Hi-

The spring and summer got away from me, and the city caught up w/me concerning my very wide and long corner parking strip. Asap I want to xeriscape - (33% must be vegetation. Also its OK to put it down in infancy stages just as long as it somewhat matures in 3 yrs). Currently there is mostly dead grass (and perpetual weeds) that I purposely never water - straw color is OK and saves water. What is the best method to totally clear out the weeds? At this point chemicals are OK.

Unfortunately I have little $ for this project and am looking for the most cost effective measures, also as low maintenance as possible (not just low maintenance but really low maintenance..) (I managed to neglect a a very beautiful old maple on the strip and remorsefully had to cut it down). Another option was to have a tree planted by the city which I guess I somewhat foolishly turned down because of my fear of yet killing yet another tree.

So far I have come up with bark mulch w/woven bl. plastic, tall grasses, maybe some low evergreen shrubs, a few med-big rocks, and a few drought tolerant plants. I've looked at pics of x-parking strips for ideas of how to arrange these (or other) things, but I don't know enough about landscaping to aesthetically arrange them, and am up against a wall time-wise with the city.

I don't know what type of evergreen shrubs to use, approx. how often they need trimming, and maintenance of tall grasses etc.

The other BIG question: Can I plant any of this in the fall - we just had our first fall weather today. I would prefer to put bark down in the spring, but I guess it's OK to do it now.

Any help would be much appreciated!