Just what we need in the land of uber water using St Augustine lawns, a homeowner that rips it out and puts in native and Mediterranean type plants that thrive in our wet winter dry summer climate. Good thing they don’t live in Orange or Glendale where those sorts of actions are frowned upon and a homeowner could be sued by the city. (In fairness the dude in Glendale put in fake astroturf but the intent was the same…no lawn watering in a drought).
I like this yard, socially responsible yet has the look and feel of a cottage garden.
Long live individuality and the space free of an HOA!
Pic by me and get’s bigger with a click.
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Frazgo: a recovering Catholic and guilt free for several years now. Married
with 3 kids, out in the San Gabriel Valley, and a Los Angeleno BY CHOICE,
Frazgo embraces all things LA. He's done time in the corporate cube world
and learned to follow the path of greatest curiosity. He's a photographer,
the arty kind, and hangs onto the belief that you should buy art to match
your soul, not your sofa. Above all he's a humanist and a smart ass.
I tore out our front about ten years ago (not that it was very big). The front yard is now a mix of drought tolerant bushes (lavender and some sort of thing that the hummingbirds like) and bushy grasses with gravel & mulch.
We’ve never watered it.
(We also have waist high weeds right now in spots … now that’s something the HOA can get upset about.)
I swear I have to be one of the few people in the United States who thinks lawns are actually kinda ugly. It’s supposed to be this uniform green carpeting but the majority of the time you get uneven, spotted, burnt yellow patches.
Actually, in the Glendale and Orange cases, this would have been fine. They don’t require lawns, just landscaping. And, no, astroturf and wood chips don’t count as landscaping.
This is exactly the sort of thing people should do if they don’t want to have to irrigate their landscaping. (Remember, though, that even drought-tolerant new plantings may need some watering until they get properly established).
Even grass wouldn’t need watering if wasn’t mowed – after all, this area was native grassland before we paved it over.
Of course, if you don’t water or mow, it gets really long and shaggy, and dries out and becomes a fire hazard in the fall. The HOA types don’t really like that, either. :-)
LA MapNerd you are so correct that drought tolerant need water to become established, that is why it is best to plant them at the beginning of our rainy season.