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“hell strip” planting? #666338

Asked July 20, 2020, 10:07 AM EDT

I’m in central Denver & recently purchased an older home on a corner with a 20’ long by 2’ wide “hell strip” on either side of the sidewalk. It is due south facing, & gets full sun. For the strip adjacent to my yard (but separated from my turf by a graduated 30” tall 100 yr old stone wall), I plan to install a drip line to provide water. Across the sidewalk, I’m not sure if or how this will be watered- so uncertain if anything can ever grow in this strip (which happens to be only 12” wide, abutting the curb) I would like to use plant cover (vs rock) in front of my lovely old stone wall, but am hoping for something that is sturdy (some foot/dog traffic inevitable), relatively low maintenance, drought resistant- and spreads relatively quickly to completely fill in the space. Prefer, as well, that it not grow more than 2’ tall & fully hide the stone wall. Might you be able to offer a few suggestions of plants/flowers we may want to look at that might work well in such a space? Is anything likely to grow in the more narrow strip if not accessed permanently by a water source? Thank you!

Denver County Colorado

Expert Response

Hi, it looks like a pretty sunny area, so here are three links to possibly xeriscape plant lists for groundcovers. The first one lists plants that can take some light foot traffic:https://www.csu.org/CSUDocuments/groundcover.pdf

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/xeriscaping-ground-cover-plants-7-230/

https://plantselect.org/
An Ask Extension Expert Replied July 20, 2020, 10:38 AM EDT

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