Robin Stockwell has some specific passions. The 63-year-old La Selva Beach resident loves diving into frigid waters in places like the Solomon Islands, he finds inspiration in trailer parks, and is really, really into succulents.

Stockwell owns Succulent Gardens: The Growing Grounds in Castroville, where he puts 38 years of experience into cultivating some beautiful – and cleverly unique – uses of what he calls “the conservationists of the plant world.” On the way to his store, agave and aloe lay a vivid green-and-white carpet along unpaved Elkhorn Road, drawing patrons to Stockwell’s big wooden nursery.

Folks from all over the West were similarly drawn to his exhibit at San Francisco Flower & Garden Show earlier this year, where his “Living Cube” stole the limelight and helped claim a gold medal for garden creation. About 20,000 succulents – ghost plants, mother-of-pearl plants and Mexican gems among them – composed an abstract pattern of yellows, purples and greens that covered the 12-by-12-foot walls of a modern garden exhibit titled “The Living Room” by Organic Mechanics. Stockwell helped the Mechanics, an S.F.-based duo, select plants, design the pattern and plant them vertically.

Some meticulous math was involved in assembling the plants. When asked if he’s good at math, Stockwell smiles. “No,” he says. “I don’t do anything great, but I do a lot of things well enough.”

His signature product at his Growing Grounds, which he calls Living Picture, is definitely done well enough. Its wood-framed colors, combined with the textures of little cacti paddles, parallel the beauty of brushwork in paintings, only with the organic charm of classic gardening – with a modern twist.

Stockwell says the inspiration for Living Picture and his entire vertical garden were born of random trailer park wanderings in the early 1970s. He was out exploring a neighboring mobile home area when noticed that the limited living space and resources inspired people to cultivate smaller plants that didn’t need much of either. Soon he found among them good suppliers.

He also noticed people growing succulents in fruit boxes and had a thought: “It’ll be neat if I hang them on the wall.” Later, once he figured out the frame sizes that hold soil without spill, he crafted a redwood mural. People dug it, and soon he was hosting workshops.

Stockwell digs succulents for their surprising colors, unique textures, the low maintenance required – which fits a lifestyle like his, as the guy’s got a lot of interests – and their sustainable style points, but says his clients usually like them for a different reason: their otherworldly shapes.

He adds that their growing popularity has made nurseries develop hundreds of new strains, many of them still unnamed.

“I want [the popularity] to stay,” he says. “I want people to know how much possibility they have, not because they are weird, but [because of] their functional side. It’s a sophisticated way of gardening.”

Stockwell first opened a store in Carmel’s Barnyard Shopping Center in 1981. He says he heard customers call it a “candy shop” more than once, given the succulents’ colors, shapes and sizes. But 28 years later, he suddenly closed the shop. Bustling business pushed him further from his customers. With that he felt “a kind of destruction.” He also saw ownership changing at The Barnyard: “It was time,” he says. He moved to Castroville in 2003.

Succulents are far from his only affection. His wife and four kids rank at the top. In Half Moon Bay, Stockwell grew up with water sports, some more common than others. He often swims a mile and also surfs as many as five days a week – “Don’t tell my wife,” he says – but he also has pictures of himself jumping into water covered with ice: without a wetsuit.

Traveling to exotic countries also ranks highly. But so does being able to pay the bills doing something he loves.

“I thought singers were cool,” he says, “They turn people on. And I realized it’s kind of what I’m doing. I melt people in my own way, and take them out of [their]day-to-day existence. To me, it’s important to be a part of that process.”

Succulent Gardens: The Growing Grounds is located at 2133 Elkhorn Road in Castroville. For more info call 632-0482 or visit www.sgplants.com.