Landscape Architect Articles

Water-wise Landscape Renovation Benefits Homeowners, Property and Nature. 07-30-13 | News

Water-wise Landscape Renovation Benefits Homeowners, Property and Nature.

To save water and money, as well as to add color and texture to the landscape in a community in Dana Point, Calif., Harvest Landscape Enterprises, Inc., replaced passive turf areas with native and drought-tolerant plants.

Deciding that the environmentally-friendly, reclaimed water system put in place some 30 years ago had outlived its usefulness, a beachfront community in Southern California chose to once again emphasize conservation when renovating their irrigation and landscaping.

The community, Niguel Shores, recognized that their aging irrigation system not only wasted water, it was damaging streets, lampposts and other hardscape. To help them correct the problem, they brought in Harvest Landscape, (https://www.hlei.us/) a family-owned business with a history of sustainable landscape projects including one that received recognition from the California State Assembly for its water savings.

The landscapers replaced more than 100,000 square feet of passive turf area with drought-tolerant shrubs and native plants . Overhead irrigation systems were replaced with drip irrigation to save water and prevent runoff, which not only protects hardscapes but the ocean as well.

The project is expected to save the community $17,000 a year. It was subsidized by rebates, and will reportedly pay for itself in seven years.

The area's water management department, the South Coast Water District, commended the community association and the landscape company for the improvements that have been and are being implemented.

According to the homeowners association's former president, residents were apprehensive about replacing passive turf areas with drought-tolerant plants but have come to embrace the results.