Plants save lives
Plants save lives. We know plants give us food to eat and medicine for healing. But they also save lives by creating natural barriers. That’s the point of this blog post.
The problem: there was a large gap in a Berberis hedge and kids would run through it and onto a street. One left turn and they would reach an open grassy field area where they could play. Unfortunately, by running out and turning left, they would run into cars exiting a parking stall.
After several close calls, the strata council decided to create a natural barrier, thus deflecting the kids onto a nearby walkway and giving cars more time to see them.
Mind the gap
I have no idea how the gap developed or if it had always been there. Since the hedge is made up of Berberis, it made sense to install more Berberis. We planted three specimens; we just had to wait for cooler weather to do it.
One nice feature of Berberis are its soft thorns. Brushing up against the barberry isn’t very pleasant but it won’t cause your body to bleed out. I think any underage trespassers will get a prickly reminder to go around next time without requiring immediate first aid.
The shrub also has nice fall colors and bright red berries; and it does well in the heat. You can see that the existing hedge is doing well.
Just to drive the point home, I also divided daylilies and moved them, along with leucothoe shrubs, to the front of the gap. Now we just need time for the plants to get established and get bigger.
Conclusion
This solution to a landscape problem was easy and inexpensive. I just hope the kids get used to going around using the existing stepping stone pathway. This will give cars more time to notice them.
