Category Archives: evergreens

drought tolerant, evergreens, garden visits, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, perrennials, projects

Landscape a Driveway

05/19/2022 svseekins Leave a comment

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. 🙂

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drought tolerant, evergreens, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, months 10-12: fall, perrennials, urban deer

Iris Foetidissima Through Four Seasons

12/28/2021 svseekins Leave a comment

It’s an uncommon garden plant for 2 good reasons.

Iris foetidissima, Stinking iris, Fetid Iris, Scarlet berry iris, roast beef plant, Scarlet-Seeded Iris, Coral Iris, Orange Seeded Iris, blue seggin, Gladden, Gladdon, Gladwin, Gladwyn, Stinking Gladwin, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Most gardeners aren’t plant shopping in winter when this iris looks its best.
Fetid in a name just puts folks off.

It’s sad, really. Stinking Iris is a harsh moniker – – uncalled for, in my humble opinion. Apparently, if you stomp on a clump, the crushed leaves reek of spoiled roast beef. I’ve gardened around it for several years now & have yet to detect any offending odour. Iris foetidissima is very welcome in our garden.

I mean, it’s not the first plant I’d buy for a new garden, but it’s a great supporting actor.

It’s evergreen.
& year-round structure is coveted in December when pretty much everything else has collapsed to the ground.
It happily handles the dry conditions under a shady tree where few plants survive.
Our hungry neighbourhood deer leave it strictly alone. 🙂
& it’s getting harder to find something they won’t eat around here!

The flower is easy to miss. Pale lavender petals open in June & are overshadowed by other, more boisterous blooms. It’s pretty but not spectacular, like so many other iris. I reckon it’d be perfect potted up on a north-facing balcony where little else gives four seasons of interest. Right?

But don’t be too quick to tidy those flower stems!
They morph into heavy seedheads that curl open in autumn with the actual show. 🙂

Those bright orange berries are just so funky looking!
& it’s so gratifying to have interest through fall & winter.

The seed doesn’t seem to appeal to the birds – – and it turns out to be toxic to cats, dogs & humans… even cattle will sicken if they chew on the roots. So, Scarlet Berry Iris might be an issue if I plant it on the woodland edge of pastureland. I’m surprised cows would take a nibble when the deer clearly don’t.

Iris foetidissima‘s native range is southern Europe & northern Africa. I’ve never heard of it going astray in North America. Still, it’s considered invasive in parts of New Zealand & Australia. I found some berries dropped onto the lawn edge so I tucked them in the soil around the plants. I’d be happy a bigger show next year.

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evergreens, urban deer

Monkey Puzzle Envy

10/30/2021 svseekins Leave a comment

Half a block along our street grows a tree I admire.

It’s evergreen.
It’s super tidy & symmetrical.
And it’s just so FUNKY looking.

monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, monkey puzzle tree, monkey tail tree, piñonero, pewen, Chilean pine, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

The Monkey Puzzle Tree, Araucaria araucana, is the national tree of Chile but seems to grow happily all along the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

That said, I reckon there’s no danger of it overwhelming the gardens hereabouts. That beautiful symmetry is created by triangular leaves spiralling around the branches and even along the trunk. The rigid leaf edges are sharp & the tips are severe needles.

It’s downright dangerous.

Even still, I NEEDED one in our garden.

No gardener of sound mind would position a Monkey Puzzle Tree near a high traffic area — nor underplant with high maintenance perennials.

Ever so carefully, I installed a Monkey Puzzle in an out-of-the-way section of our yard. I mulched from the trunk to the dripline. The very first season, a large buck attacked it with his antlers. I watched in amazement. I’ll bet the deer walked away with a migraine. The poor sapling survived with only 1 broken branch.

The Araucaria lasted maybe 3 or 4 years before it had sliced C one too many times.
He disappeared it. 😦
It hadn’t had the opportunity to grow to more than 3 feet.
So sad, but I understood.

The neighbour’s Araucaria was here when we arrived in the ‘hood. Over 15 years, it’s grown from a sturdy 6 ft. to an impressive 30 ft tall. (It takes patience to grow a Monkey Puzzle). They’ve limbed up the branches so whoever mows the lawn is much safer.

One day soon, I’m hoping it’ll be mature enough to produce cones. Can you imagine how pre-historic they’ll look, too?

I’ll happily admire it from afar.

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