There’s no water in this well. It’s art.

In the interest of environmental goodness, to create art like this the land must first be covered with a continuous sheet of woven black plastic mesh, so that nothing grows from the soil beneath. It’s true that a rocky landscape like this catches dust, which turns to mud, and collects seeds, which turn to weeds …

… which grow on top of the continuous petroleum sheath, but, hey, that’s what weedkillers are for, right? The planet, however, wants to do this …. … and this … … and ultimately this (below). Don’t look at the moss swallowing this grassland rock as growing on top of the soil. It is the soil. It will soon cover the stone. 

Life is the expression of Earth’s identity. The ultimate goal of “rockscaping” is not to turn back the environmental clock 4 billion years, to the time before life spilled around the planet, or to rebury petroleum in layers, as it was before it was pumped up in the first place, or to artfully wrap the planet in oil, but this:

Houses like these are million dollar artworks. This one has an exceptional amount of rock. Most rockscaping, though, looks more like this:

(look at that rose — after one season it’s already making a break for it)

… and this …

…and this …

It’s the ultimate expression of car culture: landscaping looking like the gravel shoulder of a highway, where, you know, you can park and get out and admire the view, and where houses are situated, anyway. Nice. Practical. Living in the “now”. Solid Canadian values, all of them.