Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Planting the “Hell strip” aka boulevard
I shared about my favorite new book on Monday, “A Northern Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators”. Today I want to include some of their information on planting the “Hell Strip” also known as the boulevard.
This is the place that almost always looks lousy as it gets a beating from cars, trucks and road salt. Or drought…
Consider planting native wildflowers. DO make sure that you check your city ordinances regarding height. On my corner where my butterfly garden it’s only supposed to be 4 ft. tall. Also find out where utility lines are before any digging.
The authors, Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla, share 40 plants for this area. I will not be naming all of them! Grasses are some of my very favorite plants. Side-oats grama grass is a warm-season grass with small oat-like seeds that dangle along one side of the stalk.
Small bright purple and orange flowers bloom in August and September. It’s a larval host for several Skipper butterflies and moths. Side-oats grama goes well with the yellow flowers of Black-eyed susan (rudbeckia hirta).
Pennsylvania sedge and Little bluestem are also great grass choices for the boulevard. Both of which I have!
Prairie Smoke blooms early in the season. It is a distinctive prairie wildflower with irresistible pink feathery seed heads.
Each flowering stem holds three nodding pink bell-shaped flowers. Once the flowers are fertilized, the real show begins as the nodding blooms transform into upright clusters of wispy pink plumes. I love this plant and it’s hardy to zone 3!
Time to prairie up the boulevard!