Cracks and crevices in pavement will grow weeds, so I suppose that some desirable plants would grow. There may be a concern that the roots will damage or further damage the paving.

Come to think of it, my house has a patio made of large concrete pavers, not used much after a deck was added on another side of the house. The previous owners grew woodland strawberries (fraises des bois) in the gaps between the pavers. A new variety called Mara des Bois that is grown commercially in France is available in the U.S.

I've seen English and English-style cottage gardens with creeping thyme planted between paving stones, but in those gardens the gaps were intentional and a bit larger.

The strips between the street and the sidewalks are, I believe called hell strips. We have recently moved to a very historical area and most of the homes have very formal front yards. Coming from a country area, we have to be kind of careful as to not get too crazy in our yard!

What we are having fun with (and being a little different from the neighborhood norm) is planting a succulent garden in the hellstrip!

If you're on a street where people walk their dogs a lot, I would keep any herbs or edible plants away from the sidewalks, yuk!

As for things in cracks and those type of areas, sweet alyssum (needs some water, maybe next to a lawn), mosses,?...there's a site called walkables so that has all sorts of ground covers that you can walk on and are very hardy!

nancy

The strips between the street and the sidewalks are, I believe called hell strips.

Research in American dialects shows that a significant share of the population knows of no name at all for the grassy area between the street and the sidewalk, and where there is a name for it, the name varies by region:

• devil strip, hell strip
• curb lawn (this may not be the most widely used, but it is the most understood)
• parkway (which to others means the grassy area in the middle of a wide street)

and, if you are from northeastern Ohio (me, me!):

tree lawn. (This term is so little used anywhere else that it is a marker for northeastern Ohio.)

Many of the trees on tree lawns in Ohio towns were elms and are there no more. Where I grew up most were maples.

We'll, we have no lawn on these strips, so I'm sticking with hellstrip. Our succulents are filling in nicely and we have received many compliments! Our new next door neighbors are thinking of doing the same thing. Nancy

Between the sidewalk and home? Like street | dirt | sidewalk | dirt | home? Or between the road and the sidewalk? For the latter call the city to make sure of what you can plant, some lots have restrictions (height, etc.)

If people walk on the sidewalk they'll crush what's in the cracks underfoot won't they?

I was talking about between the road and sidewalk. The OP was talking about cracks (where I have tons of volunteer parsley for some reason in the backyard ) and areas between the house and walkway. I found a nice area between the house and sidewalk and planted a nice little garden.

If you are referring to narrow cracks, I have a large boulder in my garden with creeping sedums and moss growing in minimal soil in the cracks and crevices.

A few years back, I planted lettuce in my backyard. A seed must have gotten loose because I noticed a lettuce head growing between the sidewalk cracks on front of the garage!