San Diego Strolls: In Praise of Planters and Patio Plants

I've been paying more attention to the large plants downtown like jacarandas and palms, but lately, my eyes have been drifting a little lower. As I started my walk to the post office, I first observed the planters outside an apartment building filled with succulents and drought-tolerant plants. Later, I was captivated by the Invigatorium’s greenery that surrounds their outdoor seating area. 

These plants are easy to overlook or simply ignore as you make your way to errands, but if you start paying attention, you may realize–like I did–just how much these little patches of green change the experience of walking through a city.

A little green goes a long way

Downtown San Diego is a landscape dominated by things humans built: concrete sidewalks, asphalt streets, glass towers and parking structures. So, against that backdrop, even a planter can stand out, and a few blocks can provide a surprising lesson in what plants do to a built environment.

Going back to the Invigatorium, a restaurant in San Diego's East Village–it offers outdoor seating enveloped in greenery. The plants around this area create a lush little retreat alongside city streets.

The contrast is part of what makes it so noticeable. Step outside the greenery and you're immediately back among buildings, sidewalks and traffic. Within it, plants create a sense of separation without actually leaving the city.

When you don’t have a backyard

There’s another reason I’ve been thinking about all of this lately. A friend recently moved into a home in Escondido with citrus and avocado trees. I find myself envious of her backyard, and while I love the walkability of living downtown, apartment life means my private outdoor space is considerably smaller than a yard.

A serendipitous meeting, however, changed my perspective of how to green-ify my small patio. I met Patty Berg of The Wishing Tree Company, a San Diego-area business that delivers living trees–some of which are designed to grow in containers on patios and other small outdoor spaces. The idea immediately appealed to me. 

Berg started The Wishing Tree Company after seeing the reactions she received when she began giving trees as gifts.

"I needed a wedding gift, a baby gift, a housewarming gift and a gift for my real estate clients, all very important people in my life," she told me. "They all reacted the same way—completely surprised and delighted."

But something else happened as those gifts grew.

"As time went by, I saw how the trees had deepened those relationships," Berg said. "We say we help people make deeper connections through the magic of trees."

Unlike a bouquet of flowers that eventually gets tossed away, a living tree has the potential to become part of someone's life. Berg points to the symbolism and folklore associated with different trees, but also to something much more tangible: "the real gifts of fruit, flowers, fragrance, shade and even oxygen."

The nature between destinations

I've started thinking about downtown's planters differently because of all this. They represent nature squeezed into whatever spaces we've left available for it: a tree grows from a cutout in a sidewalk; succulents occupy a narrow strip between an apartment building and the street; someone several stories above the sidewalk tends to plants on a balcony.

While none of these things turns downtown into a forest, they collectively soften it and add texture, shade, and color to streets dominated by concrete. They provide tiny opportunities to notice something living while we're walking to all the places we're supposed to be.

This article originally appeared in the San Diego Sun as part of the "Walking In The City" column. Read the original version here.