Hello everyone,
I am thinking of stripping the grass from the parking strip and planting some edibles instead. Right now, there is a very old cercis tree in the middle (plan to keep it of course). Most of the strip is in shade or part shade due to a tree on the next lot.
Any suggestions for what I could grow? Zone 8b pnw,
I would be concerned about auto brake dust getting on the edibles.
How short is short? You could put in currants or rhubarb.
When you say parking strip, you don’t actually mean that cars will be parking on top of it, do you? I am imagining you mean the right-of-way between your lot and the street, where people might walk on it when they are crossing the street or getting in and out of cars? What about local dogs getting walked, will there be a pet waste concern?
I would also not want to eat anything that was regularly parked on by cars, or pooped on by dogs, but otherwise I’d suggest something like miner’s lettuce (a native edible here in the PNW), or if it’s going to be trampled more then maybe something like thyme. Hostas are another edible & ornamental option, though might not handle trampling as well.
As others have mentioned, we are all a little confused on the planting area but assuming its not being driven over, or covered in dog feces you have a couple of options. Alpine strawberries, musk strawberries, formosan carpet raspberry/wineberry (I haven’t grown either raspberry but they’re suppose to be shade tolerant) currants/gooseberries (other members in zone 8 have mentioned that currants/gooseberries may suffer from the heat but if in shade most of the day it may not be an issue), on the other hand golden crandall currant reportedly can take the heat and it grows and fruits well in my shaded garden which only gets 3-4 hours of sun per day. You could also consider thimbleberry which isn’t particularly productive but is very tasty. Pawpaws and actinidia kolomiktas are shade tolerant but take up a decent amount of room and I’m not quite sure how much land we are talking about here.
There are also a plethora of vegetable options.
Carpet raspberries do fantastic but they taste bland like a better than average salmonberry.
You could add wintergreen for variety and some trailing blackberry if you wanted something native
That wasn’t my experience when I tasted some from a neighbor’s patch, they were very sweet, with an interesting flavor very unlike most raspberries. I’ve eaten lots of salmonberries on hikes and walks through parks, and never had one even half as sweet as these were:
I will say that they had very little tartness, but the flavor reminded me of tropical fruit and there was plenty of sugar. But they were growing in nearly full sun, so maybe that’s part of the reason they were so sweet.
Home parking strip? If so traffic should be light enough to keep the nasty chemicals down. If this is a business or building parking lot I would leave it alone.
If this is your parking strip, I would turn it into a raised bed, it doesn’t need to raise too much. Onions, carrots, heck even potatoes are low enough.
I was thinking raspberries too. They would come back fine if you or the city felt it needed to be mowed down. I have poppies in mine. They have been city mowed every year. They seem to come back every year by self seeding.
I don’t know, they don’t qualify as short for sure.
True, but small enough compared to a tree. But tall enough to for sure get mowed one way or another.
Parking strip/Hell strip are common terms to what you’re referring to so I got it as a fellow suburbian. How about an evergreen thicket like Salal?
Alternatively some short hazelnut variety which will require some maintenance pruning
+1 for this one, I’ve seen some people plant salal there in my neighborhood and it works well.
I have always had ornamental low shrubs in my parking strip for over 30 years and I find that extra time and effort is needed to get it watered in our hot summers, stretching the hose way out there and manually watering it. Most parking strips are too narrow and long for sprinklers. For the past 10 years have had a few potentillas out there.
In full sun, salal (and evergreen huckleberry, more edible than salal) would benefit from summer water.
I hear you!
Thank you! I have a tiny Crandall currant in a nursery pot in the backyard. I could love it out front.
Sorry for the confusion. There will be no cars parking on it. This is the piece of land between the sidewalk and the street. Ours is atkeast 15 feet wide and 40 feet wide. I am trying to find a more accurate word fir it.
Salal sounds like a great idea. I will look into it,
And huckleberry
This is a a residential site! Thank you for the suggestions!! I will look into them!!