A water conserving parking strip is simply a parking strip that uses less water than …
Maintenance issues are the biggest problems with parking strips. Municipalities have the right-of-way in park strips, however, homeowners are responsible for maintaining them.
Very narrow parking strips with lack of effective irrigation can also create maintenance problems.
Irrigation
Parking strips, the generally long, narrow strips between the street and sidewalk, can make plant selection more challenging.
Many types of plants are available for creating an attractive water-conserving parking strip. Plants should be selected for hardiness, sun exposure, soil and pollution tolerance, and mature size.
Many parking strips contain existing street trees. Consider the orientation of existing trees. Is there morning or afternoon shade under the trees? Are existing trees drought tolerant species? Selection of companion plants for …
