Painting pavement for raised garden beds?

[William J. Blount]

Hi All,

  I’m doing some pro-bono work for a local church that is trying to turn part of their parking lot into a community garden.  They do not want to remove the pavement, and plan on doing the garden in raised planting beds.  My question is, should I recommend repainting the pavement in the area of the garden a different color to try and help negate some of the heat that would be radiated off of black pavement?  I was thinking a matte white or gray would make the area more visually appealing as well as reflect back some of sunlight hopefully cooling the area.

Thanks

[Rick Spalenka]

[Rick Spalenka]

I tried to add text to the photo of those barrack looking buildings.  That was a project I did in Garmish, Germany in 1979 while in the Army.  That building was then the “Russian Institute” where our army prepared people for “visiting” the USSR.  We had some left over money and I was asked to build a “garden” over the parking lot without removing the asphalt.  I had many “leftover” cobblestones” and a “platoon” of Lithuanian “guest workers.”  We outlined the walkway with a couple of tiers of cobblestones and filled in the green space with soil.  Care was taken to make sure drainage went to the existing storm drains.  The soil was mounded Scottish golf course fashion and planted with a few pines and many edelwies with boulders.  From the google photo looks like Uncle Sam did the same for the other buildings since my tour.  Test that landscaping over asphalt works.

[Rob Halpern]

How will the raised beds be drained?

Painting the asphalt a light color just seems blinding to me and uncomfortable for those in the garden area. Consider laying down wood chips and at the end of the season collecting what remains as compost or mulch.

[William J. Blount]

I’m designing the beds with a 2″ gravel base and filter fabric for drainage, and I may also have them drill drain holes on the downhill side of the beds. 

I had thought about the glare, and was hoping a matte paint would help alleviate that, but I like your idea of wood chips more.  I’ll have to look into that and make sure it won’t wash away with a big rain event.

[Tosh K]

Another benefit of the chips may be that you can use them in the summer hot months but remove them to take advantage of the heat in spring and fall to extend the growing season.  Over asphalt is fine, and often better in urban environments as the surrounding soil often isn’t particularly clean (lead, etc)

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