Container Garden on a Public Sidewalk

One of the quirky things about living in a rowhouse built out to the sidewalk is that we have zero front yard. Where the front wall of our house meets the sidewalk is the property line. This makes for an unusual arrangement with public/private property issues. We are responsible for the maintenance of the sidewalk out front even though it isn’t ours. Technically, our marble stoop is sitting on public land, but since we need it to get into the house, there it sits with what I can only assume is some sort of easement written into the city records.

So, even though the sidewalk is public space, it is common practice in Philadelphia for homeowners to pretty much do what ever they want to the public space directly in front of their house. This includes people who have replaced their original marble block stoop with new, larger sets of stairs, then fencing off the area across the entire front fo their house. The city seems to turn a blind eye to this as it is very common.

 

With no front yard, our options are basically limited to container gardening. I remember seeing a photo of the front of our house in the real estate listing nearly two months before we saw the house. I found it to be quite charming. It had the original marble stoop, original cast iron boot scraper, nice iron grates over the basement windows, and the shutter mounts on the other six windows. But it also had scraggly weeds growing through the cracks in the sidewalk, a crumbling planter filled with a dead perennial, and a strange rain barrel with a child’s painting of a rainbow on it (which I later learned had become a de facto garbage can).

 

Back in July of last year, I wrote about my dreams for our outdoor space. Fortunately I can say that not much has changed as far as the front goes. My initial desire was to hunt down some vintage cast iron urns and fill them with plants like in the image above. But after finding out those stunning vintage cast iron urns can run $1,000 or more each, I had to let that idea go. I looked at modern urns and containers made from, ceramic, resin, or plastic, but I would also see ones, only a few years old, falling apart and crumbling in the neighborhood. Freeze/thaw is real and it can be brutal. Also, I think reproductions never look quite right. Thats when I stumbled on a house which had a modern rectangular planter made from one of my favorite materials, COR-TEN steel, and immediately, I knew that’s what I wanted.

 

COR-TEN steel (also known as weathering steel) was developed by the US Steel Corp in the 1930s. It has a unique property in that, when new, it looks steely and gray, but when exposed to the outdoors, it develops a layer of rust which can be quite beautiful. This layer of rust actually works to prevent further decay and the steel is known to last basically forever. So I went online to search for COR-TEN planters and sure enough, I found several options (including ones on Amazon). Being the obsessive researcher that I am, I wanted to make sure that the planters we bought were of thick steel and would be solid enough to last for as long as we live here (which we hope will be a long, long time), I also wanted them to be large and tall to fit the stature of our house.

It turns out that COR-TEN steel can also be pricey, but then I found these planters from AuthenTeak. They are 11 gauge (1/8″) plate steel, very solid, and not cheap. But, at nearly 80 pounds each, the free shipping eases the sticker shock.

 

I wasn’t sure if I should go with the truly minimalist vertical corners, or the slightly more traditional tapered shape. I posted the image above on FB for feedback and the overwhelming response was tapered. To be truthful, I was leaning toward the vertical, but my designer inside reminded me that the tapered ones would look better in front of our very very vertical house. So I placed my order and waited.

When they arrived, the UPS man asked if I needed them delivered inside the door. I knew they were heavy, but told him that the top of the stoop was close enough. I could see the relief on his face. Then I had to lift them to get them into the house. Wow were they heavy! And at 30″ tall, they are huge! I suddenly thought maybe I went overboard and that two of them would be too much for the front of the house.

Container gardens need to be watered on a regular basis. We are fortunate to have a water spigot out front, but it requires a screwdriver to turn it on and off, and you need to schlepp the hose outside and then bring a wet and drippy hose back in every time. The solution? Drip irrigation. I will set up low volume water lines and put them on a timer to automatically water the plants (for the short term, I am schlepping the hose).

The only problem is that while the bottoms have drainage holes, the sides sit flush with the ground and I needed holes drilled into the side to run a water line. I can tell you first hand that drilling a hole into 1/8″ plate steel is no easy task. It can be done, but it is slow and you must be very careful that you don’t twist your wrist and cause injury when you break through with the drill.

As it turns out, I was in luck! My next door neighbor owns a fine arts foundry in North Philly where he works with all kinds of metal. I decided to ask him the best way to drill the holes and his response was amazing. He offered to take the containers to his shop and drill the holes on his large industrial drill-press. To which I, of course, said yes and thank you! A couple of days later I helped him load them to his vehicle, and the next day, he brought them back. Woo Hoo! (Our neighbors are awesome!)

In addition to going large to fit the vertical scale of our house, I also wanted to make them difficult to steal. While garden container theft isn’t rampant in our neighborhood, it does happen, especially if the thief knows the value of something. I didn’t want to spend money on a planter that could be picked up and carried away.

 

This brings me back to my concern that they may be too big. I was nervous that both of them out there would be too much, so I hauled them outside to see how they looked. I took the pictures above and texted them to Y (who was working at his desk inside). I didn’t get a response right away, so I made the executive decision that we are going with two containers which was of course my original plan (only to receive a later text saying he liked just one in the center.  He loves them now.)

With the irrigation line holes drilled, I next had to figure out what I was going to use to fill them up with. Garden soil is not cheap and there is no need to fill them completely with soil. Since they need to be heavy, I bought large concrete retaining wall blocks and bags of river rock.

 

I then covered the rocks in landscape cloth with a few rocks to hold things down. And then I started on the insulation. While our winters are not necessarily harsh (compared to where I have lived in the past), we do get hard freezes and I know that the steel containers would not do much to prevent the soil from freezing and killing the plants. So, I cut panels of rigid insulation to cover the bottom and sides. With my water line in place, I filled the containers with garden soil and called it a day. We were officially ready for plants.

Because the front of our house faces north, we only get two to three hours of sunlight in the morning on the front facade. I need plants which will do well in shade. No offense to the people at the big box store garden center, but with this kind of investment, I wanted an expert to show me options for plants. I wanted some kind of evergreen so that they didn’t look flat out dead in winter, and then I wanted a mix of perennials for color and variation. So, the last Saturday in June, and Y and I drove out to a garden nursery about ten miles away in New Jersey.

The plant expert walked us around and showed us options for plants that do well in shade. For each planter I chose a Hill’s Yew as the primary plant. Hill’s Yew has the advantage of being an evergreen and not needing a lot of sunlight. It is also quite easily grown and can be shaped to keep its size. I then went around and chose several perennials to fill in the rest of the space including; Wandering Jew (is that offensive?), ‘Georgia Peach’ Coral Bells , Red Silver Tradescantia, and Hypostes Polka Dot White. Now truth be told, I have little knowledge of plants, but fingers crossed, these will survive the summer and I will learn more as we go.

Now for the reveal…

 

But that’s not all!… I unintentionally bought too many plants at the nursery to fit in the containers and had two beautiful Plum Paisley Begonias but nowhere to put them. Fortunately, last year I bought an urn shaped planter made from recycled rubber and, out of fear that it would be stolen, I never planted it out. I decided to just take the risk and fill the blank spot between the two bigger planters. I drilled a hole to run the irrigation line and then with the addition of a large leaf Coleus, I planted the two Begonia’s that were left over and I think they look terrific!

 

So there you have it. Our container garden on the public sidewalk. These things easily weigh in at 200lbs each, so I don’t see them walking away. They are beautiful, and not only do they make our house more attractive, but they also add to the beauty of our entire block, where several of our neighbors have also created their own container garden on the sidewalk. Some very Philly charm indeed.

And one last thing! A parting glance of our entire front facade. This is a shot I rarely have the opportunity to capture as there is nearly always a car parked in front and/or the light is terrible. But I lucked out and got this fantastic shot of our house last week.