The parking strip in front of your house

Hi guys,

You that "inferno strip" in front of your house, between the sidewalk and the street? What do you guys have in there?
I have some trees but other than that just plain ugly pebles. I was thinking about sowing some CA native flowers this fall and seeing if they would grow on rain watering alone. Has anyone here done that before?

If not...what would you suggest?
Thanks!
Roberta

The people across the street from my grow wildflowers in their parking strip and while it's brown much of the year everyone enjoys the wildflowers when they are there. They grow scarlet flax.

Hi, Roberta,

We have a low hedge of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus in our strip. It never gets watered (except when it rains), stays reasonably compact with a little trimming, and has little tufts of blue flowers in the spring (and a few the rest of the year). Here's a picture of a corner of the hedge in bloom:

I like both ideas! Weatherguesser, your hedge is so pretty. I always thought about adding ceanothus to my garden but had never considered the sidewalk strip!

Roberta,

Thanks! I can't take credit for using Ceanothus this way, as the hedge was already here when we bought the house, but....

It IS a California native, AND it's tolerant of drought, heat, and cold (not that we get all that hot or cold here, anyway, but it's done fine with temps in the 20's and temps in the low 100's). And it produces fragrant flowers, too. We also have a Ceanothus impressus tree in our front yard, and between the tree and the hedge, our front yard smells very nice in the spring. All this hedge takes is trimming a couple of times a year to keep it in some sort of shape. As I mentioned, ours never gets watered, except by the rain, which means it goes for about six months of the year essentially without water in Salinas. And it's nice and green year round.

Oh, and Happy Birthday!

Jim

Thanks Jim! I definitely think I will plant a ceanothus! I have some agapanthus, and my house is blue, so it was an excellent idea!