The Minneapolis City Council passed a revised ordinance in February that would allow residents to garden on the boulevards, those strips of grass that separate the sidewalk from the street. In many cases, you won’t need a permit to do it.
Ward 13 City Council Member Linea Palmisano introduced the ordinance changes to the City Council.
“There are thousands of properties around the City where residents or property owners have installed some sort of garden, most of which ended up technically out of compliance with our regulations,” she told the Northeaster in an email. “I saw this happen down in southwest Minneapolis on our brand new Bryant Avenue. Due to a full street reconstruction, the City added many areas of green storm water infrastructure facilities in the boulevards. Nearby residents wanted to beautify and address storm water in their boulevards, too.
“I realized our existing ordinance was out of step with current needs and should be updated. I wanted our ordinance to be more permissive, provide a path to bring gardens into compliance and also provide a clear process describing allowable content and uses.”
Pasque flowers bloom in a boulevard garden in the Stinson Triangle. (Cynthia Sowden)
Who owns the boulevard?
Although homeowners are expected to maintain the boulevards (mowing the grass) and sidewalks (shoveling winter snow), the city considers them public right-of-way which the city can use to alter and reconstruct for public street purposes. “Until the boulevard ordinance amendment was developed, the City did not have a process to approve any plantings beyond flowers and grass,” a city spokesperson said.
Before you start tearing up the sod, there are some things you need to know.
What’s allowed
You can grow flowers, hedges, shrubs, edible plants and other vegetation without a permit. Hedges and shrubs must be 6 inches from the sidewalk and 2 feet from the storm gutter, and can’t hang over the sidewalk or the street. Plants closest to an intersection need to be under 18 inches tall, measured from the height of the curb, 40 feet away from the intersection and no closer than 10 feet from an alley.
You can build a raised bed for vegetables without applying for a permit. They have to be 6 inches from the sidewalk and 2 feet from the gutter. They can’t be any longer than 15 feet and must not come within 40 feet of an intersection, 10 feet from an alley or driveway or within 3 feet of a fixed object such as a streetlight. Palmisano noted that the beds should “not impede emergency access or [violate] Minnesota State Fire Code.”
What’s not
• You can’t garden on parkways or park roads.
• You can’t use mechanized equipment to till the ground near the dripline of a boulevard tree, and you can’t cut tree roots.
• Forget about decorating around the fire hydrant, unless you use low-growing plants. Vegetation within 3 feet of the hydrant needs to be no taller than 18 inches.
• No spiny, spiky or thorny plants.
Permits needed
“Permits give us a chance to provide helpful communication and fulfill our responsibility to keep streets available for transportation,” said the city spokesperson.
Trees on the boulevard are the purview of the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. They’re responsible for their care and maintenance. If you want to plant a tree on the boulevard, you need to get a permit from MPRB.
If you want to install an irrigation system, planter walls, garden edging or fences, you’ll need to get a permit. It’s probably best to consider any structures temporary, just in case there’s a road project in your future.
Public Works designs boulevards to slope toward the roadway. If you want to put in a rain garden to handle runoff from the sidewalk, you’ll need to contact the city engineer. Plan to dig a fairly deep trench to handle the water; take a good look at the rain gardens the city installed along 37th Avenue NE to see how low you need to go.
Gardening advice
Ann Thureen, an avid gardener in the Audubon Park neighborhood, says boulevards are probably best suited to host pollinator gardens. Many of the plants pollinators (bees, butterflies, moths and some birds) prefer do well in the sunnier, drier environment found on boulevard strips. She said a pollinator garden “doesn’t have to be flowering all the time.”
If you want to plant for pollinators, she suggests checking with the University of Minnesota’s Bee Lab (https://bit.ly/3YD2Lvc) for plant and planting recommendations. The U also has a booklet you can download called “Plants for Tough Sites,” https://bit.ly/ToughSites.
Unfortunately, a lot of sand and perhaps salt gets deposited on boulevards over the winter. The State of Minnesota has a list of salt-tolerant plants (https://bit.ly/4ingEVo), including blanket flower (Gaillardia), yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea). Thureen said some grasses are also good for pollinators; they use the stems to lay their eggs.
Whatever you decide to grow, make sure the plants are not invasive species.
If you’re determined to grow food on the boulevard, Thureen suggests a raised bed rather than digging into the boulevard itself. The soil will warm up sooner in the spring, will drain better, be less weedy and you won’t have to bend so low when you do have to pull weeds.
Rot-resistant cedar 2-by-6s are recommended. Railroad ties or treated lumber can leach chemicals into the soil. For more hints, see https://bit.ly/4iqUAtd.
Thureen has other words of advice: “A lot of people walk their dogs,” she cautioned. “I’d be concerned about contamination from pet urine.” Placing hoops covered with nets over the beds would discourage cats from using them as a sandbox and prevent squirrels from stealing your strawberries.
Minneapolis is developing Boulevard Gardening Guidelines, starting with a web page coming soon to the city’s website, minneapolismn.gov.
“Revising this ordinance was an effort across all of Public Works, Homegrown Minneapolis, Regulatory Services and Park Board Forestry,” said Palmisano. “I am looking forward this year and in years to come to see how residents creatively use our public right of way.”