Help pollinators, help make your block beautiful, and give your lawnmower a break!

Community members throughout Evanston are using the parkways adjacent to their homes (the space between the sidewalk and the curb) to install pollinator-friendly plants, and the results are beautiful bursts of color in between the trees. 

Thinking Beyond Grass

Some community members might want to add some plants to make these spaces more beautiful, but others are considering how flowering plants and shrubs can help the environment. Just like people might have different favorite foods, animals also have their favorite plants for food and habitat. Grass serves a number of purposes for people (for example: hosting picnics and soccer games), but only a few wildlife species can use it for food and shelter. Having a greater variety of plants means that more insects and animals can easily find their favorite food and habitat. And that's good for people, too: pollinators help us by fertilizing our fruit and vegetable plants so that we have delicious food to eat. 

How To Apply For A Permit

The City of Evanston requires a permit for planting on the parkway. This permit allows community members to grow plants that are taller than 8 inches in height. 

For more information and to apply for a permit, please visit: https://arts.formstack.com/forms/parkwayplantingpermit.

Planting Sections

Parkways have a number of different uses and users, including community members who use them as a landing spot when they park their cars, City staff who manage trees, fire hydrant access (and the fire department!) and utility management (water, gas, electricity, cable, etc.). In the majority of neighborhoods, parkways are also between sidewalks and the street, and good visibility of pedestrians & cyclists helps to keep our community safe. Planting sections help us address these safety and management concerns, with shorter parkway plants closer to pavement, and protection from competition for our beautiful trees. See the diagram below for planting sections.

(Note: this diagram is not to scale and each parkway is different. Apply the buffers to your parkway according to the pavement, trees, and hydrants that are present.)

Section A: parkway planting area that is next to pavement: sidewalk, street, etc.

Section B: parkway planting that is away from all pavement and all trees.

Section C: area around the base of a tree. Buffer = 2.5ft radius around the tree.

Section D: area around the base of a fire hydrant. State law requires that hydrants remain accessible. Plants must be 8 inches and shorter.

Some Definitions: Pollinators, Pollen, Pollinator-Friendly, etc. 

• Pollen is one part of how many plants reproduce: it's one half of the genetic material needed to make fruits and seeds. The other is in the ovary of the plant. 
• In some plant species, the pollen can come from the same plant (self-pollination). In other species, the pollen needs to come from a different plant of the same species for successful fertilization (cross-pollination).  
• Pollinators are insects and animals that move pollen from one plant to another. Sometimes that's on purpose, but sometimes it's accidental. Bees actively collect pollen, but butterflies are actually looking for nectar and the pollen sticks to their bodies so they accidentally transfer it from one plant to another. 
• Pollinator-friendly plants are those that help pollinators by providing food and/or shelter. 

 For questions about parkway plantings please contact Emily Okallau, Public Services Coordinator through 311 (847-448-4311 outside of Evanston).