The entire width between the curb and the edge of the street right-of-way is called the “parkway” - here in So Cal, that is. Reference: Standard Plans for Public Works Construction, published by Public Works Standards, Inc. “Greenbook” Committee.
(The “Greenbook” is best known here as a set of standard construction specifications adopted by many of the local agencies.)
Sometimes - not always - the parkway is either partially or completely covered with sidewalk, and the rest is there for use as a planter area; no special term I can think of.
Whew, I was hoping someone would say “parkway.” That’s what my dad always called it and he never liked the job I did mowing it. He generally didn’t like any of my lawn mowing.
I always assumed ‘verge’ was universal, but it seems not.
(from VERGE Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com)
British. a narrow strip of turf bordering on a pathway, sidewalk, roadway, etc.
A few years back, before the law was tightened up, it was generally the place where dogs took a crap.
I think ‘nature strip’ sounds like something a naturist would do, even though that would be an oxymoron. Tree lawn sounds nice and oasis-like, whilst parking reminds me of … parking.
I have heard it called "County strip but that was when we lived in (what else?) the unincorp area of the County and the strip belongs to the County (or City), YMMV.
In the boondocks North of Detroit, when I was growing up, we called it the county’s land. (I lived in a subdivision, but the street I lived on fronted a much older county road.) Later, when I lived in Detroit, we called it the tree lawn.
Technically, it belongs to the city. Imagine my surprise when I was using a rolling measure to map out some yard plans, and decided to measure my actual property lines. Going from back to front, I found the actual dimension that’s on my purchase and sale paperwork stopped somewhat short of the street. Going off the official property map of the area, I found it said that the street (the portion of the neighborhood that belonged to the city as opposed to the parts that were private property) was 50’ wide, but my measure said it was only 30’ curb to curb.
The front 10’ of “my” yard, and that of all my neighbors, is actually city property, technically part of the street. That’s why they feel at ease pruning the jacaranda tree that grows there, and why, if they ever decided to, they could run a sidewalk through it without asking me. I’m the one who has an easement on their property to extend my driveway through it to connect it to the street, and they don’t mind that my lawn extends to the curb as long as I keep it tidy like the part of it that’s on my own yard.
Grew up in Philly and we always called it the verge. I know someone who has an informal notebook full of regionalisms like this. One of the most diverse is what you call it when it rains while the sun is shining. In both Philly and Montreal, it is called a sunshower, but that is not widespread. Here in Montreal, we also have sunflurries, but I’m not sure I didn’t make that word up.
Re the OP: I usually call it an island – in my gardening magazine, though, we call it “the strip between the sidewalk and the street” for clarity’s sake.
Actually, it’s council land, and they are fully responsible for its upkeep, regardless of what’s on it. This includes mowing it at reasonable intervals.
In reality though, the council gets around this by deciding that a reasonable interval is approx. once every 3457578 years. They will eventually get around to mowing it, but they count on the fact that the average home owner will not want knee-high grass out the front of their place, and will save them the trouble. You can get an idea of this by looking at the nature strips outside empty buildings. They get mown… eventually.
I call it the verge, but nobody here knows what I’m talking about (Massachusetts). I grew up near NY City, so I don’t know if it’s a term used there or if I just read it in a book somewhere.
I wonder is you folks use or understand the term verge in other contexts?
Verge is the word used in the UK for this, but its also used to describe other things that are a bit ‘close to the edge’ such as something that is almost but not quite dangerous is known as being ‘on the verge of disaster’, or perhaps you have used the term for near absurdity as ‘verging on the ridiculous’.
We would usually call that strip near the road a ‘grass verge’ but if you do not use the word ‘verge’, for something nearing an edge, then what do you use?
My family once laughed when we were on vacation and saw a sign somewhere out west asking drivers to “STAY OFF OF THE CENTER MEDIAN”. When we asked somebody later about the redundancy of that term, they explained that the strip you’re talking about is called “The Side Median” there, but unfortunately I don’t remember where this was (other than West of the Mississippi).