Hell Strip Revisited

I spent some time this afternoon adding more brick edging to the front walkway area. Goldie came out to pose with it and show you how sad my front walk is.

So here's some more on what I have planned. I realized that I could continue to feed my tree addiction by using the area in front of the wall. Some dwarf trees would fit nicely in there, pruned up to leave walking and biking space. I'm dithering back and forth between planting a fruit tree and writing off the fruit to everybody who walks by (but maybe this would make them leave my roses alone!) and planting some of the small ornamental trees I see and love but don't have any room for.

I could probably put four or five small trees along the front. At the far end of this photo is our sewer line, so I would not want to plant too close to that for obvious reasons, and our water supply comes in by the front walk, so nothing too close to that.

I saw a very nice front walk once (which I wish I'd taken a photo of) where both sides were planted with several varieties of low thymes and other ground covers. In between, larger plants (I'd use natives) added some structure. Our longer plan is to bust out that stupid concrete and plant the strip between sidewalk and street, so I would add some pavers so people can get out of their cars without stepping into a shrub. It reduces kid bicycling room but makes a much nicer space, and I like the idea of shading the sidewalk (South is to the right here, so the sidewalk is almost always sunny).

But first? I have to kill some Bermuda grass with extreme prejudice.

posted by ayse on 09/04/11