Sidewalk Greening
Why install a sidewalk landscape
Planting with FUF
What does FUF do?
How to install a sidewalk landscape with FUF
Current projects
Contact the Sidewalk Landscape Coordinator
Sidewalk landscaping has the potential to provide a number ecological and economic benefits to our urban environment. Studies have shown that plants and landscaped areas can make us safer, happier, and wealthier.
Why install a sidewalk landscape
- Improves the street for everyone Sidewalk gardens can reduce the speeds of traffic and create a physical and mental barrier between the street and the sidewalk, keeping pedestrians, children and pets out of harm's way. They soften the look and feel of our streets & absorbs noise, making it more inviting to walk around your neighborhood
- Improves nature in the city The sidewalk gardens provides natural habitat for birds and insects. The replacement of concrete by plants allows for the absorption heat instead of reflection of it. These open areas also absorb more rainfall, reducing the strain on our combined sewer system, which overflows untreated storm and sewer waste into the ocean and bay when it overflows. Sidewalk gardens reduce the amount of concrete around a tree which reduces how much the trees and sidewalk affect each other, resulting in healthier trees and less concrete that needs to be maintained.
Planting with FUF
| Improve your block and meet your neighbors by installing a sidewalk garden with Friends of the Urban Forest. Dealing with the permit process, designing a garden and coordinating all the materials can be expensive and overwhelming on your own. Friends of the Urban Forest coordinates neighborhood plantings, brining neighbors together to share materials and work together to install sidewalk gardens on your block on a Saturday morning. |
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- Review the sidewalk to determine the best location for a sidewalk garden
- Locate underground utilities
- Garden design and site plan
- File permit paperwork and act as a liaison between the city and the homeowner
- Arrange for the removal of concrete
- Coordinate the delivery of all materials, including soil amendment, mulch, plants & trees
- Provide volunteer support and tools for planting day
- And most importantly, we help secure funding to subsidize the cost of concrete removal, planting materials and the cost of the permit.
How to install a sidewalk landscape with FUF
In order to schedule a sidewalk landscape planting day FUF needs at least 12 properties on one block (including adjacent cross streets) to participate. With 12 properties, FUF is able to secure funding to subsidize the garden cost.
FUF works closely with block organizers to share information about sidewalk gardens to gain interest from their neighbors. Once we have at least 12 interested properties on one block we will schedule a planting day. FUF will conduct neighborhood meetings to explain the process, share information and organize the planting.
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In 2011 Friends of the Urban Forest will primarily be working in the Mission in the Cesar Chavez watershed thanks to funding from the City of San Francisco and the EPA. Our focus area is 26th Street between Hampshire and Guerrero Streets and blocks between 26th Street & Cesar Chavez. |
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Contact the Sidewalk Landscape Coordinator
Contact Karla Nagy by sending an email to karla (at) fuf.net.
