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Landscape makeover-Escondido-landscape checklist-water conservationCalculating Landscape Water Savings

Sustainable Landscaping Project Checklist for Success

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When you’re beginning a sustainable landscaping project, it can be challenging to remember all the things you need to research, measure, and decide along the way. But it’s not a good idea to overlook these details. They all contribute to the success of your new sustainable landscaping project.

WaterSmart San Diego’s Sustainable Landscaping Guide has a helpful Project Checklist to help guide your effort, allows you to stay on track, and make good decisions to achieve your goals.

This beautiful landscape makeover winner from the 2021 Otay Water District content can help guide your own efforts. Photo: Otay Water District checklist for success

This beautiful landscape makeover winner from the 2021 Otay Water District content can help guide your own efforts. Photo: Otay Water District

Important considerations for a successful landscape makeover include:

Taking the steps you need to prepare your property.

Making all your plans before you start digging.

Choosing your plant palate and creating your plant design.

Beginning your project installation including your new plants.

Updating and adjusting your new irrigation system

Establishing and stewarding your new landscaping.

And most of all, taking time to admire and enjoy your new yard. You’ve worked hard to accomplish your goals and should celebrate your success.

Instructional videos on demand are available on the WaterSmartSD website. The example below explains how to shape your space.

Many home landscapers also return for refresher sessions by returning to WaterSmart Landscape Makeover classes. You can also consult local gardening organizations for help, or visit the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon for inspiration, like many of the winners in annual regional landscape makeover contests.

The Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego can help provide inspiration and advice for your landscaping plans. Photo: Water Conservation Garden checklist for success

The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon can help provide inspiration and advice for your landscaping plans. Photo: Water Conservation Garden

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org. 

 

Native plant-sustainability-garden-landscapetracting pollinators like hummingbirds and butterflies. Image: Water Authority plant installation

Setting Objectives for Waterwise Landscaping Success

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It takes time to learn about the concepts behind the watershed approach to creating a healthy and sustainable landscape. Once you have these concepts mastered, the most important step of all comes next.  Consider the goals you want to achieve in your garden for landscaping success.

It might be difficult to know where to start. Many people accept an ocean of green but thirsty lawn and never give much thought to landscaping goals. Consider one of these worthy objectives.

Waving goodbye to grass

Most native Southern California plants do well in hotter temperatures, so summer plant care is easy with a little planning. Photo: Annie Spratt/Pixabay

Most native Southern California plants do well in hotter temperatures, so summer plant care is easy with a little planning. Photo: Annie Spratt/Pixabay

  • Removing a thirsty lawn without using any chemicals, in a way that preserves the healthy soil microbes
  • Planting local California native plants that will attract birds, butterflies, and bees for pollination
  • Creating a child or pet-friendly garden without thorns or sticky grass seed heads
  • Planting fruit trees, edible vines, and shrubs, or vegetable gardens

Using irrigation efficiently

Well designed and operated irrigation systems can reliably deliver the water your landscaping needs without waste or excess. Photo: AxxLC/Pixabay

Well designed and operated irrigation systems can reliably deliver the water your landscaping needs without waste or excess. Photo: AxxLC/Pixabay

Building healthy living soil that will act like a sponge, even if it rains a lot

Capturing all the rainwater from the roof and re-routing downspouts to fill rain barrels instead of running onto hardscaping

Converting spray irrigation to micro or drip irrigation, with the intention of turning it off after establishing your waterwise landscaping

Making pathways and driveways more permeable

Making your landscaping an art project

San Marcos resident Jeff Moore's landscape makeover won recognition in the 2018 Landscape Makeover Contest. Photo: Water Authority

San Marcos resident Jeff Moore’s landscape makeover including artistic touches won recognition in the 2018 Landscape Makeover Contest. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority

Making room for a small patio with room for an outdoor table or seating

Adding pathways, Zen gardens, and interesting materials and patterns

Integrating beautiful objects such as an art piece, interesting container collection, or items like sundials

One goal we can all support: creating a beautiful sustainable landscape that reduces your water use by 70 percent or more. We can all agree on this definition of landscaping success no matter your individual goals.

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Landscape Makeover-Sweetwater Authority-Water Conservation-native plants

Contouring Tips Help You Make the Grade

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Moving both irrigation and our limited natural rainfall through your yard into storage areas via the use of various landscaping features borrow Mother Nature’s engineering. This is especially important during hot, dry summer months. If your yard is perfectly flat, you must move soil and features around to create more water-retaining contour areas.

First, complete a Percolation Test. This will provide critically important information about your landscape soil’s specific capacity to drain and to absorb water. Prep your soil as needed to turn it into a water-retaining sponge as much as possible before getting to work on rainwater capture plans.

NOTE: If you are working with existing hillsides, it’s best to get professional advice before grading or other significant changes. Before any digging, call Dig Alert 8-1-1 or digalert.org

Adding basins and swales

Channels can be planted or lined with rocks and small boulders to resemble natural creek beds.

Channels can be planted or lined with rocks and small boulders to resemble natural creek beds. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

Basins and swales are shallow depressions or channels no more than 12 to 24 inches deep, on gently sloped or nearly flat landscapes. Basins and swales move water over short distances. The plants in and around the depressions capture and sink small volumes of surface water.

Small, shallow depressions work best in clay soil areas, while sandy soils may accommodate the deeper depressions up to two feet. Channels can be planted or lined with rocks and small boulders to resemble natural creek beds.

Building berms

Berms are mounds of raised soil, usually planted, that can border basins and swales or be used alone. Berms help contain and move water around, increasing the holding capacity of basins and swales

Placing boulders

Boulders can add points of interest and slow down water runoff in your landscaping. Photo: Water Authority

Boulders can add points of interest and slow down water runoff in your landscaping. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority

Boulders are useful to retain small berms or the edges of swales. They also create points of interest in your landscaping.

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Native plants-New landscaping-room to grow-plants-watersmart living landscape

Provide Room to Grow in Your Sustainable Landscape Plan

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Note the height and width of plant species when they mature when choosing plants for new sustainable landscapes. Proper plant placement, taking into account the mature plant’s size, will limit the need for regular pruning, and reduce the amount of maintenance required over time.

While regular pruning and removal of dead plant materials is vital in our region for wildfire prevention, overly aggressive pruning harms plant health and doesn’t allow natural shapes to emerge.

Use the following spacing chart to help you figure out how many plants you need per square foot, based on the mature size of the plants.

Space plants on your landscaping plan at their full mature size, not the size when you first plant them. Graphic: Water Authority

Space plants on your landscaping plan at their full mature size, not the size when you first plant them. Graphic: San Diego County Water Authority

Scale your plants at maturity

On your landscaping plan, use circles to note the size of every plant at maturity using a one-inch to four-foot scale. Use colored pencils to denote different water needs of the plants selected. It will make it easier to group plants into their proper irrigation zones (hydrozones).

Wide canopy trees that grow to 20 or 30 feet in diameter will significantly change the landscaping over time. Will this change the microclimates in the future? Consider whether a tree will cover a large section of landscaping with shade that is currently getting full sun. If plants that thrive in full sun are eventually covered in shade, the landscaping may need to be updated in time.

Small but mighty

Planning for the amount of space your new plants will need when fully grown will help your landscape thrive. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

Planning for the amount of space your new plants will need when fully grown will help your landscape thrive. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

Select the smallest, healthiest plants possible, especially when choosing native plants. Once they are planted in properly prepared soil and watered wisely, small plants establish themselves more vigorously than plants raised in larger containers. Do not plant more than the space allows when the plants mature.

Root depth matters

Take note of the root depth of plants when they are placed into the landscaping. Note the root depth on the plan. Trees will be irrigated less frequently, but for a longer period of time. Groundcovers with shallower roots require more frequent, shorter periods of irrigation. Keep these types of plants on separate hydrozones. Learn more about hydrozones

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Fire-adapted, drought deciduous plants flourish in California coastal sage scrub. Photo: Couleur/Pixabay Native plant communities

Native Plant Communities in Sustainable Landscaping

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Plants growing wild naturally arrange themselves into communities with other plant varieties based on their shared characteristics such as water and nutrient needs. This natural selection extends to interactions with each other, and with other species such as insects, birds, and other animals.

As a result, we see the same plant communities occurring repeatedly in natural landscapes under similar conditions.

Local native plant communities evolve together over a long period of time.  These plants work together to compete for nutrients, sunlight, and other resources.  They flourish together, to the point of “rejecting” non-native plant varieties attempting to establish themselves. While non-native plants may be equally adapted as native plants to the climate conditions of a particular area, they are at a disadvantage.

By learning about the San Diego region’s native plant communities, and selecting plants that like to live together in communities for sustainable landscaping, homeowners can take advantage of these strengths and the resulting hardiness.

Three examples of San Diego region plant communities

California Coastal Prairie Community

Perennial flowers outnumber the native grass species in California coastal prairies. Photo: Lloyd Waters / Pixabay Native plant communities

Perennial flowers outnumber the native grass species in California coastal prairies. Photo: Lloyd Waters / Pixabay

California’s coastal prairies are North America’s most diverse grasslands. Perennial flowers outnumber the native grass species. Plants include: California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium), Fern Leaf Yarrow (Achillea ‘Moonshine’), Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucus), and Cliff Buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium).

California Coastal Sage Scrub Community

Fire-adapted, drought deciduous plants flourish in California coastal sage scrub. Photo: Couleur/Pixabay Native plant communities

Fire-adapted, drought deciduous plants flourish in California coastal sage scrub. Photo: Couleur/Pixabay

Fire-adapted, drought-deciduous plants flourish in California coastal sage scrub.  This habitat is rapidly disappearing due to urbanization in southern California. Fortunately, some areas, including the San Diego Safari Park Biodiversity Reserve, have been conserved. Plants include Grey Musk Sage (Salvia Pozo Blue), Sticky Monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiaus), San Diego Sage (Salvia munzia), Fuschia Gooseberry (Ribes speciosum), and Woolly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum).

California Chaparral Community

California chaparral is adapted to heat and dust. Photo: Kim R. Hunter / Pixabay

California chaparral is adapted to heat and dust. Photo: Kim R. Hunter / Pixabay

Chaparral exists in many coastal ranges and on the western and eastern slopes of the southern California mountains. It is ‘hard’ brush that doesn’t rely as much on summer fog drip that the Coastal Sage Scrub does, and it is adapted to heat and drought. Plants include Desert Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), Bent Grass (Agorstis pailens), San Diego Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus minutiflorus), Bush Poppy (Dendromeconi riguda), and Clumping Wild Rye (Leymus condensatus).

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Hydrozones-Conservation Corner-landscaping

Know the Hydrozone Game Rules

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Hydrozones are the different areas of your landscaping where plants with similar irrigation needs are grouped together.  This allows you to apply water as efficiently as possible through rainwater catchment, supplemented by irrigation, while avoiding unnecessary and wasteful overwatering.

Sun exposure, slopes, and plant root depths need to be taken into consideration along with plant water needs. All these characteristics create specific hydrozones. Even when the soil is the same, a full sun area is one hydrozone, full shade areas are another, and mixed exposure areas create yet a third. Shade from buildings or trees can also raise or lower temperatures.

Each irrigation valve should water its own separate hydrozone populated by plants with similar water needs, living conditions, and root depths. Plants with high water needs such as vegetables or lawns need to be grouped into their own hydrozone. Sprinklers or emitters on this zone shouldn’t overwater anything else.

Don’t overdo it with your irrigation

Inspect your sprinkler heads regularly to make sure they are not obstructed or watering onto pavement or other hardscapes. Photo: Irrigation Association

Inspect your sprinkler heads regularly to make sure they are not obstructed or watering onto the pavement or other hardscapes. Photo: Irrigation Association

Each hydrozone must be able to handle enough water volume for every emitter to work properly. Hydrozones should have individual sprinklers or emitters delivering only the required amount of water, spaced out so every plant in the hydrozone receives an equal and accurate amount. If two sprinklers cross over one another, plants receiving water from both will receive more water than needed. In this example, sprinklers should be turned away from each other, or be reset farther apart. Professional landscapers call this “matched precipitation.” 

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Everett’s California Fuchhia is an example of a plant that doesn't like to have wet feet, meaning roots sitting in water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Get Down to the Roots Of Your Landscaping

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Plants don’t literally have feet to take them on a walk, but landscapers often refer to a plant’s “feet,” or their roots. Plants like – and need – water on their roots to thrive. While plants absorb water through their leaves, it’s not very efficient due to evaporation. Roots absorb the bulk of water a plant needs to thrive through small root hairs, which are thin-walled outgrowths of the plant’s epidermis. The film of water surrounding soil particles provides its irrigation supply.

Horticulturists refer to plant roots in soggy soil as “wet feet.” Plants that can thrive without too much water on their roots are said to have “dry feet.”

The same way people don’t like waterlogged, soggy feet in wet socks on a cold day, plants don’t welcome their roots sitting in standing water. Most plants don’t grow well with excessive moisture at the roots. It can cause rot and other diseases. Very few plants grow in wet areas, and while it isn’t a common problem in the arid Southwestern United States, plants might end up in standing water in poorly drained landscaping.

Five Recommended Plants That Tolerate Wet Feet

The California Native Iris (Iris douglasiaria) is a plant that doesn't mind having "wet feet," or damp roots. Photo: Wikimedia Commons wet feet

The California Native Iris (Iris douglasiaria) is a plant that doesn’t mind having “wet feet,” or damp roots. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

  • Coyote Mint (Mondarella villosa)
  • California Gray Rush (Junous patens)
  • Joaquin Sunflower (Bidena laevis)
  • Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens)
  • California Native Iris (Irish douglasiaria)

Five Recommended Plants That Prefer Wet Feet

Everett’s California Fuschia is an example of a plant that doesn't like to have wet feet, meaning roots sitting in water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Roots

Everett’s California Fuschia is an example of a plant that doesn’t like to have wet feet, meaning roots sitting in water. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

  • Bluff California Lilac (Ceanothus maritmus)
  • Everett’s California Fuschia (Epilobium canum)
  • Sunset Manzanita (Arctostaphylos Sunset)
  • Hairy Awn Muhly (Muhlerbergia capillans)
  • Blonde Ambition Blue Grama (Boutelous gracilis)

Get advice from the local garden center or horticulturalists familiar with your area for other good choices. In general, native plants match well to similar nature conditions in the landscaping.

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Grouping plants together by water needs by matching microcliimates creates efficient irrigation. Photo: Water Authority

Microclimate Matching in Your Landscaping Plan

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Earlier in our Conservation Corner series, we described how to map the different types of microclimates present in your landscaping. Using this information helps homeowners arrange plants in a new sustainable landscape. For the most efficient water use, plants should be grouped together with similar water needs according to their preferred microclimate.

In nature, plants that like lots of water are found along the banks of a stream, or grouped together at the base of a depression. Plants that need fast-draining soils so roots don’t rot might be found on hillsides. Plants that love lots of sunshine won’t grow in the shade of a tree.

Follow The Microclimate Map

Look to the Microclimate Map for smart guidelines on choosing landscape plants. Consider this example yard with three identified microclimates:

  • A front yard in full sun most of the day.
  • A moist depressed area in full sun. This area will retain moisture more than the rest of the yard, so you could use this area for rain catchment. Raise hillside areas surrounding the depression and allow them to drain freely.
  • A shady area under the canopy of a neighbor’s large tree.

Three Different Plant Neighborhoods

Areas of your landscaping under large shade trees become individual microclimates. Photo: Ken Lund/Creative Commons License

Areas of your landscaping under large shade trees become individual microclimates. Photo: Ken Lund/Creative Commons License

When selecting landscaping plants, the yard in this example will require at least three different groupings of plants.

  • Sun-loving plants that prefer their roots dry and in fast-draining soil
  • Sun-loving plants tolerant of wet feet in winter months, which thrive in heavier clay soils
  • Plants tolerant in dry shaded areas

A final consideration before heading to the local nursery or garden center: how will you irrigate your plants?  Check the Plant Factors for each of the plants to make sure their water needs are all similar in each area. A previous Conservation Corner feature has information about Plant Factors.

Plants Speak Latin

Many plants have similar common names in English. Shopping for plants by their common names can lead to confusion between two very different plants. Instead, the best way to shop for plants is to use the Latin name. This reduces any miscommunication and any surprises in your landscaping. 

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Learn to match plant choices to your microclimate map. Photo: Charlie Neuman, Water Authority

How to Choose Plants for Landscape Microclimates

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Every garden has completely different cultivation characteristics, even those located in the same general climate zone. For example, there will be areas where plants will flourish.

Numerous features affect your growing conditions. Structures, walls, fences, and other plants can affect the amount of sun and shade in a garden. There can be hills and hollows in your front yard that may collect cold air. Or, because your property is sloped, you don’t get frost when your neighbors do.

Individual microclimates may differ significantly from the general climate of an area. To be sure you match the right plant choices to your conditions, you need to identify and map these microclimates. Start by walking around your property at different times of day. Observe conditions and take notes.

Choose plants that will thrive

Determine which plants will work in your new garden, and which should be removed or avoided. Outline the canopy area of the plants being retained. Note the name, general size, and health of the plants.

Do any of these plants seem “unthirsty?” Many plants can thrive on less water when they are well established, with deep healthy roots. Old rose bushes and large shade trees are two good examples. These drought-tolerant plants are worth keeping if possible, especially if they are mature.

Note sun and shade patterns

Different areas of your landscaping are affected by shade, moisture, and temperature, creating a variety of microclimates. Photo: Water Authority

Different areas of your landscaping are affected by shade, moisture, and temperature, creating a variety of microclimates. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority

Mark the areas that receive sun all day, and areas that are shaded all or part of the day. Also note which areas receive only partial sun, or a few hours of direct morning sun, midday sun, or late afternoon sun.

In choosing landscaping plants, make sure to select those that are appropriate to the sunlight patterns of the garden. Plants marked as “full sun” will not be happy in full shade, and vice versa. Don’t work against their requirements.

Group plants for similar needs

Group plants with similar water requirements together. Make sure plants with different water needs are not combined. Some sun-loving plants have moderate water needs, and some have very low water needs. If these are mixed together, one will always suffer if the watering routine works for the other types. 

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.

Attract pollinators to your watersmart landscaping with native plants such as milkweed. Photo: Erin Lindley

Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden

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Flowering plants rely on insects, birds, and other creators for pollination. In turn, plants attracting pollinators feed and house beneficial insects like bees and butterflies, and nectar-loving birds like hummingbirds.

Some bugs eat too much, destroying their plant hosts and spreading disease. Other beneficial insects fight off the destructive species, eating them or disrupting their reproductive process.  Birds, bats, and lizards help too, consuming pests both large and small.

Nature provides checks and balances in a garden. You can attract insects and creatures which will help maintain the health of a garden without pesticides.

Choosing a wide diversity of plants in your landscape can help attract helpful insects and predators on a regular basis. They improve the resilience of the garden and reduce the need to use chemicals for pest control.

To attract more garden helpers, create habitat for them. Consider adding a nesting box for bees. Leave a small rock pile for lizards to inhabit. Put a large tree branch in the garden and let it decompose naturally.

Planting a Butterfly Garden

Planting Narrowleaf Milkweed prohibits habitat and for the endangered Monarch butterfly. Photo: Wikimedia Attracting Pollinators

Planting Narrowleaf Milkweed prohibits habitat and for the endangered Monarch butterfly. Photo: Wikimedia

Numerous plants attract pollinators and support the life cycle of butterflies, including the threatened monarch butterfly.  Plant several in the garden to help the larvae and caterpillars as well as the full-grown, nectar-seeking adults. Some good choices:

  • Narrow Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis)
  • Island Alum Root (Heuchera maxima)
  • San Miguel Island Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens)
  • Cedros Island Verbena (Verbena lilacina)
  • Island Bush Snapdragon (Gambelia speciosa)

What’s The Buzz?

Leave open soil around plants for ground-nesting bees and insects. Photo: Pixabay/Creative Commons Attracting Pollinators

Leave open soil around plants for ground-nesting bees and insects. Photo: Pixabay/Creative Commons

Not all ground needs to be covered in mulch. Try designating a five to ten square foot patch of open soil around plants for ground-nesting bees and insects, especially if your garden contains San Diego native plants. Succulents don’t like mulch right up against their stems, for example. Create a landscape where plants and pollinators work together 

This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.