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Tough, Drought-Tolerant Plants for Curbside Gardens

Who SAYS the strip of land between your sidewalk and the street has to be covered with turfgrass? Okay, in some places the government actually says that but most of us have the freedom to plant something a little more interesting – and less resource-intensive, too. Here you see the curb garden or “hell strip” in front of my house (actually my former house, where I actually had a curb).  I made sure the water-meter guy still has access, and also that this little garden doesn’t block the view of drivers. (Safety first!)

I goofed in not knowing (or inquiring about) permission I should have gotten first from my city before planting anything here, so I’m just lucky I was allowed to keep this garden. Which garden my neighbors, I might add, never seem to tire of admiring, and thanking me for. Public gardening sure has its rewards.

Now about the choice of plants.  Curb gardens need tough ones because sites don’t get much tougher than this one. They have to be able to handle the usual stresses of heat and drought PLUS cars, snow plows and salt trucks, kids on bikes, and the regular diggings and droppings of all the dogs on the street. I wasn’t about to spend money here, just to see everything destroyed. So everything here was a cast-off or division from other parts of my garden.

And it’s important to note that this spot can be garden-like, crammed full of plants of different heights, only because there’s no parking on my side of the street. I’ve seen some great curb gardens that DO allow for access to parked cars and I’ll be posting about them soon, right here.

The Plant List
I planted a Yoshino cherry tree, a beautyberry shrub, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’, purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, common garden phlox,  lots of daylily cultivars in assorted colors, and creeping sedums as groundcover.

After five years in the ground, the result was:  Absolutely no damage from any of the feared sources, and a pretty garden that’s almost no work. These plants are drought-tolerant, and pretty good at crowding out the weeds. So, a bit of watering, a bit of weeding. Then in late winter I do clean-up – remove dead perennial flowers, hack the grasses back to the ground, and prune the beautybush.

Buffalo, NY
Next stop, a curb garden in Buffalo, New York, the city with the largest garden tour in America. (Every July over 300 gardens are open to the public over two days, all free.   They call it a Garden Walk.)

Portland, Oregon
And from the West Coast, below you see a high-impact garden packed in between the street and the unseen sidewalk.

Inspired yet? .

Posted by Susan Harris.

Stephanie Fleming was raised at Behnke’s Nurseries in Beltsville. Her Mom, Sonja, was one of Albert & Rose Behnke’s four children. She was weeding from the moment she could walk and hiding as soon as she was old enough to run, so many weeds, so little time. Although she quickly learned how to pull out a perennial and get taken off of weed pulling duty.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Thank you for posting this!!
    I live in Chicago and would love to do something similar in front of my house with the 4 ft x 20 ft curb dirt pit between the sidewalk and road.
    What hardy plants would you recommend for shade, drought in Chicago?
    Any guidance/grid on how to stagger them?

  2. It’s a complicated question. Best to take some photos in to a garden center and talk to them, on a week day or evening when they have more time to talk.

    I will give a list of some good plants for shade, that tolerate drier soil. That said, you are still going to need to water at least weekly in the summer. Dry shade is always a challenge.

    Some factors to consider: what is casting the shade? Buildings or trees? If a tree, what kind and where is it situated. Most trees that are good urban street trees are very tough competitors for soil space and water.

    If it’s an evergreen tree, like a blue spruce, you are pretty much out of luck.

    If you are out in the suburbs it’s easier because it may be cooler, and you probably have fewer people walking over the area, crushing plants and compacting the soil.

    Dog urine can also be an issue if there are lots of dogs and few places for them to urinate.

    All of the above will reduce your options. For decent conditions–let’s say you have some grass there and it looks okay…

    Here are some plants to look at: Carex pensylvanica; native plant, looks like grass.

    Epimedium;

    short daylilies, like the ubiquitous Stella Doro (these will bloom with as little as two hours of direct sun, but not very prolifically).

    Ferns: Christmas fern and Autumn fern. Autumn fern won’t tolerate any foot traffic.

    Amsonia, like Storm Cloud and Blue Ice, which stay short

    Hellebores

    Short bulbs, like dwarf daffodils (better bloom in sun) and scilla

    Virginia bluebells

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