So many possibilities! Are you wanting a lush, wild look? Formal, manicured look? Do you want any small ornamental trees, or only low growing things?

Salvia greggi would do great there. It can take a lot of abuse, and in mild winters can be evergreen. Blooms all summer, heat and drought tolerant. They come in many colors.

For my strip (former home), I did a row of small Crape Myrtles, pruned as trees, with Asian Jasmine filling the beds. About 2-3 times a year, we'd use a weedeater to neaten the Jasmine. I wanted low-maintenance, and the space completely filled with groundcover--I didn't want mulch or gravel spilling out. If you are going to have mulch or gravel-type fill, dig the bed out more shallow than the sidewalk and curb. Otherwise, you're going to spend a lot of times (s)weeping. Ask me how I know. :D

You could do a wide variety of perennials, dwarf shrubs, ornamental grasses, succulents, groundcover. And place a few nice-looking stones around, for natural art.

Dwarf Yaupon Hollies are one of my fav small shrubs, very hardy, and evergreen. They'd look great mixed with perennials and/or low-growing ornamental grass.

Pink Texas Skullcap is a great perennial groundcover that spills over curbs beautifully, if you like that look. I have it doing that in my two front streetside beds.

I love cacti, but probably wouldn't have them so close to walkways.

There are so many other great plants, just wanted to know what look you're going for, amount of upkeep, etc.

Some pics I found for placement ideas (not the actual plants, these aren't all in Texas)... I really like the idea of breaking up the strips with little pathways or decorative hardscape:

A wilder look:

Just groundcover. Easiest, but a bit boring to me.

Lantana would do well in a hot brutal environment.

Hi jscaldwell!
For years, my friends and I have been ripping grass out of parkways and putting in plants here in Austin. Like mizgg we've also had good results with pink skullcaps and Salvia greggii. We also like the purple skullcap, Scuttelaria wrightii, Four Nerve daisies, Blackfoot daisies, Damianita, Gopher plant, reseeding annual Gomphrena and trailing lantana, Pink muhly grass and Mexican feather grass. With a little shade you can get Brazos penstemon reseeding.
In your photo that looks like a pretty narrow space so you probably won't want plants that will grow too wide or too tall... if that happens, walkers will choose to avoid being scratched or poked by walking on your lawn instead of the sidewalk.
(I have had to slaughter the rosemary to keep it from attacking passersby.)

The orange hummingbird acacia/Anisacanthus wrightii(sp?) can be good in a parkway if you put if closer to the street side. I planted mine too close to the sidewalk side.
Have fun!

Hi! Consider a ground cover that takes the heat such as Silver Ponyfoot, Wooly Stemodia or Mountain Pea. You can vary the texture with a small, yet structural feature such as Victoria Agave or Brakelight Yucca. Be sure to excavate and add weed fabric prior to planting and installing a mulch or gravel.

Yes, to Lantana. I have ten feet of Lantana on my hell strip. Loves full sun and heat, and is tolerant of light freezes. With a hard freeze, it'll just die back to the ground and come back the next year. It does fantastic. Be advised, however that residential hell strips in many parts of Texas are a few inches of soil on top of caliche. That's what my hell strips are like (even worse than what's under my lawn turf), and I extract one or two hundred pounds of rocks out of every foot of 8 foot wide hell strip I want to have decent soil down to a shovel depth. Doing it right requires some work.

Asiatic jasmine is good as well, but I find it likes some shade, and it also spills rather uncontrollably over the street and sidewalk.

Thanks for the great suggestions. Yes, this is a narrow area just 18-20" wide roughly, so I'm hesitant to put something like lantana there for fear it will grow too far over the sidewalk/curb...which is a real shame too because I happen to have several extra yellow lantana I need to plant somewhere (don't ask...).

I'm looking for something understated, and not too wild or overdone. I keep hearing about skullcap, muhly grass and blackfoot daisies, but there are a few things Annie mentioned that I am not familiar with (Scuttelaria wrightii, Four Nerve daisies, Damianita, Gopher plant, reseeding annual Gomphrena) so I will look into those.

Thanks for any other thoughts.

I love your h-strip, TR. Looking at it, I thought of Where the Sidewalk Ends. You always make the best use of natives.

Michelle

Look at the blog by Pam Penick. She has a lot of ideas and has spotlighted hell strips many times, if you can search for them on her pages. She's in Austin so she has some of the same growing conditions that you might have.

http://www.penick.net/digging/

Many of TR's plants came from Central Texas, and many of her okie plants have been tested here in my garden. There is not one plant she has listed that won't grow here (west of Austin). Don't forget Dalea greggii. That does spillage and heat resistance very well.

OK, now the challenge is to select the plants that will look & live best together, year round...

I've settled on the 'finalists' for our little hell-strip project, with a ** next to my favorites, and I've given a slight edge to plants that can be evergreen during winter. Thanks to Pam Penick for some suggestions, as well as the posters here...

• Green or Gray Santolina

• Mountain Pea

• Whirling Butterfly Gaura

• **Red Sedum

• **Mexican Feathergrass

• **Blackfoot Daisy

• Pink or Purple Skullcap

• Red Salvia

• **Wooly Stemodia

• **Damianita

• Blue Oak Sage

Does a certain combo of plants jump out at anyone? For example, I think a mixture of Mexican Feathergrass, Damianita, Gaura, Red Sedum and either Blue Oak Sage or Red Salvia might look good. I could replace the Red Sedum with Mountain Pea possibly as well. Another simple combo might be a Damianita/Stemodia/Saliva. Too many choices...

Thanks for any final thoughts...I need to get these in the ground before it gets any hotter here...

By the way, our heat is as bad as yours down in Austin, we can match you black for black. Often we have weeks of 100+ with no rain the same time as you guys are having that. Its winter thats different. There are some plants hardy in Austin that are not in OKC but many plants listed at zone 8 limit have proved to be perfectly hardy and suited here.

Here is what I can offer based on my own experience. Our lot is like most, there is a slight downhill slope allowing water to drain away from the house and down to the street. Its not steep here, water drains SE toward the corner of the strip by the driveway--- but its a slow gradual draining. The problem occurs when we get several days of rain in spring some years and the water gradually drains for several days keeping the hell strip soaked.

I've lost some plants or suffered serious setbacks as a result from this problem. Russian Sage, Prince's Plume, Damianitia, some Purple Skullcaps and a Liatris. The Russian Sage and Liatris did come back the next year but they are out for the count after a wet episode for the season. I think Blackfoot Daisy would die too but I don't have mine on the strip, its further up.

The purple Skullcaps naturalize so there are always replacements coming up but you can have a bad season with them on the strip. They also get some kind of small black beetles that chew on them every single year and look tacky in summer at times.

My cactus do just fine. Cactus are more forgiving of a wet spell than some xeric plants in my garden.

Of course the rest of the summer its dry so I choose plants that are drought and heat tolerant in spite of those springs when there's too much rain because thats the most common conditions down there.

Another problem is anything that hangs over the curb onto the street side gets wet and weighted down and then gathers really awful debris when it rains hard, the stuff collects around the plants. Worst offenders are grasses.

Santolina is very nice for a couple/three years and then it dies out in spots. It looks ratty after blooming unless you trim off the blooms and needs replacing when it gets woody. I love it but its a temporary plant for that reason.

There is a Texas company 'Wildseed Farms', every year I buy wildflower seed and plant about 50 feet of strip on the side of my house. It is an informal look but beautiful, and this year there has been enough rain that I have not had to water the strip at all.

Hey all, bumping this thread up again as I was unable to get anything planted before the summer heat set in. Thanks for any thoughts on plant combos (see above). My local nursery is having a sale so I may try to pick up a few things that I can keep alive until I can plant again in Sept/Oct. or so.

Good luck on finding good plants. That is the easy part. Keeping them alive for two months will be the challenge. I am doing it myself.

One plant I haven't seen specifically mentioned unless I missed it is Society Garlic. I've had a number on my hell strip for a few years now and all have done fine. They don't get terribly large, so if space is a concern, that's a plus too.

What do you all think of Mexican Heather VB as a possibility here? I have I have read they like full sun and are tough as nails but I have also read they like filtered sun... This is a full sun site for sure.

Are you referring to Cuphea hyssopifolia? Wasn't sure if the VB (verbena?) was a reference to a different plant.

We do have a Cuphea that doesn't seem to mind the Dallas heat between an unshaded south-facing brick wall and a concrete walk. Will also stay green in this sheltered spot through a LIGHT freeze. Usually sold as an annual here, so expect it will be gone in our next long extreme freeze. Very nice foliage and long blooming, but flowers on ours are pretty discrete and have never been as large as some photos seem to capture. We've had two this way - possibly a characteristic of the line Lowe's sells? Seems it should be able to handle the sun/heat in your open spot once established.

Yes, Cuphea hyssopifolia, sorry the VB was a typo. So, you would say yours sit in full sun? Also how would you characterize your soil? Thanks.

P.S. how much water do yours get (do you water or drip them, or rely on rain)?

P.S. how much water do yours get (do you water or drip them, or rely on rain)?

It's typically in full Summer sun from about 10:00am until 6:00pm from July through September. Does get some shade from the roof overhang in the weeks around the June solstice. Our soil is blackland prairie clay, though it's mixed with quite a bit of builder sand in that particular bed along with the compost we've applied over the years. Probably the driest bed on our property due to the orientation, roof overhang, gutters, and drains.

We turned off the irrigation to that bed and hand water/drip only as needed. Once a week or less this time of year, though our neighborhood has had several nicely spaced localized rains - the best since 2006 or so.

Just took a closer look and the outer/exposed leaves are lighter green than the inner/shaded ones. Pretty uniform, so not that noticable until a branch is peeled back. So guess it is suffering some from the light. Suppose it may have "faded" like that last year and I just didn't catch it. Will update if it turns ugly.

Just FYI, I decided to go another direction on this (ultra simple, low/no maintenance). I may add a few things to it over time, but maybe not. Just Mexican Feathergrass and Mexican Heather...looks better in person than these pictures.

I always recomend keeping the hell strip simple. Most hell strips I see here in central Texas where the home owner had good intentions are now ugly and weedy. Its rare where i see one worth looking at. I have neighbors that fill it with sharp agaves and cactus. One of mine just planted a colorado sage in the devil strip.