Native / Drought Tolerant Gardens

On average, a typical person uses about 150 – 200 gallons per day.  A household of 2 uses 300-400 gallons per day, and this doubles if you have a couple of children.

 I have done residential water surveys for a water district and have seen some households use (on average) 800 gallons per day (and more).  Let’s say there is a large lawn and a family uses a thousand gallons a day.  That is 30,000 gallons per month and 365 gallons per year.  Times this by the whole block and the numbers are larger.  Times this by the whole town and the amounts of water used are staggering.

Each day, Southern Californians use about 1.5 BILLION gallons of water (that’s right, Billion, not Million). 

Some cities are talking about writing tickets to those using excessive amounts of water or outright banning water use on outdoor landscaping.  I firmly believe this is in our future.  Is there something we can do to help the environment, and at the same time save money?  Yes.  We can do this by planting native and drought tolerant in our yards.

A native garden is a garden consisting of plants native to a specific region, where the plant grow naturally.  Native plants make up the foundation of an ecosystem and provide food and shelter for a variety of organisms.

Native plants provide habitats for birds and butterflies.  Once a native plant is established, it needs practically no water to survive. 

Human societies need plants for oxygen and beauty.  We cannot live without plants, nor would we want to live without them. 

Fifteen  years ago, a group of landscape professionals in the Manhattan Beach area came up with the idea of installing a NATIVE garden at a one acre site in Polliwog park.  Back then, we were viewed as “tree hugging” environmentalists.  We forged ahead, and thus was born the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden, a site which shows the community that native gardens can be more than a bunch of gravel with two cactus poking out.  The MBBG was “green” before it was cool!

Most native plants need regular water when newly planted.  Once they’re established, they need water about 5-6 times a year (rather than 5-6 times a week for those who have a lawn).