The water lines in our neighborhood have been recently replaced, and our streets and sidewalks are scheduled to be resurfaced next spring. There is a three foot wide strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street that is now in pretty sad shape as a result of all this maintenance work. The grass that used to be there was never very interesting anyway, and tended get stressed and overcome with weeds over the summer. I was thinking that when this work is finished I might like to replace at least part of the grass with a low-growing, dense groundcover, especially next to the two maple trees that are there, and maybe a contrasting groundcover in the areas that tend to dry out in the summer. The groundcover would have to be tolerant of the problems that come from New England winters, like road salt and large mounds of snow, but would also need to somewhat tolerant of August dry spells. I was also thinking of planting some natural looking drifts of dwarf daffodils, squill or other small spring flowers along with the groundcover. Are there any suggestions for good groundcover/bulb combinations that would work well next to the street?

Thanks!