Reduce drainage fees, manage dust, and enhance the identity of your commercial corridor with this colorful and fragrant edge-maker.
Photo CC BY-SA 3.0 ForestWander
$1,000 to $2,500
Volunteer
Low
Beginner
Good
Sun, Part Shade
The clean, hardy, and colorful living perimeter of this lot design is easy to build and works well on multiple lots.
Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 Manuel
A clean, planted edge borders this native meadow—a pollinator-friendly option for every neighborhood.
Photo CC BY 2.0 Liz West
$2,500 to $5,500
Medium
This theatre of seasonal design features four ornamental trees, each crowned by a seasonal rain garden.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Sandstein
Intermediate
Best
A barber-inspired pattern designed and cut into a lot using lines, edges, shapes or images.
$50 to $1,000
Sun, Part Shade, Shade
An inexpensive, hands-on method for improving the soils on your lot.
Photo CC BY-SA 3.0 Jean-Pol Grandmont
Better
A low-maintenance lawn custom tailored for Detroit.
Photo © Ernst Conservation Seeds
Transforms the basement area of a recently-demolished house into a series of stepped raingarden tiers.
Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 Frank Mayfield
$5,500+
Volunteer + Professional
High
Advanced
Improve soil quality on your bald lot with this suite of low cost and low maintenance groundcovers.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Philip Chapman-Bell
A people-friendly green infrastructure solution that creates flexible spaces for neighborhood gatherings and manages stormwater on site.
Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 Vmenkov
Choose-your-color native meadow with a crisp hedged edge.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Peter Gorman
A floral landscape that stabilizes lead in the soil while registering your household caffeine levels.
Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 Blucolt
Very affordable mix of warm and cold season grasses provides habitat and nesting grounds for birds.
A colorful, full-season design creates space to accommodate social gatherings while providing privacy to neighbors.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Magnus Manske
Embrace the poor quality rocky soils of commercial lots in Detroit with this mix of succulents in a range of painterly colors and textures.
Photo Public Domain, Leonard G.
A playful adaptation of the tulip fields found in the Netherlands.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Illia Frenkel
Colorful, hardy plants form a clean and urban edge while creating a barrier to limit lot access.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Framboise
Temporary planting scheme improves soil health, prepares your lot for what's next.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Tom Potterfield
Native meadow design for lots with clay soils.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Pat Dumas
Luscious rain garden for lots with crushed-in-place basements.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Dmitry Marochko
A set of guiding principles for preparing any lot for a happy, healthy, and lower maintenance future.
Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 Jurek D.
Create habitat and improve biodiversity with this set of guiding principles for managing an existing forest patch or emergent stand of trees.
Photo © Erin Kelly, Lambert, Rotherstien & Associates.
Make money with trees over time with this hedge-organized space for growing and selling trees within neighborhoods.
Photo © Erin Kelly, Lambert, Rotherstien & Associates
A collection of spreading groundcovers that can be planted over your entire lot, or planted and maintained as distinct paisley patches.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 TM Weddle
This maple tree mix creates beautiful shade, fall color, and offers routes to wealth creation over time.
Photo CC BY CAFNR
Rain garden and living fence provide a soft way to split a lot between neighbors while managing roof runoff.
Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 Raul654
Easy-to-build side lot rain garden designed with plants commonly available at local shops and national chains.
Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Pat Dumas
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