Why Xeriscape?
Well, it’s somewhat obvious. As we all know, SoCal is in drought conditions regularly. Water prices go up, watering restrictions go into place, your fragile grass and plants die off and you’re left with a dirt patch. Drought is the real, physical, observable, new normal! Here are some ways to save water, maintenance, time and money:
It’s a rare scenario when you actually NEED grass in your front yard. If you absolutely LOVE lush, green grass in your front yard and will NEVER want anything else, even artificial turf, you can always potentially at least replace a more fragile with a more drought-resistant and strong sod like RTF or St. Augustine to save on water and help with the environment. In the majority of other cases, people are usually okay with going with the xeriscape option, especially if they already have a grass or artificial turf back yard for their kids and/or dogs.
Xeriscape definition: a style of landscape design requiring little or no irrigation or other maintenance, used in arid regions.
SoCal is definitely quite the arid region, even though a lot of people pretend it’s not! Let’s take out the front yard grass, till and grade the soil, and install a long-lasting, low-maintenance surface. Our personal favorite surfaces for a xeriscape project in priority order are: a colored crushed granite/gravel, a stabilized decomposed granite (DG), or a mulch or bark. Beneath crushed granite/gravel or mulch, it’s a great idea to install weed fabric to suppress weeds. Both of these options are good for drainage and for evenly spreading out water (gravel is best). Stabilized DG is not as great drainage-wise, as it becomes a relatively hard surface upon compaction. That’s one reason we don’t install weed fabric beneath DG, along with the fact that it’ll make it more prone to cracking. We don’t usually recommend using DG in overly large areas due to the poor drainage, and especially for poor drainage around any plants. We like to contain DG in smaller fire pit patios and pathways away from the house with edging to hold it in. An issue with mulch is that it can be a bit messy, it gets sun bleached and it decomposes, so it needs to be refreshed every once in a while. The decomposition is good for plants, but it’s not recommended for entire front yards most of the time due to the maintenance unless the budget is thin and the cheap option is all that’s possible. Shredded mulch is a good option (and one of the only options) to cover a steadily sloped hillside. There are only a couple rather minor issues with using a crushed granite/gravel option: the cleanup involved if there’s a messy tree around, and the potential for it getting on your grass if it’s nearby (lawnmowers shooting rocks at things). That’s really about it and that’s why rocks are number one on our list for xeriscape materials: the style options and the drainage factor. We recommend using a crushed granite/gravel for xeriscapes just as much as we recommend using interlocking pavers for hardscape patios, pathways, driveways, etc. These are generally your three standard options for xeriscapes (crushed granite/gravel, Stabilized DG or mulch/bark), with potential upgrades that are available like smooth river rocks, etc., depending on budget).
On top of replacing your grass with a xeriscape surface, we should fill it in with plants for some beautification. You’ll want to use drought-tolerant plants like low-maintenance sages, shrubs, grasses, succulents, agave, cacti, etc. We specialize in all types of plants that live well in Southern California, but we don’t generally design California Native-only designs (unless that’s what you want). We enjoy utilizing a variety of plants native to many other states and countries, especially if you’re aiming for a particular style (Spanish, contemporary, etc.), and because there are many varieties not native to California that can be very useful in different scenarios. It’s not uncommon that we recommend plants native to Texas, Mexico, Southwestern/Central Asia, Europe, the Mediterranean, Portugal, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. Another reason for this is that some California natives will be rather fast-growing and difficult to maintain, whereas a similar, non-native plant might be lower maintenance and easier to deal with. Some natives might also not look great throughout the winter, whereas some non-natives can potentially hold up and look good throughout the year. Certain non-natives might even flower at different, unexpected times of year, being confused (in a good way) by the climate and bringing out flowers when there usually aren’t any! Non-natives seem to not be the most “popular” idea in generic LA landscaping, but they can definitely have their advantages, and they can still help with the ecosystem plenty!
“Low-maintenance” does not necessarily mean “NO-maintenance.” There will still be some minor trimming and cleanup with almost any xeriscaped yard, but it’ll generally be nowhere near as much work or as time-consuming and pricey as the upkeep of a grass lawn would be. To water these new plants, we should set up a Drip irrigation system with low-flow water, which saves around 90% of water when compared to sprinklers. All these types of plants don’t need much water in general, and will need less and less over time (after 3 years, they’ll need VERY little water). Make your life easy and have us set up a timer for the Drip so you don’t have to manually turn the valves on (you may already have this). The Dripper hoses can hide beneath gravel/DG/mulch, so you won’t actually see any irrigation, like with the usual ugly sprinkler heads popping up all over your lawn.
We, and most of our clients, prefer to stay out of the full-desert style, because we’re all in denial about living in the desert in LA, so we like to use nice and lush flowering grasses and sages, which also bring in the animals! Bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, moths and other birds are just a few of the animals you can attract!
In essence, our favorite style of xeriscape front yard would be composed of weed fabric, colored gravel/crushed granite, drip irrigation and a plant layout similar to this (depending on your taste):
Grasses up against the house, walls/fences, at the base of hedges, in some tighter spaces with some length (side of driveway, etc.), and some scattered throughout the rest of the yard: New Zealand Flax, Kangaroo Paw, Dianella, Lomandra, Deergrass, etc.
Sages/Salvias/other shrubs to fill in most of the rest of the square footage: Autumn/Germander/Russian Sage, Salvia Greggii/May Night/Waverly, Lavender, Rosemary, Westringia, etc.
Succulents/Cacti to fill in some of the areas a bit more throughout and to bring in more textures (usually out in front of the larger plants so they don’t get overcrowded, or in their own smaller contained planting areas, raised planters, sides of a pathway, etc.): Agave Angustifolia/Blue Glow/Desmettiana/Parryi, Euphorbia Fire Sticks/Trigona, Echeveria Afterglow/Agavoides/Elegans/Ruffled, Cactus Golden Barrel/Hairy Lorax/San Pedro, Paddle Plant, Senecio Vitalis, etc.
We love taking a flat, green, wasteful front yard and turning it into a low-maintenance, yet lush, garden full of life! Xeriscape doesn’t mean that your yard needs to look like a sparse desert wasteland to be sustainable, which is a common misconception. We can show you how to make it full of life and to still not be wasteful with your resources. We plant year-round, as we warranty our plants for three months regardless of weather, so no need to wait to get started!
Save Water, Droughtscape
-Cody Simpson, Chief Landscape Consultant