Here in San Diego we have the best weather, but with a drought and rising water rates many are turning to drought resistant landscaping to save water and money.
Landscaping that reduces water usage from irrigation is called Xeriscaping and is heavily promoted in Southern California where drought conditions have caused an increase in water rates.
Xeriscaping is known by many names, such as water conserving landscapes, drought resistant landscaping, drought tolerant landscaping and smart landscaping.
Plants that are adapted to our local San Diego climate are emphasized, and designs help to protect against losing valuable water to run-off and evaporation.
Xeriscaping is not natural landscaping, because the idea in xeriscaping is to select plants for the purpose of water conservation and not necessarily just selecting from native plants.
Here in San Diego County you can see so many homes switching to drought resistant yards and gardens. It has become very popular over the past few years.
With so many plant and design choices you can have a beautiful, custom garden space.
Here are some advantages to switching to a Xeriscaped yard:
Lowered Water Consumption: Xeriscaped landscapes tend to use two thirds less water than traditional lawn yards.
Reduced Maintenance: Aside from the occasional mulching and weeding Xeriscaping requires far less effort and time to maintain.
Xeriscape designs place plants in appropriate areas with the correct mulching and soil grading to take advantage of rainfall retention.
Reduced Maintenance Costs: Xeriscaping requires less equipment and fertilizers, especially due to the reduction in grass lawn areas.
Reduced Pollution and Waste: Using fertilizers contributes to runoff pollution and lawn clippings from mowing your yard contributes to “organic waste” in landfills.
Why Do We Have Lawns?
The public acceptance of drought tolerant landscaping has been slow in part to the cultural attachment we have to grass lawns.
Lawns were originally used in England, and have become a universal symbol of community, order and prosperity.
In the United States as a whole we have nearly 49,000 square miles of turf grasses and it is considered the single most watered crop by surface area.
Despite the high fertilizer, maintenance and water costs associated with grass lawns, in most suburban areas they have become the norm, even areas that are rarely used for recreational purposes.
Xeriscaped landscaping can include lawn areas.
Rather than using lawns as a default landscaping plan, they simply seeks to reduce the areas to those that will actually be used, rather than using them as a default landscaping plan.