Landscaping can liven up your neighborhood. The City can help you get started, but you’ll need your own green thumb to keep it going.

The City maintains 40,155 acres of medians, roadsides, parks and other public property, balancing beauty against the need for efficiency and careful use of taxpayers’ money.

If your neighborhood wants to spruce up medians and other public spaces with additional landscaping, the City can help you do that.

But the upfront cost and the work of regular maintenance requires neighborhood commitment, and volunteers willing to keep pruning, watering and weeding when other neighbors have started to lose interest.

If your neighborhood is ready to invest the money and time to improve its green spaces, you’ve come to the right place.

First things first.

Identify the place where you want to plant and make sure you have plenty of neighborhood support.

Who do we talk to?

The Parks & Recreation Department handles landscaping work on City property, including medians, rights-of-way on major streets and, of course, parks. Call 405 297-3882 to find out more.

Who pays for it?

Landscaping projects are paid for by the neighborhoods requesting them. Grants are available for some landscaping projects. The Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation can help you find grants for which your neighborhood may qualify.

Who takes care of it?

You do – and over the long run, maintaining a landscape is more work than planting it. Recruit neighborhood volunteers to take turns doing the weeding, watering and pruning. Make sure you get plenty of volunteers before you start the application process.

How to get started.

If you want to plant flowers or shrubs in existing parks or medians, you may want an Adopt-A-Park agreement with Oklahoma City Beautiful, Incorporated. OKC Beautiful coordinates with the City to simplify the process for picking up litter and maintaining small planting beds. Larger projects will require City Council approval.

We’re thinking about a big project. What’s next?

You must submit a Letter of Intent to the Parks & Recreation Department which includes information about your proposed project, and your neighborhood’s commitment to follow through with plans and specifications, insurance and an agreement to pay for installation, utilities and maintenance. Your design or planting plan will need to be approved prior to installation. A Landscape Agreement with Parks & Recreation will specify all the details.

Do we need a permit?

For projects that involve construction, you’ll need a revocable permit from the Public Works Development Center. You may also need a landscape agreement approved by City Council if the project requires ongoing maintenance.