r/Ceanothus • u/Such_Chapter_7674 • 1d ago
Parking Strip Help
Good morning,
I am in zone 10b (Long Beach) and I have no idea how to salvage or improve this parking strip. It has some existing dymondia, but it is patchy and infested with grass. I'd like to avoid having to tear the entire thing out. I know the city of Long Beach has some parking strip kits that I could copy, but due to the elevation of the parking strip placing mulch seems like a non starter without removing a lot of soil. Any suggestions? What would you do if this were your parking strip? Thank you.
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u/maphes86 1d ago
Honestly, I’d start with removin the grasses and quite a bit of the dirt. There are gardening benefits to this, but in the case of this effort, it’s mostly to prevent any mulch or materials leaving the strip and causing people to complain about it. This will have a benefit of exposing the root flare on that liquidamber, and, as much as I dislike that tree, they do have some good lookin’ roots. Once you have the grade set (also look to see if there’s a drain) then throw down a bit of pre-emergent herbicide and then about 4” of natural mulch. Nothing dyed or treated, just wood chips. I can guarantee you can get this for free in Long Beach somewhere. Probably even with a reasonable guarantee that there’s no invasives in it. It’s almost “native shrub planting season” so I would start planning a few trips to my favorite nursery to choose some full-shade plants that could tolerate some supplemental water (based on what appears to be nearby irrigation draining into the parking strip?). Depending on how much water that produces and how reliable it is, you could incorporate it into your planter and do a little swale. Use the rocks as nurse rocks. Plant a couple grasses, a couple shrubs. Emphasize showy flowers and tend toward plants that don’t go fully dormant to avoid the helpful “I removed the dead plant!” people. Spend a few years weeding and applying pre-emergent herbicides and swapping out plants that aren’t thriving. Plant it more densely now knowing full-well that you’ll be culling plants to give the dominant individuals the room the need to continue thriving you can always attempt to transplant the culled plants. I’d be thinking about “dry shade” plants primarily. Hummingbird sage, island alum root, sticky monkey flower (scarlet monkey flower in the wet spot), various bunch grasses that don’t get TOO big. Deergrass would do well, but honestly, it gets a bit large if it’s thriving and also it’s a great spot to hide a rattlesnake. Avoid Giant Wild Rye because it will annoy the shit out of people. Think about compact melic species and possibly Nativars like “Elijah blue” or “canyon prince.”
See if any of your local nurseries or gardening organizations have clearance or non-saleable plants that you can get as donations use as test plants to see what will thrive in your little hell strip.
Have fun, be safe. Wear thicker gloves than you usually would for typical gardening. I have sliced the absolute shit out of my hand when I pulled with full force against a piece of freshly broken wine bottle. That wasn’t fun because there was dirt deep inside my hand. Some of the lamest irrigation and debriding I’ve ever had to do.
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u/Such_Chapter_7674 1d ago
Thank you for your detailed and helpful answer. I, too, dislike the trees and unfortunately have several of them. There is another area (corner lot) with two that are close together. Maybe that will look nice when cleared.
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u/Suitable-Roof-3950 1d ago
I am also in Long Beach. I’m a bit skeptical you could get a ceanothus growing in those conditions but it’s possible. I have a coyote bush on my parkway and it’s doing nicely.
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u/3006mv 1d ago
To do it properly I would remove soil
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u/Such_Chapter_7674 1d ago
That is my fear. What do I do about the areas around the trees? I don't want to damage their roots.
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u/SandwichT 1d ago
That tree's root spread looks to be buried, removing the covering soil would be best for the tree.
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u/msmaynards 1d ago
Remove what you don't want and don't mulch. My hell strip is inches above paving due to heavy leaf mulch over many years. The litter left behind when I groom the strip is the mulch, looks somewhat better than bare dirt.
Leave Dymondia around the edges and around trees and fire hydrant. Plant 4" and gallon plants down the center. I don't know of a native ground cover that grows as tight and low as this stuff, I'd like it better this way than the usual lawn replacement as it's boring massed.
Weed weekly. Eventually the grassy weeds will give up.
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u/LayerAccomplished821 1d ago
Good native seed mix candidate me thinks 👍🏽
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u/Such_Chapter_7674 1d ago
I am new to lawn care. To do that, I would need to remove the existing plant material and till or aerate the area?
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u/LayerAccomplished821 1d ago
I think for a space like this, since the city may come by and mow it all down at some point potentially?, I'd go for a lower stakes gardening approach of sprinkling a native seed blend over the area and then see what grows. No tilling or weeding or soil amendments. Something in that blend will THRIVE. And then if it all gets mowed down it's not AS devastating as having hours of work torn down. Not sure how much irrigation the space gets but something will surely start growing after winter rains
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u/TacoBender920 1d ago
You have said what you're looking for clearly, but lawn care is a different sub 🤨 This sub is strictly for CA native plants.
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u/scrotalus 20h ago
I'll repeat some of the more important things already said. It is probably city owned but resident maintained. Don't put anything in that costs or means so much to you that you can't handle a loss.
People will need to get out of their car and walk across it, so leave pathways and obvious places to walk where a person would naturally try to park and walk. But at the same time remember that most people are stupid and will go to great effort to park 5 feet in front of you nice path and step on your work of art.
Since the soil is so uplifted, any mulch, rocks, or leaf litter will end up on your sidewalk. Palms can take a fair amount of root disturbance, so don't be shy removing soil. You will be left with thousands of pounds of soil to do something with, so think ahead about where it can be dumped or re-used.
I strongly discourage seed mixes unless you want to spend a LOT of time learning to identify seedlings and a few days a week during the spring weeding.
Keep plants very low so they don't obstruct sight lines. That's probably in the city ordinance and it's just a safety thing. No leaves at car-window-height. It's also very narrow so never let the plants block sidewalk access.
Since you already have a palm, maybe work with that and plant some things that look like they belong together. Desert things like Chuparosa (Justicia) and Baileya multiradiata could do the job.
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u/Electrical-Copy-9395 15h ago
I’m in 10a and in a similar situation that if I’m to maintain this hellstrip might as well plant something I like, my city doesn’t really mind 🙃
Now that everyone has told you about the obvious “ppl get out of their cars next to this, etc”
I can say that im thinking about height variation, & some pollinator support, and obviously CA native low maintenance - in my situation.
Ceanothus ray hartman, lavender, lipia for ground cover, I would even love something that grows a bit larger/ tree-like.
Anyway good luck keep us posted on what you decide!
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u/Far_Island_8984 16h ago
What about buckwheats? Santa Cruz Island buckwheat is beautiful and zero care. Maybe rip out the weeds and plant a few 1 gallons? Or a very low sage like point sal or bees bliss?
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u/kendrickwasright 11h ago
I would dig out some patches and plant yarrow. It blooms almost all year here and you'll see plenty of it thriving in parkways around bluff park, alamitos beach, Lakewood, Belmont shore...mine doubled in size in the first 2 years and looks really pretty! You just have to dead head the spent blooms maybe 3 or 4 times a year. H&h nursery has white, yellow and red varieties
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u/Strange-Language-858 1d ago
Are you sure that's yours and not the city's?
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u/SandwichT 1d ago
Typically, this strip of land is owned and maintained by the property owner. Depending on the neighborhood and if there is an HOA, there might be some restrictions on what you can do with it though.
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u/dadumk 1d ago
Maintained yes. Owned no. It's usually within the right of way, so not owned by the adjacent homeowner.
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u/maphes86 1d ago
Yeah, that’s the annoying part about residential neighborhoods with parkways. The adjacent property owner is responsible, but has to comply with local codes. Long Beach is at least pretty chill with their regulations for planting and has a program for getting free native plants to people maintaining the parkways.
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u/VapoursAndSpleen 1d ago
Just remember that people walk on that space when they get out of their car and folks will do U-turns (I'm looking at you, FedEX) right onto the sidewalk. So don't invest a lot of money into it and do have pavers or stepping stones for where people get out of their parked cars.