Xeric Parkway Strip

Year Opened: 2006
Garden Designer: Lauren Springer

Also called the "Hell Strip," a term coined by garden designer and horticulturist Lauren Springer in her bestselling gardening book The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty, the Xeric Parkway Strip showcases long-lived, easy-care plants that thrive in intense heat with low water input.

Located along Botanical Lane to the south of The Gardens, the Xeric Strip's design is simple, naturalistic and bold, with unifying repetition of species, forms and textures to be easily read and enjoyed by drive-by traffic as well as pedestrians and bicyclists. Plants are of low stature for safety and sight lines.

Featuring:

At 350 feet long, this garden is an exceptionally large example of a diverse boulevard planting
Locally-quarried pea gravel serves as a healthy mulch
The lower stature of the plants invite closer viewing from both the street and the sidewalk
Large clumping grasses, yuccas and evergreen manzanitas serve as accents threaded throughout, with year-round appeal; perennials, self-sowing annuals and biennials and bulbs punctuate seasonally with floral color drama
Has been featured in the several national magazines as well as a number of books over the past decade