No suggestions, but wanted to tell you how lovely that picture is. Around here, no one plants flowers/roses in those areas. How delightful to walk along there. Do people swipe any roses/flowers? Hope not.

Kate

Holy Mackerel! She well SHOULD have been mortified at getting caught at blatant theft like that.

My MIL had some women come and do that to her Bird of Paradise bushes. Some woman marched in the driveway (not the road side strip!!) chopped easily a dozen blooms and started walking away. MIL raced out the door, caught up with her and ripped the blooms out of her arms. The woman got all defensive and said she wanted them FOR A PARTY, and didn't want to pay the florists price...! MIL said that doesn't give you permission to steal from me! I GREW those bushes. I GREW those flowers. YOU didn't even ASK for them, you came and cut them and were stealing them. Woman didn't want to pay MIL for the cut blooms any more than she wanted to pay the florist, so MIL had the blooms in multiple vases on the dinner table. She told that story for years.....

Makes my light fingered grandmother who would pull off a stem of freesias look like a piker! I HATE when people steal flowers from a yard, that's so rude and just unacceptable. I've planted some bright yellow irises outside my fence line, and I may see some theft once they're established and blooming, but I'm rural, and not that many people walk along the road here. I don't see other neighbors flowers that stick out past the fences get taken, so I'm hoping mine won't either.

I also have some roses & other plants right up to my sidewalk. From time to time I have noticed some of the blooms disappear but never caught anyone doing it. Another thing that happens & I have caught people at is letting their dogs pee on my plants. One day a lady stopped & commented how nice my garden looked and then proceeded 30' further, stopped & let her leashed dog water some shrubs...AAAAHHHH! In fairness to dog owners, most keep their dogs from doing this but there is always a few clueless people in every group.

Beautiful Jackie! In addition to its looking lovely you've also created yet one more area for the bees, butterflies and other small creatures. I wish everyone would do this.

Ingrid

I invite my neighbors to pick the roses. It makes for happy, even helpful neighbors ad makes them feel involved in the garden. They are welcome to and do bring friends to tour the garden. I've never had anyone abuse the privilege.

A beautiful planting, Jackie, even inspired.

That is a beautiful way to line the sidewalk. It makes it more of a path. My street does not have a sidewalk or a curb. But I would like to make a short hedge dividing my front yard from the street. What is the white rose in your picture?

Thanks, Anne

That is beautiful. How I wish I could do that in my neighborhood but the city will not allow us to plant in that area and they "own" (I paid for it and paid the taxes on it) the easement of my property which is several feet and then the underground utilities are buried all over and under the front. I would love having a curb view like that. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Jackie, this is so great. What a favor you have done for your neighborhood. It certainly shows the value of landscape roses.

Anne - the tallish white rose in the foreground is 'Snow on the Heather' (Kordes, 1995). The also tallish one just beyond it is 'Snowbelt', aka 'Cassie' (1997). Both of those are great roses.

My City also "owns" both the strip between the sidewalk and the street, AND the strip between our front wall and the sidewalk (that is why there is such a large set back from the street on all of the properties on our street). However, they encourage folks to plant these areas - the City does not have any money to do so, and recognizes that otherwise they would be just weeds. They do request that plantings right along the street be fairly short (mine are too tall, but in 15 years they have not complained).

A funny thing happened after we put in all of this planting - over the next 5 years our neighbors who have property along the rest of the block (with just weeds growing in these areas), both on our side of the street and on the other side, also planted the areas in front of their houses! Some of them just put in grass, and others plants, but they take care of them, and the entire block now looks way nicer.

Jackie

Every locale has a different name for the area; but in my neck of the woods we call the area between the sidewalk and the street the "parkway." Normally, folks will just regard this area as an extension of the lawn, which these days isn't very practical. After pondering the situation for literally many years, I went to work and made about a third of the parkway area into disjunct flower beds in the form of swirls or French curves, designed to complement and enhance the sight lines or flow of people going one way or the other down the street (I'm on a corner, which adds another element to the equation). It's very much still in the trial and error phase as to what works and what doesn't, as far as the plants to be used. The more compact Polyanthas work, as presumably would the lowest Floribundas; otherwise, daylilies and Irises have proven useful, as have various plants usually associated with rock gardening or the world of succulents and xerophytes, as well as some bulbs (I have a Eucomis humilis patch, from seed, blooming right now for the first time) and areas for bedding plants. Yes, the occasional flower-picker or stepper-onner experience will happen now and then; but the worst by far was someone who took a fancy to a ("black") daylily, and so, one fine night, dug the whole plant up and carted it off. What made me saddest about this was that they really didn't dig deep enough, and so likely their conscience ended up bearing not only a theft but also the death of the plant. Anyway, this arrangement then is another option: a design of half lawn, half flower beds. I have a notion that some day I'll replace the lawn portions in the parkway with continuous Dianthus; but that will take quite a massive and lengthy effort...

Odinthor - sounds gorgeous! Can you post any pictures? Does ANYONE have any pictures they could post of plantings of this sort of location? I would love to see some!

Jackie

There is a woman named Lauren Springer who wrote an article about planting that area, which she called the he!! strip. It's in Sunset, May 2002. I thought I'd seen the article reprinted somewhere but if so, I can't find it now. High Country Gardens (now out of business) picked up her idea but renamed it the inferno strip, both names due to the difficulty in growing plants in that area with concrete radiating heat at it from both sides. In gentler climates such as northern California, the heat may not be such an issue.

By the way, in her book The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resistant Beauty, she includes a chapter on roses, mostly old roses.

Rosefolly

We don't have sidewalks in our subdivision so anything planted on the street curb is pretty much fair game. I have had blooms taken many times from my street bed. I only care because they tear them off and damage the plants in the process. If they'd ask I'd be more than happy to cut them a bouquet if they wanted. The other problem is that they always seem to take them the week of my show!!! Frustrating!! Any other time I probably wouldn't care but when you've been pampering something along in the hope that it will be just right to cut Saturday morning and it disappears on Friday night you go a little bonkers, lol!

Oh yes - Reclaim the Pavement! I have been doing something of the sort with many terracotta pots which are garden overflow. Over the last 10 years, what started as 3 or 4 pots has now morphed into some 60odd containers, stretching across the front of my house (and lately, the back). Encouragingly, we are 9 houses in a terrace and 5 of us now have containers outside on the hard standing public pavement (ranging from a few neat sempervivums to a pair of huge golden bay trees).
A very lovely verdant scene, Jaqueline. My view doesn't come close to yours (will aspire onwards and upwards though).

Oh, Jackie, what a beautiful garden you added to the neighborhood! Our neighborhood sidewalk is on the other side of the street, so we don't have one. Technically, the first six or eight feet from the curb are easement and if you plant there, you could lose it if they have to dig. That hasn't been an issue yet, but I found out the hard way that that area is basically roadbed made of clay and limerock nicely compacted. The only plant life that really thrives there is liriope, so I went heavy with them on both sides of the circle. Roses are no closer than about 8' except for a Gruss an Aachen that I was about to toss. I threw in lots of sulfur and told it to sink or swim. It swam pretty well until a few weeks ago when I gave it away. I have a Drift rose there now. Daylilies, Salvia farinacea, Dianthus chinensis and volunteer larkspur, Vinca major 'Periwinkle' and Purple coneflowers inhabit the the edge of the street. In the center the gravel of the circle goes all the way to the curb. Oh, Red Cascade also lives within a few feet of the curb and doesn't seem to mind. I have a bed on the other side of the driveway where I threw caution to the wind and planted White Maman Cochet about 4' from the curb. It's doing fine and now has the salvia in front of it. I also have potted roses near the curb in the circle.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Sherry - thank you, thank you, for the beautiful picture and descriptions! Just what I wanted to see. Your street frontage is so much prettier than just grass!

Your soil will improve the longer things grow in it and you put mulch on it - magic, sort of. I am even getting volunteer bulbs & flowers appearing out by the street - in the Winter during our heavy rains the storm gutter floods all over the beds, and must deposit plant life, as well as the birds do, of course.

Re the easement - our strip out by the street contains the City street trees. Once one had to be taken out (it really did - had buckled the pavement horribly), and when they came to re-do the pavement, the City arborist called me to come look - the tree roots were huge and solid under the sidewalk, nothing to do. Anyway, he let me choose from a list what tree should be re-planted there, and advised me which roses should be moved, and how far away, and was altogether very helpful and friendly.

Jackie

My next door neighbour has a low hedge of 23 roses along the pavement, Madame Boll alternating with Rose de Rescht. Very beautiful and in flower for the whole season. I have no pictures.

I have inherited a tall and ugly spirea hedge along the pavement that I must keep for privacy. It backs our breakfast patio and I would like to go on having breakfast in my pyjamas. But I have added a thicket of white spinosissimas and Hansa on one side of the gate and four Agnes plants around it. People stop when Agnes is in flower and many ask for suckers but it doesn't produce any. I've tried to teach about rooting cuttings but many keep coming back for cuttings year after year.

I love everyone's plantings along the sidewalk! I would love to do that also but am not sure the roses would thrive in my heat so close to the street (reflected heat here). Your pictures give me a lot of inspiration though; beautiful!

No sidewalk or curb. We have gravel in the intermediate space between garden and street. Well, we used to have gravel, mostly it is weeds and mud.

I am so happy you posted a shot of your parkway because I have been looking for a good shrub rose for a low border where there is currently a liquid amber tree (coming down), pittosporum and Dr. Huey suckers. I love the look and description of Snowbelt. I read your previous posts as well as a few more comments about it, and it seems up for the job. I just ordered five from Heirloom. We'll see how it goes. Also, I have two Renaes from Burlingdton in pots waiting to get transplanted on either side of the arbor. In a few years I hope to have a more inspiring photo :-)

Thanks, Anne

Anne - you have a great space there for planting roses! Also the lovely arch/trellis thingy. What are you going to plant on that? I think you will like Snowbelt - it is completely healthy here (San Rafael).

Mariannese - your roses are lovely! No wonder people stop. That is one of the fun parts of planting the whatever strip - we get lots of compliments, no complaints.

Thank you both for posting pictures!

Jackie

Yes, I look forward to seeing how Snowbelt does. On either side of the arch trellis thingy I will plant climbing Renae when the two I have potted are bigger. And, between my house and my neighbors (the yellow house) I plan on putting Perle D'Or and something else but I can't decide what. Hmmmm.

Anne

How about Spray Cecile Brunner? It gets about the same size as Perle D'Or around here, and would blend with it well.

Jackie

Yes, I may have a couple of those already. I am still trying to identify them.
There were some mystery roses here when we moved in with no tags and (to me) not obviously identifiable.

Your planting is lovely, Jackie. There are a lot of pretty photos here.
When I lived in Olympia naturally I gardened right up to the street. Some things I learned were not to plant anything there that I would deeply regret losing, and not to plant flowers that were good for cutting. Also to be very nice to anyone who actually came to my door and asked permission to cut a few flowers, rather than just taking them.
When I bought my house the neighborhood was just beginning a mild gentrification after a decade or two of decay. There wasn't much happening in the way of gardening. When I was well on my way planting things, people began apologizing to me for the state of their yards! And some people began gardening themselves. Jackie implied this in one of her comments to the effect that people treated the space better once she and her husband planted it and began taking care of it. Having these garden areas has a good effect on everyone.
This is slightly off topic, but I'm thinking about encouraging gardening in the neighborhood: one of my sisters every once in a while holds a plant giveaway, getting rid of her extra and unwanted plants. She lives in a very small town where everybody knows each other. The giveaway solves a double need of disposing of the plants, and encouraging others to garden.
Melissa

"How I wish I could do that in my neighborhood but the city will not allow us to plant in that area and they "own" (I paid for it and paid the taxes on it) the easement of my property which is several feet and then the underground utilities are buried all over and under the front. "

Patricia43, you can check your city code of ordinances. Many cities actually only say that one cannot erect a permanent structure (like a fence) on the easement, but do not say anything about plantings. Of course should there be some emergency and the city had to dig up one of its utility pipes, the plants would have to go, but in many places one can indeed plant. It is the HOAs more than the city that might proscribe planting the strips.