Tough Plants for The Parking Hellstrip

Since my older sister was such a cool teenager, I still carry the baggage of geeky-brother-inferiority little brother syndrome. My sister drove a yellow school bus— a full-sized, full-of-unseatbelted teens when she was in tenth grade.  What chance did I have?

Her male friends were almost as cool. One of them happened to be my boss, after-school, baling hay. He had an old Ford truck with a wooden box he’d made himself to saddled around the 4-in-the-floor stick to hold his eight-track collection.

I rode a moped to work. I listend to Micheal Jackson’s The Wiz soundtrack on a record player.

Cool, competent, older siblings became my models, then they became baby boomers and all the while, I (and a lot of other younger brothers) looked at them with awe. You’d think that all these decades later and by this advanced age, I’d be over that. But not completely—though I occasionally see a few fautls of the man behind the curtain.

My friend Charlie, is one of those guys. He pretty much does everything right. He hand churns ice cream and passes it out to friends. And probably homeless people. He helps out his old aunt. He pays a six year old to brush the cat. He’s a traveler, an art collector, and a skilled horticulturalist.

Working together, we made the best team, pushing each other to hone skills. He has an unparalleled eye for color combinations. Charlie can look at a new plant and access what it needs to thrive.

His front yard hell-strip, that inhospitable planting/parking zone that baffles most people, is captivating. Hot, exposed, sunny, often coated with car exhaust, these spots generally kill lots of plants. Some gardeners want to fill the space with cactus and rock gardens. Most of us give up.

Charlie’s hellstripe garden overflows with intriguing flowers and shockingly soft, pretty, delicate, even edible plants. He’s got the recipe right.

I wanted a video of Charlie showing off his plants. But he doesn’t like being on film. This 4 minute video is a compromise; you first see our young friend Evan, who’s not afraid to poke the bear — i.e., make a few jokes at Charlie’s expense.

He’s not afraid to make a few jokes that no one understands either - but they tickle him, so we just let him ramble. You’ll hear me asking questions and Charlie answering. The plants are listed toward the end of this essay.

All you older siblings know how this goes. We eventually see some of the holes in the facade. We saw the Wiz and we know that for all the bluster, the Wizard is really Richard Pryor behind a curtain.

We know y’all stumble some and at the end of the video, you’ll see that even Charlie makes some questionable decisions.

Charlie’s Tough Hellstrip Plants Include:

On the Sunny End

1. Salvia ‘Anthony Parker’  (Purple flower in the very first scene but not discussed. We’ll have this for sale next summer.)

2. Yucca linnarifolia

3. Evan’s Pineapple Lily (Eucomis pole-evansii available on our website)

4. Yellow Pear Tomato

5. Saw Palm (Seranoa repans)

On the Shady End

1. Japanese Bamboo Fern (Coniogramme japonica )

2. Southern Shield Fern (Dryopteris ludoviciana)

3. Peacock Moss (Selaginella willdenowii variegated)

4. Begonia ‘Cotes de Castillion’

• A quick note; My new book, Garden Disruptors, takes place on the construction site of Riverbanks Botanical Garden. Charlie and I worked together there but not till much later than the time span covered by the book.

  It’s an important part of Columbia fabric of life, but the sort of thing that gets left out of history books. But this story is for people anywhere— especially little brothers and folks who know what it’s like to be near, but not quite in, the cool crowd.

, later at Moore Farms and on plenty of cool gardens