Wouldn't you just kill for another 300 square feet of flat, sunny garden space? Most of us have it, right outside our own front doors. While the city owns or regulates the swathe of land between sidewalk and street known as the parking strip, homeowners have the right and attendant responsibility to plant it more or less as they would like. What a miss that so few of us expand our plantings to take advantage of this warm, light-drenched and very visible space.

For inspiration, you might take a drive through Wallingford. I nearly missed a movie recently driving around looking for a parking spot. I kept going a block more and then another block to check out the varied streetside plantings. Many residents, especially south of 45th Street, have expressed their creativity curbside, with raised beds, roses, vegetables and fruit, even vines on lattices. Often the strips included stepping stones, fencing or structures painted to match the house, making this usually flat, no-man's land a true extension of the landscape. What I particularly enjoyed were the plantings with heft and height to create some vertical separation between sidewalk and street.

Some of these narrow spaces were four-season gardens unto themselves, planted with groundcovers, shrubs and perennials all surrounding several small trees. What an effective way to offset city concrete with bursts of life and color at least, I assume that's what happens come spring. But it was easy to sense how pleasant it would be to walk along those sidewalks in other seasons, buffered from traffic by a haze of flower and foliage.

While the best planted strips reflect all the creativity and possibility of private gardens, these are public spaces that must accommodate driveway traffic and sight lines, as well as passers-by. The city encourages homeowners to use this space for gardening, but there are rules and regulations.

Liz Ellis, landscape services project coordinator for the city's SeaTran Urban Forestry, advises gardeners and answers questions about curbside plantings. She explains that with planting strips, the main concern is sight lines which is why there are stringent height rules for traffic circles and planted areas within 30 feet of an intersection. The permissible ratios of parking-strip size to height of plants and raised beds get complicated, so call Ellis at 206-684-5008 to make sure your plans conform with city guidelines.

A first step is to locate water, electric and gas lines. Simply call the City of Seattle at 800-424-5555 and request someone to come out and mark all underground utilities. The location of side sewers can be confirmed by calling Seattle Transportation's Street Use Division at 206-684-5283.

If you want to plant trees or add hardscaping, you'll need to obtain a free city permit. Call the Seattle city arborist's office at 206-684-5047 for a permit application and to arrange a consultation. Information on recommended trees and plants is available at www.cityofseattle.net/td/arborist.asp. Rules and regs may differ in unincorporated King County and each small municipality, so check with your specific jurisdiction for utility information and planting guidelines.

Parking-strip plants need to be tough enough to stand up to drought, car exhaust and sunlight reflected off concrete, to say nothing of dogs, kids and pedestrians. But plants can be surprisingly adaptable I've seen David Austin roses, covered in sweetly puckered flowers, doing better out in the hurly-burly of parking strips than cosseted in more protected spots. A short list of tough, drought-tolerant plants for parking strips includes: The smaller ornamental grasses, such as bronze leather leaf sedge (carex buchananii); euphorbia emygdaloides robbiae, which is evergreen; long-blooming perennials (gaura, sedums, daylilies, coneflowers, agastache asters); herbs and annuals (sage, nasturtiums, sunflowers); and shrubs and sub-shrubs (rosemary, lavender, senecio, hebes, Mahonia nervosa, barberries).

Now in bloom

The appearance of snowdrops (Galanthus) is a sure sign the days are growing longer. Their slender, fresh-green foliage and drooping white bells are deceptively delicate, for these little bulbs are vigorous and easy to grow. Snowdrops prefer partial shade and rich soil. Galanthus nivali, the common snowdrop, is early-blooming and honey-scented; the giant snowdrop (G. elwesii) is also sweetly scented and grows to 9 inches high.

Valerie Easton is manager at The Miller Horticultural Library. Her new book, "Plant Life: Growing a Garden in the Pacific Northwest" (Sasquatch Books, 2002) is an updated selection of her magazine columns. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com