Out on the Streets ...and Country Byways

Those of you who are regular readers of Veg Plotting probably have seen her series of quarterly reports entitled "Out on the Streets," in which she documents public plantings, both good and bad, in her area of the UK. She has invited anyone who wishes to, to participate and recently wrapped up her second series at the end of June. True to form, I am late . . .


I had enticed VP by my exclamations of delight over some of the street plantings I saw in Chicago during Spring Fling. But, of course, when I downloaded all my Fling photos, not one street planting was in the bunch! So we'll have to do with my hometown images. I apologize in advance for the quality of these photos. Most were shot during midday on very sunny days, and I also found it difficult, as Frances recently noted, to get broad views of an area with sufficient detail. But the most challenging part of taking these photos was avoiding serious injury on busy highways and streets:)

Note: I just noticed that these photos are sooo much better when you click on them to enlarge them, if you want to see the plantings in more detail.


On one of my regular routes into nearby Champaign-Urbana, I kept noticing this median planting. Naturally, I never had my camera with me when it was in full bloom, but can you tell what's planted here? Yup, you're right--it's a mass of Stella d'Oro daylilies with a few orange tiger lilies bravely waving above them. When I first received some passalong Stellas quite a few years ago, I was thrilled with them, and I still do appreciate their prolific blooms in June. But somewhere along the line, they became the plant of choice for commercial plantings. It's easy to see why--they're low maintenance and multiply (and multiply!) each year. But surely whoever designs these commercial landscaping projects could get a little more creative . . .



. . . or at least plant them along with other plants. They seem to be a favorite for fast-food restaurants. The line at the McDonald's drive-through was busy this day, allowing me time to capture yet another photo of Stellas . . . and nothing else growing.

On the other hand, the local Humane Society is fronted by a mass planting of native prairie plants. They were in glorious bloom last week. I must admit when this garden is not in bloom, it looks like a patch of weeds, but I think the idea of native plants seems to fit the philosophy and purpose of the Humane Society.

Back in my small town, there are several good examples of how to plant public spaces. This median planting does contain some Stellas that are no longer blooming, but as you can see, there is a lot of variety here. Perennials and annuals are combined for all-season interest.

Since the long shot didn't show up well, here's a close-up of just one area. This area, along with several other places around town, is planted and maintained by a group of volunteers who meet monthly as the Village Gardeners. Sigh, no, I don't belong, though several people have invited me to join. It's one of those things I keep putting off, thinking how can I work in another garden if I can't keep up with my own? Maybe next year . . .

At the four-way stop on the "main drag" through town there are a few more plantings by this group. This square area has been planted in annuals the last few years. Although I'm a big fan of coleus, I'm not sure I like this mass planting of it, though you'll notice a few other flowers, including lantana at the borders. I talked to one of the Village members who assisted in planting this, and she told me that the different garden areas in town are assigned to different members who choose what they will plant. Last year this was a mass of pale pink supertunias, which was beautiful.

My favorite area, though, is just across the street from the coleus. This is primarily a perennial bed, with a few annuals planted each year. Every time I look at this, I see something different--today I noticed a magnificent orange bloom coming from the canna in the center. Sorry that there are cars in every photo--who would have thought this intersection would be so busy at 2:00 in the afternoon?? Apparently, no one worries about the price of gas anymore now that it's well below $3.00 a gallon:)

The Village Gardeners also maintain a few smaller beds around town as well as some large planters throughout the business district. Village workers keep the beds watered, which is a help, but otherwise they are completely maintained by volunteers. I think we're very lucky to have such a willing group, but my friend told me their numbers are dwindling. I really should join . . .

Lately, I have been enjoying my drives into town along country roads and highways. A few miles out of town there is a long stretch of tiger lilies, or "ditch lilies" as we usually call them, that have been blooming for a few weeks. I should have stood to the side of them to take this photo from a different angle, but they're along a busy two-lane highway with no space to pull off. As bad as this picture is, it was the best of the bunch. I took it while parked across the way in a cemetery . . . and I didn't want to stay too long:) My husband commented that in most cases wherever these lilies appear along the roadside there was once a farmstead. If you'd like to know more about these lilies, check out Marnie's latest post.

At one time roadsides were all neatly mowed, either by the county or state transportation department or by the landowner. But state cutbacks in funding and the price of fuel have reduced the amount of roadside mowing. Other areas are left to grow naturally for another reason as is this area full of milkweeds.

While we gardeners know that various species of milkweeds are an important food source for butterflies, this common milkweed is the bane of farmers. My summer job as a teenager was "walking beans" for my father, which meant pulling out all the weeds in a beanfield. It's taken me awhile to appreciate the beauty of a milkweed:)

As I said, the economy is not the only reason for less mowing of roadsides; we are seeing many more places like this around the area as people realize the importance of native plants, or what some people would consider weeds, to the balance of nature. These three photos were taken not far from my house on a recent plant expedition with Beckie. I asked her if she would mind if we stopped so I could take a few photos. Further down the road, she asked me to stop . . .

. . . a roadbank full of these pink flowers intrigued us. I carefully pulled off to the side of the busy country road so we could inspect these more closely. A kind woman driving by stopped to make sure we were okay. How nice of her, I thought, but I wonder what she must have thought of two women trekking through the ditch to look at wildflowers:) Beckie and I had our suspicions . . . could it be? . . .

A little hard to tell from the fading and curled up blooms, but Beckie and I both agreed this certainly looked like phlox pilosa to us, better known as Gail's "Perfectly Pink Phlox Pilosa"! Checking a website devoted to wildflowers in Illinois, I found that phlox pilosa, otherwise known as "prairie phlox," is a native in this area. This is the first year I have ever noticed it around here, though, and it is flourishing in quite a few areas. Don't tell anyone, but today I walked down the road with my spade and dug some up. It may not survive in my garden--it was hard to get all of the root---but I know where I can always find more, provided the prairie police don't stop me:)

I think I may have gotten off the subject of "Out on the Streets" a little, but my mind does tend to wander when I begin driving through the countryside. I spy a stray galliardia along the roadside and look up to see this . . .

Isn't this a riot of color? This is just down the road from the "Roadsides for Wildlife" pictured above and is planted next to the homeowner's lane. It's not a public planting or even an "au naturelle" area--obviously, the homeowner planted these coneflowers, brown-eyed Susans, galliardia, and lilies on purpose. But I love the way they look spilling down the embankment into the ditch. This was definitely my favorite place out on the streets and country byways.

Life's a journey, not a destination.

--Aerosmith