A joyous "hell strip" planting

All sun-loving annuals, perfect for a challenging spot

Several years ago I stumbled on this beautiful front garden in an area of the city full of heritage homes. It was such a striking complement to the house, a charming clapboard cottage, with paned windows and a welcoming front porch.

The planting in front was joyous and full, and I was entranced by the fact that all of the plants chosen were annuals.

More than this, half of the area that was planted was known as the “hell strip”, that is, the no-man’s-land between the sidewalk and the road.

Of course this meant that the homeowners were keenly aware of the difficulties that this location presented: that is, it was likely already planted with “sod” (at least, the grass that was once there was now patchy and weedy) which they removed; it was an area that would be damaged by sidewalk plows and road salt in the winter; it would be attractive to dogs leaving their “mail”; it would be used as an exit from parked cars; and it would be a receptacle for cigarette butts, candy wrappers and all kinds of debris from passersby. It also had a mature tree in the centre, a Japanese tree lilac, which because of its positioning, belonged to the city.

So, choosing how to plant this area would be tricky.

Many gardeners have tried their hands at planting “hell strips” and have usually settled on low growing plants, that is, perennial groundcovers like sedum and thyme, among others. In this way, the planting could be unassuming and low maintenance, and likely go unnoticed by bylaw enforcement who could surely pull the plug on such violations.

But this gardener was having none of that.

They wanted colour, height and movement and so the plants were chosen accordingly.

The colour theme is chartreuse, purple and pink with a touch of orange for contrast. This combination is satisfying because it uses colours that are complementary, that is, across from each other on the colour wheel — chartreuse and purple. Orange provides a visually stimulating break and is located halfway between purple and chartreuse on the wheel.

Moses Harris, in his book The Natural System of Colours (1776), presented this color palette

From the lowest to the tallest, the plants chosen are these:

Cleome hassleriana, likely ‘Violet Queen’ (spider flower), with sprays of flowering stems, with deep pink blooms at the top;

Verbena bonariensis (Tall verbena), with blooms that were dusky purple buttons atop tall spindly stems;

Pennisetum alopecuroides (Fountain grass), languorously tilting toward the roadside, with pink-tinged seedheads resembling fox tails;

Ipomoea batatas ‘Margarita’ (Margarita sweet potato vine), the chartreuse foliage plant creating clusters of bright colour, leaves one atop the other;

Begonia semperflorens (Wax begonia), just a touch more pink in the mid-zone;

Celosia plumosa, likely ‘Ice Cream Yellow’ (Yellow/orange celosia) provides the surprising orange contrast;

Brassica oleracea (ornamental cabbage) is an addition that only gets better with age and cooler temperatures, its rosette form a grounding influence;

Petunia ‘Wave Purple’ (purple wave petunia) is the vigorously growing purple flowered groundcover, creeping in between the sweet potato vine.

Try a planting like this yourself in the spring. All of these annuals are sun-loving and can tolerate mediocre soil, but if you want them to really take off, top-dress the bed with well-rotted manure or compost before you plant and water with a diluted natural fertilizer through the summer. Planted densely like this, they shouldn’t need huge amounts of water — just a bit if the summer gets really dry — and of course, there will be few if any weeds. And best of all, no staking, no deadheading and no fuss. And in the fall, pull them all up (or cut them to the ground) and toss them in your composter for what us gardeners call “black gold” — nature’s best fertilizer.