How to Design Long-Lived Landscapes for Parks & Municipal Facilities

Every urban community needs green spaces its people can escape to and municipal facilities they can use.

Of course, large green spaces can be difficult to maintain. That's why low-maintenance, long-lived plants are key to keeping things looking their best, even when they don't get the attention of a favored backyard garden.

Read on to learn about the best plant choices for long-lived municipal landscape design:

• Trees
• Shrubs
• Perennials
• Ornamental Grasses
• Groundcovers

Choosing the best plants for your park or municipal project will make ongoing maintenance manageable, while your green spaces thrive.

Landscaping to Match Your Municipal Goals

Multiple elements go into creating a great neighborhood park or municipal landscaping. An area’s demographics, weather, culture, and personality should all play roles in creating these spaces.

If the area has many children, for instance, large play areas make sense. If there are many adults or an elderly community, walking or running paths or outdoor gathering areas may be ideal.

Your goal is to create a space that speaks to your community, while providing a place for recreation, relaxation, and functional priorities like noise pollution reduction.

What Are The Basics of Landscaping for Municipal Grounds?

Landscaping for municipal grounds farms involves numerous key details.

It starts with planning and design objectives. This is when you assess park goals, such as nature conservation or recreation, and then identify user needs, including picnic areas, trails, water features, and playgrounds.

This process includes ensuring compliance with zoning, safety, and environmental regulations, gathering feedback from residents and stakeholders to guide landscape design decisions for parks and creating a master plan.

Next comes site preparation, which involves removing debris and unwanted vegetation, amending the soil, and installing underground utilities.

Installation proceeds with hardscape construction of paths, walls, shelters, pergolas, and playgrounds.

Softscape installation and mulching are next, followed by an irrigation and drainage system, lighting and safety features like signage.

This process also includes accounting for sustainability considerations, such as native plants, permeable surfaces, stormwater management, and solar power integration.

Finally, you must create a maintenance plan to keep the landscape healthy, inspect playground equipment to make any necessary repairs or address safety hazards, and monitor the irrigation depending on the season.

Best Plants For Low-Maintenance Landscape Design of Parks and Municipal Facilities

Since parks and municipal landscaping are busy places with lots of foot traffic, it is essential to ensure they incorporate the right plants for maximum benefit and minimal maintenance needs.

The following plants are great for these types of spaces.

Trees

Landscaping for municipal grounds wouldn’t be complete without the right trees, which should provide shade, have minimal pruning requirements and have decent stress tolerance.

The best trees for these spaces include:

Honey Locust

A fast-growing, drought-tolerant variety that provides filtered shade and loves full sun locations.

Bur Oak

This native, hardy variety is tolerant of poor soils and urban stress. Its fiddle-shaped, dark green leaves grow on a massive trunk.

Ginkgo

Resistant to pests, diseases, and pollution, this large deciduous tree has distinctive, fan-shaped leaves with striking yellow fall color.

Shrubs

Next for your landscape design for parks comes shrubs.

You’re looking for shrubs that need minimal watering and pruning, including these favorites:

Aronia

This shrub, native to Greater Chicago, has ornamental berries and offers vibrant fall color.

Ninebark

This hardy shrub provides attractive bark, small white or pink flowers in late spring, and fall foliage that’s yellow, pink, or bronze.

Sumac

In addition to delivering striking, red fall color, this shrub has yellowish flowers, feathery leaves, and is tolerant of poor soils.

Perennials

When it comes to landscape planning for municipalities, you want perennials that spread easily and provide great seasonal interest.

Try these varieties:

Black-Eyed Susan

Drought-tolerant perennials with vibrant yellow blooms and dark brown centers that grow 1.5 to 4 feet tall.

Purple Coneflower

This colorful, daisy-like perennial has dark green, lance-shaped leaves, attracts pollinators, and is resistant to drought.

Russian Sage

This perennial has silvery-gray stems; gray-green leaves; and small, purple-blue flowers. It also has low-water needs.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses add texture and movement, making them ideal additions to landscaping for parks. These are some great varieties to choose:

Switchgrass

This native ornamental grass is drought-tolerant, grows 8 to 10 feet tall, and its reddish-purple seed heads pop against their bright green leaves that turn yellow in fall. These grasses also provide habitats for wildlife.

Little Bluestem

This grass is low-maintenance with blue-green foliage that turns copper in fall. It grows in dense mounds that can reach 18 to 24 inches in height.

Feather Reed Grass

This ornamental grass has an upright, tidy growth habit that stays attractive year-round with tall, feathery, plume-like flower heads that change color from purple to pink to tan. It grows up to 36 to 60 inches in height.

Groundcovers

Groundcovers can be a good municipal landscaping addition because they reduce the need for mulching and weeding.

Check out these as you seek some groundcovers for your commercial site in Greater Chicago:

Sedum

This low-growing succulent has great drought resistance. It also comes in a variety of colors like green, blue, red, yellow, and silver and produces small, star-shaped flowers in colors like white, yellow, pink, and orange.

Prairie Dropseed

This perennial grass is soft, airy, and provides year-round interest, including 2 to 3-foot spikes with tan-colored flowers in summer and golden bronze leaves with orange and copper highlights in fall.

Creeping Thyme

This low-growing, aromatic groundcover has tiny, blue-green leaves and bell-shaped flowers that are deep pink to purple. It also tolerates foot traffic well.

Trust KD Landscape With Your Landscape Planning for Municipalities

Managing your municipal landscaping can be challenging.

Instead of worrying about how to get it done right, entrust the work to an experienced Greater Chicago commercial landscape design professional.

KD Landscape offers comprehensive, year-round maintenance programs, including turf management, pruning, and irrigation monitoring, ensuring the landscape stays in top shape.

We don't just react to issues; we plan ahead to prevent plant decline, pest problems, and wear-and-tear on hardscapes. We also use the best turf practices, such as aeration and overseeding, and incorporate drought-tolerant blends that are ideal for high-traffic public spaces.

Additionally, KD Landscape fosters a collaborative culture, ensuring seamless communication between the design and maintenance teams, which helps eliminate delays or costly mistakes during construction.

We work closely with clients to design parks that align with community needs and expectations. Give us a call today, so you can learn how to better design and maintain your public space.

Want to learn more about commercial landscape design and maintenance in Greater Chicago? Get started today with an on-site consultation. We’ll review your options together so you can make a great choice.