If you live near a school, have neighbours that regularly host late-night parties or long Sunday braais, or have a thriving home business next to you with regular clients, you may find that you consistently have cars parked on your verge. When cars are constantly parked on your verge, you will be left with damaged grass, ruined landscaping, and dropped curb appeal for your home. This can quickly become an annoying problem to deal with and leave you feeling frustrated. To keep the front of your home looking beautiful, we have outlined 7 different ways to keep your verge protected. If concrete bollards are the perfect solution to your problem, Street Scape has a wide range that will suit the style of your home and your budget.
Different Ways to Protect Your Verge:
Verges are often tricky for homeowners to deal with. On the one hand, your verge generally does not belong to your home and should be kept maintained by your municipality. On the other hand, your verge is the first thing many people will see of your home and you will want it to be beautiful and well-kept. This can become extremely difficult if cars are always parking on your verge and ruining your grass or landscaping and blocking people’s view of your home. To keep your verge protected from damage, we have highlighted 7 different methods with their advantages and disadvantages to help you decide.
1) Concrete Bollards:
One of the best ways to keep your verge protected is to have concrete bollards positioned along your verge. Depending on the length of your verge, you will only need to invest in a few bollards to prevent any car from parking on your verge. The height of concrete bollards are designed to be visible to drivers, ensuring that everyone will understand that this is a no-parking zone.
Concrete bollards are a superb choice for protecting your verge. Concrete bollards are strong and durable, making them a long-lasting choice to keep your verge protected for years. You can also find a wide variety of styles to perfectly match the design of your home, making this look like an intentional design choice rather than an ill-tempered way to keep people off your verge. The downside to concrete bollards is that there will be a cost involved. You will also need to have the concrete bollards professionally installed, which will be an additional cost.
2) Rocks:
You will most likely have driven through a neighbourhood and seen rocks, most commonly rocks painted white, sitting on the verge of many homes. In South Africa, rocks are a widely popular choice for keeping verges protected from unwanted parked vehicles. With a bit of muscle and sweat, you can place the fairly large rocks along your verge to prevent cars from parking on your grass or landscaped areas.
The benefit to rocks is that they are generally easy to source and fairly inexpensive. You may even have a few spare rocks in your garden that you can use on your verge, saving you time and money. Rocks add a natural landscaping element to your verge and can increase your curb appeal. The downside to rocks is that you are most likely not going to be the only homeowner with a keen eye for natural landscaping, as rocks are commonly stolen from verges.
3) Flower Boxes:
A beautiful and more subtle way to keep cars off your verge is to have strategically placed flower boxes along the perimeter of your grass. You can choose the shape and design of your flower boxes and fill them to the brim with bright flowers or striking plants. You can also make the boxes for your flowers yourself, making this a fun DIY project that the whole family can get involved with. Flower boxes are both a protective measure and a way to elevate the landscaping of your verge. The possible downside to flower boxes is that they may also go missing, so make sure you make them substantial enough to not be easily taken away.
4) Place a “No Parking” Sign on Your Wall:
Throw subtlety out the window and have a sign stating “no parking” or “keep off the grass” positioned outside your home. This will provide drivers with a clear message that you will not appreciate or tolerate any vehicles parked on your verge. You can place the sign on your perimeter wall or have small individual signs placed along your verge.
Making a “no parking” sign is effortless. You can simply print a sign and have it laminated, or you can get creative and paint the words onto a wooden sign that is positioned in the grass on your verge. Unfortunately, drivers with a desperate need to park may ignore your sign and still park on your verge, but you will reduce the amount of damage that your verge may face.
5) Pots with Plants:
Add some grandeur to your curb with large pots with gorgeous plants positioned along your verge. The large pots will be an excellent way to stop cars from parking on your verge as drivers will find it difficult to manoeuvre around these massive blockages. You would need to invest in large, heavy pots to prevent the risk of them going missing when you are not looking. The downside to this is that large pots can be a steep investment, making this a slightly more expensive option to protect your verge.
6) Small Hedge:
While you cannot place a small fence along your verge, you can create a block for unwanted vehicles with a hedge. Strategically plant fast-growing hedge plants along your verge to quickly have a protective barrier for your exterior grass and landscaping. A small, short hedge is fairly inexpensive to initially plant, but you will be required to keep cutting the hedge to keep it maintained.
7) Landscape Entire Verge:
One way to prevent cars from parking on your verge is to remove the grass entirely. This can be done by transforming your verge into a landscaped garden bed full of flowering plants, hard landscaping materials, and a stone or mulch-covered bed floor. This should be a major deterrent for drivers to avoid parking on your verge.
The benefit to this option is that your verge will be stunning and eye-catching on your road, which can be especially beneficial if you are planning to sell your home. The downside to this option is that you will need to invest a lot of time to fully landscape your entire verge. Depending on the size of your verge, this can also be an expensive option to keep cars off your verge.
Benefits of Protecting Your Verge:
You may be wondering whether protecting your verge is worth the time, effort, or money. To demonstrate why protecting your verge is essential, we have highlighted a few benefits that you will enjoy when you place concrete bollards, rocks, or any other protection on your verge.
1) Curb Appeal:
Curb appeal is an extremely important factor for homes. Your curb appeal sets the tone for the rest of your home, which means keeping it beautiful and well-kept is essential. A verge that is kept protected from the damage of cars constantly parking on the grass or damaging the landscaping will uphold the curb appeal of the home.
2) Cost-saving:
Protecting your verge can be a cost-saving behaviour. Replacing the damaged grass on your verge or replanting plants that have been squished underneath car tyres can be expensive. By investing a little bit of money into protecting your verge, you are saving money in the long run by ensuring your verge is kept beautiful and maintained.
3) No Noise Disturbance:
Slamming car doors, people chatting outside their cars while their children throw their school bags into the boot, and the revving of engines while cars drive off can be a major disturbance. This is especially a problem if your home is closely situated to your verge and you can hear every car being parked from inside your home. The benefit to protecting your verge is that you also protect your home from any unnecessary noise disturbance caused by the cars parking outside.
4) Time-saving:
Depending on how severe the problem is, you may find yourself constantly outside wagging your finger at drivers attempting to park their cars on your verge or picking up damaged plants from off your grass. This can become a time-consuming activity that pulls you away from more important things. Placing flower boxes, concrete bollards, or pot plants on your verge will do all the work for you, allowing you to save your time and enjoy being at home.
5) Safety:
Constantly having strange cars parked on your verge can be a safety hazard. If you have children at home, it can become a serious problem if strangers are hanging around your verge or are parked for long hours and watching your home. By keeping cars off your verge with a protective method, you are reducing any safety risks.
6) Prevent Blocked Access:
One way to have your blood boil after a long day at work is to find your access to your own home blocked by an inconsiderate car. If your verge is located next to a school or business, people may not care if they park in ways that block your access if there is limited parking available to them. By placing items on your verge to keep it protected, you are ensuring that the message is clear that this is a no-parking area that people should hopefully adhere to.
Protect Your Verge with Street Scape Concrete Bollards:
You can keep your verge protected with Street Scape concrete bollards. Our concrete bollards are made from strong, durable, and long-lasting materials to ensure that you can benefit from their protective qualities for as long as you need to. With us, you benefit from high-quality concrete bollards at affordable prices so that protecting your verge does not break your budget.
We offer our concrete bollards in an extensive range of styles and designs. From our Oval Concrete Bollard to our Tall Dome Head Concrete Bollard to our Half Penny Concrete Bollard, you can easily find the exact shape and design that will cohesively match the exterior of your home. You can then choose to have an exposed aggregate finish for a natural and textured look or a smooth concrete surface painted in your colour choice for a seamless style outside your home.
Street Scape is a proudly South African manufacturer of concrete bollards. We are based in Cape Town, but can easily deliver your concrete bollards to your home no matter where you are in South Africa. We are your convenient choice when it comes to finding the perfect material to keep your verges protected.
Keep your verge protected to enjoy the benefits of curb appeal, safety, and cost savings with Street Scape concrete bollards.