Hell Strip

Whatever you call the small planting area between the sidewalk and the street in front of your house, I'm sure you'll agree it's kind of annoying when thinking of what to do/plant there. It does allow for some infiltration of water, a break up of the asphalt and pavement and street trees, so it's not all bad. But it's a very odd, narrow piece of real estate.

When we moved in our hellstrip was a collection of various weeds, dried grass and a diseased/dying street tree. Not too great. Our landlord talked of just dumping rocks or gravel there so it wouldn't look so blighted.

Luckily our city of Emeryville decided to plant trees in empty spots and replace any sick and dying trees in our neighborhood. They hired an actual arborist and even let us choose the tree from a list of 10 species. Then they cut out part of the sidewalk to give the tree more space. Way to go Emeryville!

We chose a red maple. As did our neighbors on either side, so it should be nice this Fall. They dug out the old trees. In November, right before our rainy season, they properly planted the new trees and watered them in. They even brought in some new dirt (compost for some, but it looks like they ran out before they got to us).

We then planted a Festuca californica on either side of the tree and put a groundcover of Fragaria vesca. In the other narrower section we dug up some mint from the backyard to compete with the weeds. Invasive true, but less invasive than the Mexican feather grass the city planted all up and down our block. And a California honeysuckle to train up our street sweeping sign.

It's starting to look real nice, though it still needs a lot of weeding.