Hey Guys, hop aboard the crazy garden train today with me! I’ve been thinking a lot about my “hellstrip” lately (aka boulevard garden) (aka the garden between the sidewalk and the street). The weather is still springish ’round these parts. I’m guessing I’ll have limited days before the sun starts heating things up and gardening won’t seem fun anymore. I need to get started on this boulevard garden project before it literally gets too hot to handle!

My “hellstrip” (I love calling it that) goes from shady to sunny, so I had to consider what were the best plants for the space. Hostas have done well on the shady side already, they will stay, but will be dug up and repositioned. The sunnier side will call for Iris for the spring, Phlox and Salvia for the summer, and grasses and Sedum for texture and shape. I’m also planning on adding good ground cover to help with erosion. For the shadier spots I’ll be planting Golden Moneywort (aka Creeping Jenny) and in the sunnier spots Purple Dragon. I have both of these ground covers growing in my gardens, so it’ll be free to take a little and move it out to the boulevard. I also have salvaged some very old bricks from a nearby street the city was digging up and re-paving. The bricks had been paved over and were used as part of a street car line. I would guess that they are over 100 years old. I didn’t have a clue what I’d use them for, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks (so punny), I should make a small path from the sidewalk to the street with them, dur.

I didn’t want to have to start the garden completely from scratch, I know some things actually do grow there and I have a lot of mature plants from my backyard garden that are ready to be split up. I’m planning on using Sedum, Salvia and Iris from the backyard gardens. Leaving with me less than $170 worth of new plants to buy. I’ll have to purchase some boulders which is totally new to me, but am looking forward to figuring out where and how to get them. I will have to dig up the entire garden and re-grade it. I need the garden to incorporate elevated areas for better soil and plant growth and then grade it down to be lower than the sidewalk and curb on the sides. That way I can mulch and have the sidewalk and curb work as a barrier, keeping the mulch from spilling into the sidewalk or street every time it rains out. I want to amend the soil with some new topsoil and compost and then replant what I have, and add a few new plants. Lastly I’ll mulch, and we should be good to go.

This type of project will take me a few weeks to finish, but I think if I can pull it off according these plans it will look super tyte.