Due to the double whammy of soil like beach sand and recent hard freezes, some yards in Florida have been replaced five times in the past six years.

And still, until recently, most homeowners preferred Floratam to the mulched beds planted with drought-tolerant grasses and flowering shrubs called ?EUR??,,????'?????<

But now that these Florida Friendly landscapes have been in a while, the clumps of grass have filled out and the shrubs blossomed, something strange and encouraging is happening.

People like what they see. "I love it," said homeowner Anne Edgel.

Her water bills have dropped along with the amount of time she spends working in the yard. And it's met the approval of her pickiest neighbor. "He actually told me that he enjoyed looking out over my yard."

Edgel lives in a neighborhood where lawns had been replaced so often that the subdivision's grounds manager virtually insisted that they be replaced Florida Friendly landscaping.

The plant palette for Florida Friendly includes:

• Asiatic jasmine as a ground cover
  
• Miniature juniper shrubs
  
• Flowering grass called bulbine
  
• Knockout roses (which require virtually no watering once established.)
  

"Once people see Florida Friendly and see how good it looks, the resistance will start to disappear," said Edgel.

This is what's happening in Wellington. Of the 729 yards the community maintains, a stunning 382 needed replacing after last winter. Dameron was able to convince 134 homeowners to accept Florida Friendly landscaping.