Street Side

 We have started to work on the strip of land between our fence and one of the streets our house sits on.  This is a pretty narrow strip that we hated to mow, so we have expanded the garden from the other side of the fence right to the curb.  Basically, we have eliminated all of the grass on this side of the house. 

Here is a little before picture to show what we've done.  This is a picture that is from when we first moved in, so the rose hedge is missing from the front of the house, as is the shrub border that is inside the fence on the north side of the house.

Amazingly we didn't buy much specifically for this project.  A lot of the plants were label-less plants from work that couldn't be used due to their unknown cultivar names and the rest were either seeds we started ourselves or rock bottom clearance deals that we bought with no plan.

Echinacea purpurea unknown cultivar

Physostegia virginiana

Verbena bonariensis

Agave

Unknown Lantana

We also have some hearty aloes, variegated junipers, a bunch of different cultivars of Echinacea, a few types of Lantana, some Mexican Feather Grass, as well as the tropical milkweed I purchased earlier this year.  It is a work in progress and we will continue to add things as we go along.  We're trying to focus on plants that are good for pollinators/butterflies and that can handle the harsh conditions right along the street.  Since this is so close to the street and receives a lot of reflected heat/light there will be some things that just don't make it.

We're okay with this, after an entire garden can't be fussy and labor intensive.