Sam's hellstrip...

This garden visit is another based on a tip from a friend, I'd driven nearby—just a street or two away—many times...but never seen this wonderful garden.

The action here is all in the extra-wide hellstrip, or well at least the action I was there to see.

The friend who tipped me to this garden discovered it when he was out biking around, he later ended up hiring Sam (the gardener, and metal worker) to make him one (maybe more than one?) of these fine containers.

The containers are suberb, but the plantings elevate them to another level.

As luck would have it Sam came out while I was taking photos and I was able to ask him about this agave, what species it is. Unfortunately he did not know. He's a gardener with a great eye, but plant names are not a priority.

Moving on... I timed it right to catch the opuntia in bloom!

This looks like a pathway in process, as the smaller rocks are put into place.

For some reason I wasn't expecting a palm.

There's equal room given to rusty circles, it's not just about the squares and rectangles.

I remember thinking this had to be the work of Portland's Jeffrey Bale, but forgot to ask when I had the chance.

Then as luck would have it when I started to edit down these photos Mr. Bale himself wrote a blog post on pathways which included images of these pavers. (see that post here)