Meridian Township

Giving Form to Proactive Climate Action

The fall of 2019 welcomed a diverse planting at the corner of Marsh Road and Central Park Drive in Okemos, MI. Inspired by Meridian Township’s Climate Action goals, we designed a foreground planting for their newly installed 20kW solar panel. The pollinator friendly plant groupings interweave throughout the planting bed to communicate the interconnected complexity of climate.

Solar Panel Planting Vision

The Township had several goals for the panel’s contextual plantings:

• Communicate Meridian Township’s commitment to meeting its climate action goals
• Test out plants that the Township can use in other areas to reduce the amount of turfgrass that they are currently mowing
• Propose plantings that provide wildlife / pollinator habitat
• Soften the industrial look of the solar panel (without casting shadow on the panel)

Pollinator plants weave through the planting creating a context for the solar panel.

Dynamic Nature; a Pollinator Planting

The solar panel plants have a variety of flower colors, leaf textures and foliage colors that change throughout the seasons. Luke Landscape Company did a great job of installing the serpentine plant masses that weave throughout the solar panel planting. The ever changing nature of the planting celebrates the solar panel and gives residents something new to see each time they drive by.

Native pollinator plant, Allium cernuum is attracting bumble bees

Baptisia australis seed pods add longer season of interest after the plant has finished blooming

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Quick Fire’ adds striking beauty against the fresh new fallen snow

Fall color and texture add interest to the newly installed planting

Newly installed plants in front of Meridian Township’s solar panel on the corner of Marsh Rd. and Central Park Dr. in Okemos.

Any given day, bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators are seen flitting around the pollinator planting collecting nectar and spreading pollen.