Miami's Underline Park

The Underline is an impressive
& well-used urban park located
under the Metro Rail in Miami.

Taking its inspiration from the High Line Park in New York City and The Lurie Garden in Chicago, The Friends of The Underline non-profit organization formed in 2013. The Underline is basically a multi-use path with parks, recreational spaces, playgrounds, plantings, and stormwater infrastructure. It's expected to extend to its full 10-mile distance by 2026.

These gardens feature untrimmed native plants that attract and feed insects and birds. This is different than traditional formal gardens where everything is tightly trimmed and exotic plants are chosen for their beauty and because they are not favored by the local insects. This style is left over from British and European upper class expectations where those who owned grand houses and estates favored those highly maintained gardens to show how wealthy they were.

I'd been aware of The Underline for several years because of their organization's excellent outreach and innovative activities held in this public space. Recently, I was in South Florida and made the time to visit this space on a Sunday morning with my daughter and two granddaughters. It's quite impressive and even early on a Sunday morning, there were many people enjoying the park. 

The northern end of the park starts at the Miami River.

This is mile 0.0 at the northern end of the park. Art sculptures and installations have been installed along the park.

A bottle filling station near the north end. New construction here and elsewhere along the path. The same thing happened in New York City because the park was so popular. 

Mostly native plants are planted in dense groupings and often sticks or logs add to the diversity of habitat spaces for insects and other organisms.

This is a few-flowered milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata), which is native to most of Florida.

Rooms

The park has been divided into separate rooms with educational themes. The one pictured here highlights Florida's "Hammock Ecosystems." A hammock is a dense forest of broad-leafed trees that grows on a slightly elevated area, usually surrounded by wetlands--they are a type of ecological island. 

Each section of the trail is called a "room" with an educational theme. This section was about Florida hammock ecosystems.

A wavy bench is in the "Hammock Room."

Another room's topic is "Oolitic Limestone" is a sedimentary rock made up of tiny spheres called ooids that are cemented together. Ooids are formed when calcium carbonate or other minerals precipitate around a nucleus, such as a grain of sand or shell fragment. Oolitic limestone is associated with ancient reefs and is the rock that underlies this whole region. Several natural outcroppings were left in place and some plants where installed in the various crevices.

Chunks of native limestone of various sizes were used throughout.

A fenced off athletic center with basketball courts and workout apparatus.

This mural is labeled as "temporary art."

Urban public gardens, green spaces in cities, are good for the pollinators, the birds, and the humans who live in the cities. The support groups for The Underline have done a wonderful job in not only developing the park, but also organizing activities and increasing outreach to attract even more attention to this less formal type of gardening. It's a win-win project.

For much more information, background and current happenings around the Underline Park, go to their website: https://www.theunderline.org/

If you live in an urban area, I hope you'll support initiatives like these less formal and mostly native garden spaces.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt