We’ve been talking for years about making improvements to our parkway, or strip of land in front of our house and between the sidewalk and street. Parkways in Chicago are an odd bird, not owned by the homeowner but kinda the homeowner’s responsibility. Our parkway had two bushes / small trees on it and the first step was to hire landscapers to remove them and amend and turn over the soil.
Bravo to the landscapers who were able to do all this despite a car parked in front all day! Then, John and I dug s trench by the curb and installed bricks, thereby increasing the curb width and nicely using our brick stash in the back yard.
Miles’s new favorite hang out spot! Not really but thanks miles for providing a sense of scale.
I also took this photo of downtown getting squished by clouds recently
And this view of the boathouse in humboldt park.
Parkways in Sydney are called median strips and likewise are a funny beast. Generally council plants the trees in it (like the huge on we had on ours) but the property owner has to keep the grass neat and tidy. Rumour has it that when a council tree is removed and if the owner replaces it with a fruit tree, then council won’t remove it hence many of our neighbours have planted olive trees which stay nice and small versus councils off preference for large trees that will only cause them headaches in years to come! Nice work with yours!
A few typos above but you get the gist!!
That’s interesting about the name and the fruit trees. The danger here is that if the city decides to dig it up after planting, they go right ahead, so investing too much in it is a gamble! My plan is to find plants around the place that will like living in our parkway and relocate them there. And maybe hit a few sales this time of year after the initial summer plant buying frenzy has died down !