January 21, 2011

Plant*SF Wants to Green Your Sidewalk in Noe Valley

The parklet idea is spreading to a sidewalk near you. Jersey Street resident Tamar writes to tell us about a Plant*SF grant in Noe:
Plant*SF was awarded a Community Challenge Grant from the City to install demonstration sidewalk gardens in Noe Valley by May 31st. These gardens will transform concrete into beautiful landscapes that will highlight a variety of edging options and different planting choices.

The minimum requirements are that you have sidewalk in front of your property that can be removed to make way for a garden. Drought tolerant plants are usually selected for these gardens so that very little (if any) watering is required once plants are established, which makes maintenance very easy.

Costs? In some cases, the garden might be fully paid for with the grant, but in other cases, the grant would pay for half the costs, asking property owners to match with at least 50%. It usually costs about $1000 to put in a sidewalk garden (includes getting permit, removing concrete, bringing in dirt, plants, river rock mulch, edging treatments, and then doing the planting itself). Property owners will ultimately be responsible for the gardens.
Wondering how they look? Tamar also reports:
I worked with Plant*SF when I had a place on Harrison Street and I can't tell you what a HUGE difference those gardens made on our street. They are just lovely, and I'm certain that once these gardens start popping up, it will set a great example for other residents to follow. These sidewalk gardens serve an important function in collecting rainwater that might otherwise go into storm drains and overflow our system during heavy rains. By absorbing the water into the ground, these gardens help recharge our groundwater supply as well.
If you're interested in learning more and submitting your property as a potential site for one of these sidewalk garden grants, email: Tamar Hurwitz.

Update: A PDF of the application is available here.

[Plant*SF]
[NVSF: Green Your Sidewalk]

3 comments:

Greg said...

we did a similar thing on my block in the Inner Sunset. Not only has it made our street a lot nicer, it has eliminated the "lake effect" of excessively rainy days on our drain system. these things are great

Anonymous said...

We did this a few years ago to our corner property in Noe v..we and the neighbors love it. only problem is that "some" dog owners use it as their personal dog potty.

not happy.

Anonymous said...

isn't this kind of old news? People in NV have been doing sidewalk landscaping for a few year now. just look around.

still glad to see more of a concerted effort to do more of it.