The house next door to me, which shares my driveway, is vacant. It is leased, so I'm assuming the new tenants will be in any day now, but as of last weekend, VACANT. After several years of looking at what is a 3 foot by 12 ft strip of dirt, which has sat empty and forlorn, except for the random bits of detritus that rental tenants tend to leave behind, or park in the blank space (old cooler for instance), I am doing some flash mob gardening. Sure its only me, but one second awful dirt strip, next second, beginnings of a planting bed.
So yes, my good deed for the day is definitely done. I have improved my neighbors property, which surely will make the tenants appreciate it that much more. Not only that, but I paid for dirt and a few plants to go in there!
Why yes, I am that nice... okay, truthfully, this is all about me. I wanted it to stop looking like hell, and start looking like something I want to look at every day when I walk out of my garden gate.
So, now that we have my ethical and moral values squared, there is another good question. I obviously don't want to spend a lot of time on this bed, (I have my own to worry about), so what does one plant in this situation? I can tell you, something pretty, not water needy, not picky about frying in the sun. A weed, basically. And we here in SC have just the thing: Mexican Petunia (ruellia brittoniana). It is invasive, and in this instance we are talking PERFECT. Fill in, multiply, have at it. I actually have it growing up these tiny strips along the driveway between the houses now, and it works perfectly. And basic maintenance equals go out there once a year in January and chop them back. Period. Thats it.
Oh the things you can accomplish when nobody's looking! Now, lets let mother Time take over and within a year I'm thinking there will be a bounteous cascade of purple blooming tall grass in the wind.
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