Planting Parking Areas Can Be Beautiful

The design of any large parking area is primarily one of engineering involving the safe control and movement of vehicles and pedestrians. However, throughout the design of such a development there are areas which lend themselves very well to the introduction of planting.

In the Quincy Municipal Parking Area, many spaces were particularly adapted to a more enjoyable planting arrangement than would be inherent in the straight-line parking-bay arrangement. The peculiar outline of the Area lent itself to the use of curved bays which in themselves present a very pleasing appearance.

Because parking areas are primarily a place where cars are stored for a certain period, they become virtually a great pedestrian way. Therefore, not only is it desirable to make such an area one of pleasant appearance through the injection of planting, but it is also necessary to control the movements of pedestrians, in so far as possible, by means of safety walks and ways which are carefully defined. In order to do this, we have made use of various textured materials and functional planting.

As far as the planting is concerned, it is not a case of making an aesthetic area of what is virtually a strictly functional scheme. Therefore, planting has been arranged to he functional and at the same time present as much beauty as possible. In the Quincy Parking Area, use is made of shade trees and low shrubs.

Many problems present themselves with the planting of parking areas or large rotaries and other schemes designed to control traffic, either vehicular or pedes trian. In the case of parking areas, it is unsafe to allow any shrubs to grow very tall; therefore, the designer is confined to what might be called self-maintaining, low plant material. As everyone knows, there is a limited amount of material to draw from in this respect. This makes the designer’s problem doubly hard. He wants to get away from repetition anti provide as much flowering in the Spring, green during the Summer and color during the Fall, as possible.

Obviously, a parking area of the municipal type must be designed to have as little maintenance as possible, particularly where plants are concerned. Where it is necessary to provide barriers for pedestrians, low hedges have been used; elsewhere, an entire area will be covered with a ground cover. Other shrubs have been massed in bank planting. Operators of cars must at all times be able to see over any planting at the entrances, and exits and trees have been located so that they will not be an obstruction or sight hindrance to the motorist. For the purpose of satisfying the needs of the Quincy Parking Area, the following plants were successfully used:

TREES Acer platanoides, Norway maple Ulmus americana molini, Moline elm, Pinus resinosa, red pine.

SHRUBS Euonymus alatus, winged euonymus Euonymus alatus compactus, dwarf winged euonymus, Forsythia intermedia spectabilis, showy border forsythia, Ligustrum amurense, Amur privet Liguatrum oblustfolium regelianum, Regel’s border privet, Lonicera tatarica, tatarian honeysuckle Spiraea vanhouttei, Vanhoutte spirea.

GROUND COVERS Euonymus fortunei vegetus, bigleaf winter-creeper, Vinca miner bowlesi, Bowles periwinkle.

by B Cabot

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• Hedges, Border, Screen and Background Planting in Home Landscaping
• Your Landscape Plan – How Well Have You Looked at Your Home Landscaping?
• A Brief Guide to Garden Hedges
• Landscaping Plants Should Be Easy to Care for Yet Beautiful at the Same Time