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
- Propose plantings that can potentially be repeated throughout the Township to reduce areas of turfgrass mowing in the future
- Propose plantings that provide wildlife / pollinator habitat
- Soften the industrial look of the solar panel (without casting shadow on the panel)
Dynamic Nature
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.
