Landscape Renovation

Urban landscape upgrades will save us more than just water. The statewide movement to adopt sustainable landscaping practices delivers resilient, cost-effective, attractive landscapes.

Conservation landscaping starts with a seed. See how incorporating California’s native plants makes more sense and adds to the effort.

The Golden State is undergoing a landscape revolution. We have drastically altered our soils, topographies, plant varieties and hydrologic systems. In doing so, we have created an urban landscape that thrives on the false reality of surplus synthetic nutrients, prescribed mechanical maintenance and ample water regardless of geography and season.

What comes naturally

California uses over half of its urban water deliveries on landscape irrigation. Water shortages, among other economic and environmental catalysts, are pushing California away from conventional turfgrass landscapes, towards multi-benefit, sustainable landscaping.

This landscape transformation espouses a natural approach to site-specific landscape design, construction and maintenance that transcends water-use efficiency to capture the related benefits of rainwater retention: pollution, storm water runoff, green house gas and green waste reduction; energy and cost savings; and human and wildlife habitat improvements.

Seeing green

Multi-benefit landscaping boils down to three actionable concepts: fostering permeable surfaces and healthy soils, conserving potable water and choosing appropriate plant and landscape materials. Consider a landscape that is drought-resilient, yet vibrant and aesthetically pleasing. A landscape that takes less time and money to maintain than a lawn. One that offers pollinators habitat and captures rainwater, lightening the storm water burden on local municipalities. This is the direction California is headed.

Turfgrass still has purpose in athletic fields and gathering spaces—it will not be disappearing entirely from our lives. But as for non-functional lawns, turfgrass is becoming a landscaping relic.

This metamorphosis is noticeable across all sectors. State landscape ordinances and building codes are integrating sustainable landscaping principles into the letter of the law. The marketplace is transitioning, as plant growers are propagating more climate appropriate and native plants. Water providers are providing financial incentives to upgrade irrigation system efficiency or convert lawns to sustainable landscapes. Large retail stores are working to meet growing demands for affordable, climate-appropriate and native plants.

Leading by example

Take simple steps like diverting your rain downspout into permeable ground and replacing grass in the strip of land between your sidewalk and the curb. Or, dive into the transformation and convert your under-utilized lawn into a beneficial and beautiful landscape, planting in the appropriate season of course.

Use this drought crisis as a catalyst for a landscape upgrade that saves not only water, but also time, money and ultimately our urban environment.