Driveway Patch

Near the middle of our driveway, a previous owner placed a kidney shaped patch of exposed earth about 15 feet long (4.6 m) and 7 feet wide. In it, they planted two redwood trees and some shrubbery. There is no irrigation to that site, and it gets full, hot summer sun for most of the day.<br />n<br />nThat environment is no good for redwoods. Many years ago, the western-most tree died, probably of thirst, and at that time, I learned that redwoods like regular water, so I’ve been providing manually.<br />n<br />nDuring our construction period, the remaining redwood survived, though the shrubs did not due to being buried under a rather large mound of construction debris. I have been getting rid of the debris, mostly “dirty” dirt, sprinkled with various nails, small bits of broken concrete or stucco remains, and various other construction related detritus. After about a year, most all of the dirty dirt is gone, and the site is level with the rest of the driveway again.<br />n<br />nOver the weekend, we went after this site to pretty it up a bit. A bit less than a half yard of compost was trucked and mixed in, a small retaining wall was constructed, plants were planted, and a layer of redwood chippings was added as mulch. The results are rather impressive, check them out.<br />n<br />n<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaworskihouse/3715204064/” title=”driveway patch”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/3715204064_1a0cb9a111_m.jpg” width=”240″ height=”160″ alt=”driveway patch” /></a><br />n<br />nUnfortunately, there was no “befpore” picture taken, so the reader will need to imagine just a patch of dirt under the tree, with no retaining wall, dry and bare with barely a scraggly, forlorn looking California Poppy trying to eke out a hot existence.<br />n<br />nThe plants that are there now came from Home Depot, selected mainly for their tolerance of full sun. Here is what went in:<br />n<br />n<li>Purple Fountain Grass (<em>Pennisetum setaceum rubrum</em>)<br />n<li>Blue Fescue (<em>Festuca ovina</em>)<br />n<li>Feather Grass (<em>Stippa spp.</em>, label also said <em>Hierba de la Pluma</em>)<br />n<li> Lavender (I don’t know the type, since the label went missing after we brought it home)<br />n<br />nNeighbor said this improvement is Sunset -worthy. We will certainly take that compliment!