This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting a woman who recently decided to tear up her front lawn for a low-water Xeriscape solution. Sherri and her husband wanted to embrace the idea of a lawn-less life, so they hired a landscape designer to help them get started. Here’s what Sherri had to say about the project:
“Our most recent effort was tackling our lawns – and this has been the most satisfying project so far! The drought conditions in Southern California convinced us that we weren’t entitled to the water needed to support lawns that are not native to the terrain. We decided that we could combine an effort to conserve water with the opportunity to create more usable space.
We were fortunate to find Charlie Renico (http://www.greengardenlandscape.com/) who embraced our vision. We got rid of our front and back lawns, transforming a yard that was once bland, boring, and high-maintenance into a series of beautiful outdoor rooms. What used to be a fairly nondescript pass-through space that only served the purpose of getting from the street to the front door is now a walled-in courtyard with flagstone walkways, curving natural planter beds, and large ceramic pots overflowing with lush plantings.
The theme and look is carried through to our back yard using the same materials and plant palette. By using a mixture of California-native and California-friendly plants, we have freed ourselves of high water bills and high maintenance. Native plants, such as California lilac, flannel bush, PCH irises, and rye grasses, mix with regionally-friendly succulents, desert trees and drought-tolerant vines to create a lush, colorful, and vibrant mix of plants that require very little water and very little maintenance.”
You can see photos of Sherri’s project at http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZt2Tho5cslEXo.
Thanks so much Sherri, for sharing your Xeriscape reality with us. What an inspiration. You’ll have to keep us posted with more pictures as it grows in!
Does anyone else have any projects you’d like to share? Let us know about them here.
