There are certain subjects which are best not mentioned in my presence. These range from “why baked beans haven’t been outlawed”, “the horror of top crimped pasties” and “people who tut”. My biggest bugbear however is the failings of municipal planting, most especially car parks. More often than not these are unimaginatively designed and poorly maintained. It would almost be better just to give up and slot in another parking space. It might be less painful than watching perfectly good (if a little dull) shrubs slowly curl up and die.
The fruit laden tree above is a female Sea Buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides, planted with her male companion in the Landmark Theatre car park in Ilfracombe. This is just meters away from the sea, which may explain the ravaged state of the bounteous crop, but a perfect choice for this position. Nearby a large multi-stemmed arbutus, heavy with fruit and flowers, shows that this clever planting wasn’t just an aberration. More of the same please.
Off The Edge Gardening 
not the extra parking space please! nice berries though
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There were so many of them! Apparently you can eat them, make drinks, good medicinally – but I didn’t try them out. 🙂
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Well, unfortunately I have done a zillion of these sorts of landscape designs and the problem is the owners really don’t care.
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Exactly. I wrote to a large supermarket to say your planting areas are dire; you sell plants, you sell compost and fertilisers, what is the problem!? No answer … 😦
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It is truly amazing to me that a retail establishment that sells plants doesn’t realize they would sell more plants if their grounds looked better, especially in the UK!
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It makes sense to us, to them it seems like rocket science!
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Years ago I redid 25 branch banks – the owners had a contest to see who could maintain the branch for the least amount of money, what happened was all the landscaping was ruined and the customers were complaining. No money was saved.
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Hear, hear! More of the same please.
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🙂
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Car parks!! I stopped at Leigh Delamare yesterday, depressingly awful even though the sun was shining. A row of stunted trees did their best amidst the tarmac. There should be a law that says all car parks should have some beautiful butterfly and bee-friendly planting to soothe motorists on their way. It cannot be that difficult.
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Totally! It wouldn’t be expensive, and the benefits to everyone would be huge. It would make it a place that people actually wanted to go!
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Yes, a proper rest and revive stop instead of a quick dash to the loo!
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Impressive. Here they go with Spiraea, daylilies and grasses, and repeat….
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Lots of spiraea here too, and cotoneaster 😦
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