There was asphalt under the junipers and rock garden along the sidewalk of this property in Ballard so we pulled that out and put in crocosmia, more catmint, various sedums and some annuals for color.
The plants I chose for the parking strip were barberry (to keep the dogs out) and some pretty tough drought tolerant catnip and some smaller, golden barberry along with sedums and wooley thyme. We put river rock along the curb and one path going perpendicular to the strip so those getting out of a car parked alongside would have a place to step. We ran a simple soaker hose through the area to get the plants watered the first year. After that they should be fine. Did I mention this whole project had to be done in 2 weeks in order to get ready for a bridal shower?! Yikes!
The whole parking strip was also asphalt so putting in living, growing things made a no brainer for beauty. I suggested to the clients that it would be wise to remove not only the asphalt, but also at least 8" of soil from under the asphalt so that we could get some good soil in there for the success of the future plants. We also decided that they should put a bit of a berm in the parking strip to help with privacy. This worked quite well since we left that area of stone next to the curb. We got a lot of good comments from passersby and neighbors.
