A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Space between curb and sidewalk

We have a strip of grass that is about 2-2 1/2 feet wide that runs between our front sidewalk and the curb. Hubby and I have talked about digging out the grass and planting a perennial garden in the space instead of the grass. I like that idea, tho, at times people do park at the curb, so I'm afraid they'd step on the flowers there. Nobody else on our street has done this, so I don't want it to look out of place. There are a couple of houses in the next town that have done this and I like how it looks, but those houses are kind of on their own and they neighbor each other, so it doesn't look out of place. The length of the space is about 40 feet with a 3 foot walk stone in the middle. The space is between two drive ways, which helps to somewhat define the space...but our property ends about 4 feet short of either drive way. It does have a slight slope...higher at the curb (about 5 inches maybe) and sloping down to the sidewalk, which is made with slate slabs.

Give me some ideas!....I don't have any clues as to where to start.

Here are a couple pictures of the area...

I think a low growing perennial would be nice also.

Also they have "stepables" at garden centers.. Like Sunny said low growing maybe place some flat rock here and there and plant between them with stepables,or low growing sedum that blooms in the summer, Dew plant, or ice plant will look good thrown in there as well, so you get some small flower of different colors too. I've seen that done here,, it looked great,, I liked it alot, the one I liked best tho was the large flat rock laid here and there with stepables planted in between it there is such a large variety of them in different shades of green from Lime green to dark green

and remember if you do plant the stepables, they go dormant in the winter but if you leave them alone they will come back the next season.

I like that idea



I wonder how these 'stepables' mixed with a low growing perennial would look together?? I'm going to have to do some research now!! Thanks ladies!!!



We get snow and I only shovel the walks...other than that, we don't use the curb at all during the winter because our vehicles get filthy. I like the idea of the 'stepables'...going to have to talk to the uncle down in Altoona who owns the greenhouse to see if he can get some to be on the cheap. Thanks for the idea!!

Some steppables also smell heavenly when walked on. ....added bonus.

I'm looking at the Purple Mazus along with one of the really low growing sedum. Hubs likes the idea of getting rid of the grass, so now I just have to find stones for cheap.

oh that would be awesome,, flat Stones at home depot break them so you get two for one

I'm going to walk down to the creek first. We had MAJOR flooding here in September. As in the town I live in was literally an island because the creek that goes around us flooded soo badly. The creek usually sits at about 2 feet deep and it was up to 19 or 20 feet when it finally crested. Lots of homes were destroyed. ANYWAYS, there are rocks where there didn't used to be rocks and I can take ones that will work for the space between the slabs and the curb.

sounds like a great idea!! Good Luck and happy finding!

I have some sort of perennial thyme growing, it's short and lovely. Smells heavenly and only grows 6 inches tall.

I think I'd go for something that got about 6" tall too

I agree with Belinda & Sunny--and there are several varieties of stepables, so you go in a lot of different directions with that.

something colorful that would really pop out

Wonder what hisgal decided to use.