Guides

Native Plants for Full Sun & the "Hell Strip"

Hot, dry, baking sun — the front border, the south-facing slope, and especially the "hell strip" between the sidewalk and the street: compacted, salted in winter, and rained on by the sun all summer. Most plants fry. These prairie-tough natives were built for exactly these conditions and reward you with nonstop bloom.

Hell-strip notes: keep plantings on the lower side (under ~3 ft) so you don't block sightlines or car doors, choose the toughest, most drought-proof species, and water well the first season — after that, these largely fend for themselves.

Flowering perennials

Asclepias tuberosa — Butterfly Weed. Glowing orange; thrives in poor, dry soil; monarch host.
Echinacea purpurea — Purple Coneflower. Drought-proof workhorse, beloved by bees and finches.
Rudbeckia fulgida — Black-eyed Susan. Unkillable gold all summer.
Liatris spicata — Blazing Star. Vertical purple spikes; loves heat.
Monarda fistulosa — Wild Bergamot. Aromatic, drought-tolerant, pollinator-mobbed.
Pycnanthemum muticum — Mountain Mint. Tough as nails and the top pollinator plant going.
Coreopsis verticillata — Threadleaf Coreopsis. Airy, long-blooming yellow; shrugs off drought.
Eryngium yuccifolium — Rattlesnake Master. Architectural, spiky, unbothered by heat.
Allium cernuum — Nodding Onion. Dainty pink bells; great for the hell strip's front edge.

Grasses — the structural glue

Schizachyrium scoparium — Little Bluestem. The perfect hell-strip grass — short, drought-proof, gorgeous fall copper.
Bouteloua curtipendula — Side-oats Grama. Tidy, low, prairie-tough.
Sporobolus heterolepis — Prairie Dropseed. Fine-textured fountains; fragrant in bloom.

Have a spot that fries everything you plant?

Those hot, dry, impossible strips can become the most colorful part of the yard. I'll design a planting that thrives on neglect.

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