Water Efficient Gardens | Your partner for a water efficient, beautiful garden.

When this garden was transformed from a weedy turf to a water efficient garden, not only would it save water, but a seed of a purple dream was also planted. When the garden was being planned, the idea was to have this dream place with the purple splendor. Lavenders lined two complete sides of the garden, as well as the parking strip. When the garden was finished, everyone was eager to find out: when will the purple walk come into life?

How Does Tokyo Make Its Space Green

We all know how important it is to have trees and plants in the cities. They absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, filter harmful particles from the air, lower temperatures – just to name a few. With population growth and climate change, it is more important than ever to have more trees and greenery in the city. Tokyo, with a population of over 9 million, is one of the most populous cities in the world.

A California Native Garden: How Long Does It Take to Bloom?

When a garden is installed, naturally, everyone hope all the plants will establish and grow. Specifically, everyone wonder: how long will it take to bloom? Last fall, in the blog post “From Brown to California Native Charm” we talked about how a brown lawn was transformed into a charming garden with many California native plants. It looked great when finished, but when will it become a garden full of flowers?

A Tale of Two California Flowers

Everywhere you go, flowers are blossoming! In the mountains, on the plains, around the corners of our neighborhood, they offer so much beauty and charm of the nature. Among them, these two flowers probably catch your eyes quite a lot: the tall Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri), and the splendid, golden California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Together, they are a tale of two flowers.

Drinking Water: a Vital Part of Our Life

We all know how important water is to us – drinking, washing, cooking, showering, watering – all part of the things we do with it every day. Water, and clean drinking water, is essential to all of us. For most of us, when we turn on the tap, water will flow – it comes so natural that we rarely think about where the water comes from, and how they came here. To have access to clean drinking water is central part of human activities since the ancient time.

A Floral Dream Blooms In Spring

After experiencing one of the worst droughts in the state’s history from water year 2011-2016, California went to another extreme since the start of water year 2017, receiving so much rains that it became one of the wettest for the time period so far. We know generally plants like rain, but how about the drought tolerant plants and native plants that were planted in water efficient gardens last year? Did they survive? How do they do after all the rains? Recently I went back and checked on those gardens, what I saw totally blew me away. A floral dream is blooming!

California Drought Over, Water Efficient Garden a Key to Conservation

On April 7th, after one of the wettest winter seasons the state has ever seen, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order, formally announcing the California drought over except in 4 counties: Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Tuolumne. This was a historic drought. On this day when the drought was announced over, Californians can feel proud that they put in the effort, and met the challenge successfully. A reservoir in Northern California, at the time of the announcement:

From a Weedy Turf to a Dream Garden

Against a full wall of Camilla trees, Lucy (not her real name)’s lawn used to be green and lush. With the drought, however, parts of the turf just went bare, with the remaining thin and weedy. Then rains – lots of them- came, the turf just turned into this big bed of wild weeds. Lucy had been wanting to replace it with a much nicer “dream garden”

Trees – Great Managers of Stormwater

Rains and storms have been sweeping California for the last couple of months, making 2017 a big wet year. While this is so great, relieving the state’s historic, 5-year drought, and lifting half of the state out of drought, now we face another issue opposite the drought: stormwater runoff, and in some places, flood and mudslide. Due to mudslide, some free ways in North Cal have to be closed.

How Can We Go Green With Water? Q&A with Environment Speaker Tony Green

The climate change is happening. In California, having just experienced a historical drought, we see what a hotter, dryer place is like first hand. As water is bound to become more and more scarce, how can we best preserve and conserve this valuable resource? Tony Green is an environment speaker who has given speeches at major green conventions and events around the country. We spoke with him about the environment, water, what we can do and more.

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