May | 2022 | Garden Variety Life

I’m hurrying to a new lunch place when I stop short. I’ve never seen this before — but I like it!
How can I make my driveway more appealing?
Here is my answer — landscape the driveway itself.
Genius! And beautiful!

The rock garden is set smack in the middle of the driveway, leaving the planting safe from the tire tracks on either side. Here’s the following challenge: What is a good driveway plant? The succulents & mossy groundcovers grow low enough that they’re safe as the car’s undercarriage passes above them.

stonecrops, creeping sedums, succulent, driveway rock garden, rockery, crevice garden, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Perhaps the rockery itself also serves to protect the plantings from treads. Situating the creeping sedums in low planting pockets reduces their risk of compaction. Maybe that’s why they’re often called stonecrops?

hens and chicks, Sempervivum, houseleeks, common houseleek, liveforever, succulent, evergreen groundcover,stonecrops, creeping sedums,, driveway rock garden, rockery, crevice garden, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Sempervivum (Hens & Chicks) are tough as nails, too. They happily grow in gravel, forming such tight clumps of rosettes that weeds can rarely squeeze themselves into the party. It’s an added bonus that houseleeks come in many colour varieties.

driveway rock garden, rockery, crevice garden, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Straight through our coastal winter, the evergreen rockery has interest. And with so many foliage colours, can it be called evergreen? Isn’t it more like evercolour? Is that even a word? It should be. There’s so much variety. 🙂

creeping thyme, Thymus praecox, hens and chicks, Sempervivum, succulent, driveway rock garden, rockery, crevice garden, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

The drought-tolerant creeping thyme provides background support to the showy houseleeks through the cold months. I envision its mound of bright pink flowers as the headliner through June and July.

Our garden successfully hosts all of these plants. The biggest key to our success is that the neighbourhood deer turn their noses up to all of them. (I’m always thrilled to find something pretty that they won’t browse. )

Was the hardsaper skilled enough to gently slope the bricks toward the central rock garden? The rain could irrigate the plants, soak through the gravel & replenish the water table. Cities are promoting permeable landscapes. This garden is pretty and environmentally friendly.

I’m guessing it’s also a reasonably low-maintenance bed…
occassionally pinching out weeds from between crevices,
sheering spent blooms,
blowing debris away… wouldn’t that be all?
But looks can be deceiving. Next time I pass by, I’m going to knock on the door & ask the gardener. 🙂

-30-

Does Public Art have to be static & unchanging? Sometimes it can transition & morph into something more.

Portal, Public Art, Willows Beach, Oak Bay, Victoria, Heather Passmore — photo by SVSeekins

Portal, a sculpture along Willows Beach Esplanade, was initially installed as a large open ring framing the horizon like a portal on a ship. The reclaimed rope reminds me of so much flotsam lost at sea. Used as seating to perch on & grasping the rope frame for balance changes the artwork from a view to an experience. Not just a piece to look at— this art is a sculpture to view the world from.
I like the artist’s multi-dimensional messages.

Two years after the art installation, the open ring has morphed into a dream catcher. I reckon it still frames the view but now the message says so much more to me. The piece is still beautiful to look at & to view the world through but it has added layers…
It catches the sunrise, protecting us all from bad dreams. (We certainly need some of that with the exposure of residential school nightmares swirling around us!)

I like this, too, and wonder,
“Was the original artist expanding on her idea?”
Apparently not. Oak Bay Parks says they don’t know who in our community added to the Portal, but it wasn’t the artist.

Another year on, baby dream catchers are appearing on the web.
Intriguing…
Who adds these?
Has the public taken to the Portal as our own public art gallery?

Perhaps it’s truly become a piece of Community Art that we contribute to ourselves! A message of public support & healing…

Now, this raises more questions:
Who controls Public Art? The artist? The city? The public?
Are these changes vandalism?
art appropriation?
— or a greater form of art?

-30-

SVSeekins