So I'm reading the book, Hellstrip Gardens. It's pretty good. There are a lot of drought tolerant plant suggestions and the pictures are fantastic. And fantastic pictures are 99% of the reason to read gardening books. Is your sidewalk landscaped? Wanna post your pics for everyone to enjoy?
Currently my yard looks something like this:
But I drool over these gardens. I want to do ours someday, just not this year or probably next.
Ours have all been just grass. I've never seen one planted like those in my area (Midwest, where larger yards are common). At most, some people plant a small area around the mailbox.
The last picture in your OP is my neighborhood in Buffalo, I recognized it right away. Due to the small lot sizes and lack of backyard spaces for a lot of houses, these gardens are really popular here. Here are a few more in this 'hood:
At our last house we had planned to put pavers where people would park and step out of the car, and fill in the rest with a variety of ornamental grasses and succulents, since nothing could be over 18 or 24 inches tall....I don't remember any more, but the city had rules.
Post by treedimensional on Apr 19, 2015 15:34:21 GMT -5
Here, the strip is city property, although the homeowner is responsible for its maintenance. I plant as many trees as I can in those strips, and help people who want trees there to get them. I spend many hours pruning trees in these strips, all year long. The biggest tree that will work is the best choice. Trees return more benefits to a municipality and it's residents than any other plant choice. Shrubs and groundcover may look nice, but they return very little bang for the buck. And as someone pointed out, shrubs, grouncovers and (illegal, here) vegetable gardens can create conflicts with cars and pedestrians.
Here, the strip is city property, although the homeowner is responsible for its maintenance. I plant as many trees as I can in those strips, and help people who want trees there to get them. I spend many hours pruning trees in these strips, all year long. The biggest tree that will work is the best choice. Trees return more benefits to a municipality and it's residents than any other plant choice. Shrubs and groundcover may look nice, but they return very little bang for the buck. And as someone pointed out, shrubs, grouncovers and (illegal, here) vegetable gardens can create conflicts with cars and pedestrians.
Sadly we are no longer allowed to put trees in the curb strip, because there are so many sidewalks that have been ruined because of the growth of trees put in years ago. So instead of limiting it to certain types or moving the sidewalk (if they are shot, why not replace them further over?) the city has said no new tree planting there. Sigh.
That is what happened where we lived in CA, so the citycalled the front 6 feet off our property an easement and planted 'street trees' in our front yards.
We could plant anything we wanted in the growing strips, just as long as it was small and wouldn't undermine the sidewalk.
Here, the strip is city property, although the homeowner is responsible for its maintenance. I plant as many trees as I can in those strips, and help people who want trees there to get them. I spend many hours pruning trees in these strips, all year long. The biggest tree that will work is the best choice. Trees return more benefits to a municipality and it's residents than any other plant choice. Shrubs and groundcover may look nice, but they return very little bang for the buck. And as someone pointed out, shrubs, grouncovers and (illegal, here) vegetable gardens can create conflicts with cars and pedestrians.
Sadly we are no longer allowed to put trees in the curb strip, because there are so many sidewalks that have been ruined because of the growth of trees put in years ago. So instead of limiting it to certain types or moving the sidewalk (if they are shot, why not replace them further over?) the city has said no new tree planting there. Sigh.
Your city is STUPID. Their "solution" is an even worse problem!
One of the suggestions in the book is silverleaf oak. I think it is a no-supplemental-water Texas native that is supposed to thrive in Portland. I'm not sure how it feels about wind and ice storms. I'm considering it.
One of the suggestions in the book is silverleaf oak. I think it is a no-supplemental-water Texas native that is supposed to thrive in Portland. I'm not sure how it feels about wind and ice storms. I'm considering it.
I don't have experience with it, same reason- it does't grow here either. I'd give it a try because I love experiments and I love oaks. Tons of exotics thrive outside their native ranges. My backyard is a great example.
Post by karinothing on Apr 19, 2015 19:45:06 GMT -5
Now i want to know if we can put a tree in ours. Ours is just dirt now that the city recently tore up and then threw some grass seed down. So pretty LOL. I wanted to do some pants but so much of the year it is covered in snow, salt, and grossness...itv seems like not a good idea
Post by hbomdiggity on Apr 20, 2015 0:07:25 GMT -5
We have 2 trees in ours, one of which has an awful sap so we hate parking there. We have the same tree in our front yard too and since it goes over the neighbors driveway she is always asking us to remove it.
We did have some grass as well but the tree roots are not deep and as soon as we turned off the irrigation the grass died.
Bricks won't work because of the roots, but I'm considering pebbles or other hardscape.
I'm pretty sure our HOA limits us to grass with a small bed around the curbside mailboxes. Local custom is to edge the crap out of the sidewalks and curbs.
LOL, when my parents built this house they purposely paid for a premium lot to avoid a devil strip and shoveling/maintaining a sidewalk. I'm thankful whenever it snows.
Post by InBetweenDays on Apr 20, 2015 16:22:21 GMT -5
We have a corner lot. Currently we just have grass and 4 Kousa dogwoods out front, and grass and 1 Magnolia stellate on one side. (Picture from google)
But this is a house down the street from us, and this is what I would like to do to both parking strips. It isn't terribly high on the priority list right now, however.
We have a corner lot. Currently we just have grass and 4 Kousa dogwoods out front, and grass and 1 Magnolia stellate on one side. (Picture from google)
But this is a house down the street from us, and this is what I would like to do to both parking strips. It isn't terribly high on the priority list right now, however.
How wide is your parking strip? I don't think the ones in the SoCal city we used to live in were even three feet wide. The sidewalk was kind of narrow too.
We have a corner lot. Currently we just have grass and 4 Kousa dogwoods out front, and grass and 1 Magnolia stellate on one side. (Picture from google)
But this is a house down the street from us, and this is what I would like to do to both parking strips. It isn't terribly high on the priority list right now, however.
How wide is your parking strip? I don't think the ones in the SoCal city we used to live in were even three feet wide. The sidewalk was kind of narrow too.
Probably 5 feet wide? It varies quite a bit by neighborhood. Even by street.
my parking strip is only about 12-18" so I wouldn't be doing any gardening like those pictured above. I do have some tulips planted around the stop sign, and later in the year it will have some flowing vine on it that the name is escaping me at the moment.
I was thinking about removing the grass and planting with some groundcovers, but not 100% that this would look all that great. I have ajuga, vinca, and golden creeping jenny elsewhere in the yard and was considering them for this project.
I live on a corner and have lots of this to care for. Right now it's just grass and maybe 4 or 5 trees. Here in Denver they encourage street trees and there is a program that provides the trees cheap or free if you plant them in that area between sidewalk & street.
One of my neighbors has a bunch of bulb flowers in it & it's beautiful part of the year. I'll look for a picture & post it. Other people garden or do pavers or plants...anything and everything goes here.
We planted our hellstrip at our old house after the grass died (the rest of the yard got enough shade that it survived our lack of watering). I planted some bulbine and some sedums. We put down some compost when we did it and then we also had a couple pumpkin vines volunteer (out-of-season, they one pumpkin that grew was ripe in June). The neighbors seemed to like it, people asked if they could pinch the sedums to grow some themselves. It was definitely low maintenance and decent looking though nothing as gorgeous as the ones posted above. Then the watermain needed repairs, the city dug it all up and replaced it with sod when they were done and we were about to move so it's been grass ever since.
We planted tulips a few months ago that the Historical Association gave us so I'm excited to see how they turn up. Picture:
The city will go 50/50 with us on planting a tree in that spot but we haven't decided if we want one yet. I think it would be nice but my husband is worried it would damage the sidewalk which we are responsible for maintaining.
On the other side of the sidewalk we have a little patch of concrete. My uncle is a landscaper and he said he could rip up the concrete and put in grass. In the meantime we may just put some planters against the wrought iron railing.