Honey I Shrunk The Lawn
Water is arguably the most critical resource in California and with severe and extreme drought conditions gripping the State, water conservation is the hot topic discussed in every community this year. With that backdrop, the article, “Honey I Shrunk The Lawn”, about one family’s experience replacing their water-thirsty, lawn-dominated landscaping with drought tolerant native plants is very timely.
Last quarter, we published an article from Bob Riding about his experiences using evaporative cooling instead of conventional compressor-driven air conditioning. This quarter, his article on changing the landscaping for his home east of Clovis to drought tolerant plants is again fun to read and informative. Bob wrote the article originally for a class he was taking on sustainable living and resource use. He has circulated this article widely within his circle of friends and professional colleagues and I asked his permission to publish it this quarter in Currents so that many others around the State could benefit from his experience.
In the article, Bob provides a historical context for how lawns and water thirsty tree species became the dominant landscape design for most of California and shows how converting a landscape to drought tolerant species does not have to mean cactus and rocks. As you will read, the conversion of the landscaping was a necessity for the Riding family. With landscape irrigation accounting for about 50% of urban water use in most California cities, reducing that consumption through conversion of landscaping to drought tolerant designs is starting to become a necessity for many of the rest of us.
Joseph Oldham, Statewide Local Government Energy Efficiency Best Practices Coordinator
Download the article:
Author: Bob Riding
Pages: 18
