If you were to get a chip drop @IntrepidNewbie you could easily cover the whole strip with cardboard and put a healthy layer of woodchips on top then let it sit until you want to plant it in the future. You’ll have a good place to plant most things at that point as long as you follow regulations… Are you allowed any trees?
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Thanks for the idea!
I pre-ordered Judith’s favorite, thanks!
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One other plant you might think about is catmint. We’ve had it planted near the street (though technically not in the hell strip), and it seems to hold up just fine. Nice-looking and pleasantly aromatic foliage, very long bloom period, very attractive to bees and other beneficial insects. Does benefit from being sheared back when it stops blooming in late summer, and then again to clear away the previous year’s growth in the spring, but otherwise very low-maintenance (and the foliage is dense enough to suppress weeds, which is a definite plus). We have the variety called Walker’s Low, which gets to be about two feet wide and maybe a foot to a foot and a half tall.
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I’m not sure if mine qualifies as a hellstrip since we don’t have sidewalks here, but just across the road in the county right-of-way there is a narrow strip between the road and a wood fence that used to be waist-high weeds. Over the course of a few years I have weeded and planted it with flowering cacti (mostly Opuntia sp.), since there is no irrigation in that area. They are getting large now and bloom beautifully in the spring.
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That sounds amazing. Any chance of photos?
Maybe in the spring when they bloom. I don’t have any photos right now.
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My hellstrip was my shade garden for 15 years, I already have snow drops appearing. I have every single bulb imaginable under layers and layers of mulch and dirt I hauled in. Then I put in lungwort and other shade perennials. All the old trees on my dead end are coming down one at a time. With all the new sun, I seriously considering planting fruit trees here. That maple won’t be there forever.
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Seattle tends to have wider rights-of-way, so people often plant trees in the “planting strip,” though the city tries to discourage anything messy in their permitting process. My neighbor has sweet and sour cherries planted, and I’ve got one of my frost-damaged little avocado trees planted in mine:
I often see raised beds with berries or veggies, as well. But mostly ornamental trees.
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Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
What is the middle purple/pink flower with the variegated leaves?
Lungwart. (Raspberry something) I think Marblehead Garden Center has it in their shade section.
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the city here ignores my neighborhood unless you block a stop sign or break a water main.
my hellstrip is 100 feet long and 3 feet wide. full sun, no water access. high desert. right now it’s weeds, garbage grass, and dirt patches. it’s about an inch above the sidewalk level. I dream of planting native plants into it but it’s a busy road- they salt it occasionally in winter, plow feet of snow up onto it and people walk across the surface regularly. it’s between the sidewalk and the road itself so passage for pedestrians is important
maybe raised beds. maybe.
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You could do a couple of those with plenty of space between them for people to walk, but if there’s no easy way to water them, that might be less worthwhile to go to all that effort. I’d put cherry tomatoes there so passersby get snacks 
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my thinking is natives like sage and stuff that needs no or little water, I think maybe some kind of dry land berry at most
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Mints are hardy and put up a nice flower.
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Possibly bearberry (arctostaphyllos uva-ursi)? Said to be salt tolerant, I believe.
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Someone on my block plants a handful of native sunflower, Helianthus Annus, the one with multiple blooms. It hosts a dozen or so Goldfinches which is just absolutely glorious. They keep it from spilling over the sidewalk with some stakes and string.
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