Thoughts on the New Planter Box

If you’ve driven through La Grange lately, you probably noticed all of the construction along Travis St. on the south side of the Courthouse Square.

Contractors for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) are replacing the sidewalk with a long concrete planter box. TxDOT’s wise leaders have decided that jaywalking is such a problem on Travis St. that they need to remove some parking spots and spend a bunch of tax dollars on a pedestrian barrier. (Can anyone remember the last time a jaywalker got hit by a car in front of the courthouse?)

Like it or not, we’re getting a big planter box on the square. I hope TxDOT plants something nice in it. If it were up to me, I think it would be really neat to grow some crops in it to commemorate Fayette County’s agricultural heritage. How cool would it be to see a row of cotton growing along Travis Street? But I’m sure the boll weevil police would shut that down. (Seriously, I’ve heard of gardeners getting visits from state agents for growing small patches of cotton in their gardens.)

Someone mentioned something about turning it into a community vegetable garden. But those projects rarely succeed in the long run. At first, a group of people get interested in a community garden. But then someone has to water it. Plants die and need to be replanted. Other folks harvest the produce without putting in any work. It’s a classic tragedy of the commons. A long time ago, Doug Janda of Hostyn Hill Greenhouse told me a little piece of gardening wisdom that I’ve never forgotten: a garden grows best when it sees your shadow. If you’re not walking around in your garden every day, you don’t notice problems when they arise.

Personally, I think the planter box is a solution in search of a problem. I don’t think it’s worth the parking spaces that will be lost on the Square. But I’m not an engineer or traffic safety expert.

Like it or not, we’re getting a planter box. I hope the people in charge at least make it look nice.

La Grange Main Street Manager Caleb Parks, who has been involved in discussions between the City and TxDOT about the project, told me this week that the contractors intend to plant some drought-resistant landscaping in the box. That makes sense. Who’s going to have time to water and care for all these new plants on the Square?

Jeff Wick and I were talking about the planter box this week and he came up with a great suggestion for the plants: purple Texas sage and yellow esperanza.

Both of these plants thrive in our area. They require little water or care once established.

Esperanza, with its showy yellow bells, actually flowers more under dry conditions. The only problem with esperanza is that it won’t survive a very hard freeze. I lost some esperanza plants during the winter storm of 2021. But these shrubs have survived every other winter for me. I cut them to the ground after the first frost. If it gets really cold, you can cover the crowns with a bucket. Every spring, they shoot back up and then produce a beautiful yellow display in the late summer and fall. Texas sage also loves our dry, hot summers. Overwatering can easily kill it. This perennial produces purple flowers along its tips during the summer. Some folks call the plant a “barometer bush” due to its proclivity of flowering just before a rain. Planted side-byside, these plants would provide a La Grange Leopard purple- and-gold motif along the Square. Of course, none of us have any say in the matter. But maybe someone at TxDOT reads my column. What do you think about the planter box? What would you plant in it? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Email me at andy@fayettecountyrecord. com or send us a letter to the editor.