Using Best Practices in Water Wise Landscaping

 So you want to save water, and maybe even help the planet out a bit – that is great!  Let’s talk about the best way to do that.  You have been barraged with advice and people trying to sell you low water landscaping and frankly many of them are untrained and just trying to make a buck.  How can you tell?
1. If someone tries to pull out your lawn and replace it with a few plants and a bunch of gravel that is a huge red flag.  Too much gravel is not a good thing – it will create a heat island.
2. If someone tells you that artificial turf is good for the environment (not saying it doesn’t have a place) that is another huge red flag. Plastic covering the earth cannot be good for it (another heat island).
3. If someone tells you to go pick what plants you want and they will do the rest – red flag.
The best water wise landscapes are done using the watershed approach and take into consideration soil, water, and plant material.  It should all work and be designed together.  Your plan should include water capture and retention, soil remediation, and proper plant selection.
The design should include rain gardens, sheet mulching, permeable hardscape materials, and as mentioned before proper plant material. To create a water wise design I meet with my client, get a lay of the land, and do plant research with them.  All those steps are necessary in order to create a landscape that will take care of itself and in turn our planet.
You can learn a lot online about sheet mulching and about rain gardens, but if you want to hire a professional to help you with the project, I would suggest that you look at apldca.org to find someone that has been trained in the Watershed approach.  Landscape Designers have been digging deep (pun intended) into learning the best practices for healing the earth with the Watershed approach, utilize their expertise.  Find out what they know and what they have studied, and you too can have a beautiful vibrant garden whose soil can help save our planet.
Julie Molinare is a Certified Landscape Designer living in the Santa Clarita for over 20 years.  Julie taught the introduction to landscape design class at CSUN Tseng College of Extended Learning and is owner/designer of The Grass Is Always Greener Designs.
For more information, please call 661-917-3521 and visit www.thegrassisalwaysgreener.net  Make sure to visit the blog page to sign up for information and garden reminders.