Union Hill – planning and planting the hell strip

Parking strip, hell strip, dry wasteland… no matter what you call that area between the sidewalk and the street, it’s a tough place to plant a garden. It’s exposed to traffic, fumes, wind, and often sun, and it’s hard to water consistently if you don’t already have sprinklers installed. I’m not even 100% sure it’s our property, just the land beyond the sidewalk. It makes an impact when you see the house… either good or bad. Our Union Hill property is on a corner lot, and we had 80’x8’ strip of hell strip filled with weeds and dead grass. Before we rented the last apartment, I committed to reclaim the hell strip and make it part of our garden.

• 

• 

• 

I started the project while we still had spring rain; although an extensive exterior project was probably not too smart when there was so much work inside. So one day in March I had 12 cubic yards of organic topsoil delivered and dumped on the hell strip. I didn’t have much of a plan at that point, just that I wanted the grass gone.

• 

• 

Grass be gone

Using old paint paper, I laid strips in the grass to cover as much as I could. This is my biodegradable weed barrier – enough to stop future grass/weed growth, but not enough to block plant’s roots from growing down. I spent hours laying paper and dumping dirt, moving my piles around so I covered every last inch.

Once the dirt was down, I gave my arms a break and called the city. Several years ago we learned the hard way that we had a water line under our intended fence. After hundreds of dollars in water usage, the city fixed the break in the line. Before I stuck a shovel in the ground, the city came out to mark if there were utilities. There were no utilities under the dirt, so I started to plan my garden.

Picking the plants

There are utilities above, however. About 30 feet up are several power lines. Keeping that in mind, I choose a mix of shrubs, short trees, perennials and bulbs to get year round color. We filled some spots in with annuals to get some color in the first year.

Our planting strategy is typical get what’s in season and throw it in the ground. We went to Bremerton City Nursery to pick plants that are unique and local to our region. We’re fine having some gaps in the first year, as long as we have spots to plant things as spring moves to summer and into fall.

Here is what we planted our first year:

• Trees/shrubs: My goal was to have color in all seasons, so I chose a lilac (spring), crepe myrtle bush (summer), and shaina Japanese maple (all seasons). I love crepe myrtles and am eager to see this one bloom!
• Bulbs: We typically don’t do a lot of planning when it comes to bulbs. We usually buy what’s blooming and hope it comes back next year. This time, we did groups of daffodils, tulips, irises, lilies, and gladiolas. I will probably add allium, hyacinth,
• Perennials: We focused on drought-tolerant plants that tend to do well in the Pacific Northwest with little care. Various types of rosemary, salvia, lavender, euphorbia, dahlia, peonies, poppies, and red-hot pokers…. some of these from divided plants at our other properties. The bulb areas are orderly, but I want the perennials to be a little more wild. I will add hollyhock, foxglove and delphinium next year to add more color and height.
• Annuals: We filled in some of the bare spots with annuals this year, knowing that some of these areas will grow in with perennials in future years. We chose snapdragons, geraniums, and pansies for color.

• 

• 

• 

Some of our first year flowers

Finished hell strip garden

• 

• 

I’ll update as this grows in. I still need to add some wood borders next to the street and finalize the pathways across the garden. Overall I am super pleased with the progress. This street has a lot of traffic from the shipyard, and one person stopped me to tell me how much he admires the flowers. I love how this garden can brighten people’s day!