It is especially tempting to plant your government strip, or what I call the strip of grass between the road and the public sidewalk in front of your house, when you have a very small plot of land like myself.  When I bought the house the government strip was planted in the norm: turf.  Right in the middle was also a partially dead silver maple tree.  Knowing that silver maple is a weak wooded tree, I decided to remove it and was just left with the turf. 

I was inspired when I visited St. Louis, MO a few years ago for a PPA symposium (Perennial Plant Association).  We toured a commercial site that had been planned as an "eco-friendly" site featuring many native plantings.  There was one I especially liked, a simple mass planting of Echinacea purpurea (coneflower) and Sporobolus heterolepsis (prairie dropseed.)

I decided that would figure out a way to incorporate a similar planting into my own home garden.  This type of planting of coneflower and prairie dropseed would need full-sun and could tolerate tough, dry conditions.  I decided to go ahead and give it a try in my ~25' by 4' government strip. 

First step was to get rid of the turf and I did this by thickly layering cardboard and newspaper on top of the turf, spraying it down with water, and then putting a thick layer of leaf compost on top (soil works too).  I let this sit for an entire season or more and in the spring the ground was workable and plantable.  To keep costs down, I planted small plugs of the coneflower and prairie dropseed. 

I chose to plant Echinacea 'Ruby Star', a deeper rich purple/red selection. 

The planning occured in the spring of 2010.  Within a year and half, the "strip" has really begun to fill in with the coneflower and prairie dropseed and I really look forward to how it will develop even further.  The photos below were taken in August of 2011

I took the following photos earlier today.  To me, the echinacea and prairie dropseed offer some aesthetics even in the winter.  My hope also is that I will find some goldfinches feeding on the seedheads of the echinacea.

My recommendation to all gardeners is to think outside the box.  When you are limited in planting space, look to the unexpected places to plant your garden! 

 The OSU Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens here on the Ohio State campus in Columbus is a great resource for both professional and hobby gardeners.  When I was a horticulture student at OSU, I had the opportunity to work in these gardens.  Since graduating, I continued to work here and there for a couple years in the gardens as a "contractor".  There are many plants of interest in those gardens but currently, because it is fall, one sticks out in my mind: Hamamelis 'Girard's Purple' (Girard's Purple witchhazel).  Two years ago, I took a succession of photos of this witchhazel to document its length of fall color.  I plan on stopping by the gardens this week to see what stage Girard's Purple is in this year, check back for updates! 

Keep in mind that the fall color is only one of the attributes of Hamamelis 'Girard's Purple'.  It also produces mid-winter blooms (check back for a mid-winter post about this), has a nice vase shape habit, and has interesting scalloped dark green foliage throughout spring and summer. 

October 8th- fall color already a gorgeous russet red

October 22- turning to a bright red

October 29- in its full fall glory

Begonia grandis , or hardy begonia, is one of my favorite perennials.  Last fall when a gardener friend offered to give me a few plants from her garden, I instantly said yes!  I had known about Begonia grandis for awhile but hadn't gotten around to planting it in my garden.  Now, a year later, the plants are filling in nicely around the base of my Limelight hydrangea. 

Hardy begonia is listed as a Plant of Merit with 4.5 stars out of 5 on the Missouri Botanical Garden's website (mobot.org).  According to mobot's website, the hardy begonia is hardy to Zone 6 however I have seen it listed in other resources as hardy to Zone 5.  It  survived winter in my Zone 5 garden and I have witnessed it surviving year after year in a client's garden that is also Zone 5. 

Hardy begonia can get 1-2 feet tall and has pink blooms from July to October.  My favorite characteristic though, is the pronounced red veining on the underside of the heart-shaped foliage.  Like the annual begonia, hardy begonia performs best in part to full shade and in average to moist soils.  It mixes well in a woodland garden setting with plants such as hostas and ferns.  The plants can self-seed but not aggressively.  It's native range is from Malaysia to China and Japan.