A bit of guerilla gardening?

[TheSandHurtsMyFeelings]

There is a gap of stony, sandy soil, about 6 inches wide in places, between my front garden wall and the pavement. I've just spent an hour pulling up huge weeds (some 1-2ft tall) from it. The council don't appear to do any maintenance of this area, possibly because there's no grass verge to cut etc.

What would happen if I scattered seeds or even actually planted some compact, low-growing flowers there (thinking saxifrage or similar)? It's a west-facing wall so gets plenty of sun. I'm not thinking of anything that would spill over onto the pavement and cause a hazard, obvs.

Is this a mad idea?

Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission? As long as you won't be too upset if someone clears it out again.

Great idea! I’d try to get red clover established I think, the bees will love it. Things that love my gravelly bits are plantain, nigella, violets and very surprisingly parsley which self seeds into stony ground but very shy when I try to choose where it goes.

Plant it and if council comes to ask about it say you have no clue about that patch.

Hello TheSandHurtsMyFeelings,

Go for it and plant 🌱 it up. There’s nothing like a few flowers growing in a garden to make people smile 😊
I often stand in a friends front garden watching commuters pass by on the way to a local station and it’s quiet surprising to see there reaction when they come across a garden planted up with a wide variety of flowering plants.

I agree with Noshferatu suggestion of nigella. You could consider other hardy annuals that would self sow themselves around in the little strip. If you choose hardy annual's try and select ones that will give your passers by a longer season of interest as possible. You could also consider a range of sempervivums which would also look after themselves however they would not create any interest in height. You could also consider some biennials such as foxgloves for that wow 🤩 factor.

Happy gardening
TheSustainableGardener

Do it!!!

People near me have transformed verges, etc.. Takes a year or two to
get going, so lovely.

That sounds a lovely idea. How can brightening up where you live ever not be a good thing to do.

I quite regularly scatter flower seeds on random verges around where I live. Also, as our council spent all the money on rubbish things and went bankrupt, they no longer plant any flowerbeds. I've adopted a whole raised planter in our village and have been merrily adding plants to it. You can never have too many pretty plants in your life.

Well, I've scattered a bunch of wildflower seeds and bunged a few leftover saxifrage plugs in too. We shall see...

We have quite a large front garden and I work hard to make sure that it's attractive to passers-by, so hopefully this will add to the general kerb appeal rather than looking like a straggly mess! Either that or I'll be the weirdo neighbour who gardens on the pavement 😁

That sounds lovely, what a great idea :)

You could chuck a few escholtzia seeds down to brighten things up

You gorgeous creature, you. I use the ends of Aldi multi flower seed packets (the colours I don’t want) in the churchyard. People love it - they will notice.

I've adopted a largish patch next to the footpath that leads to my house - I've cleared lots of weeds and planted low maintenance plants. It's been a few years and no one from the council has complained, and passers by often praise it. Go for it!

I'd stick some mediterranean herbs in. They love rocky, sandy, sunny soil. I'm very much of the 'don't ask for permission, just apologise if anyone complains' mentality.