There’s a great story here about Wagga’s strategy for street trees to cool the city.  Their award-winning strategy even includes the statement:

“Promotion of water-wise landscaping for nature strips should also occur, especially where large canopy cannot be provided due to easement requirements for utilities and overhead powerlines. “

You can see the council’s verge garden / nature strip policy here and follow their link to the pdf document.

It’s a reasonable policy if you ignore the early paragraphs suggesting the use of glyphosate and fake grass.

Plant the Shady Lanes way of low-impact, working with nature instead.