Watersmart Makeover: Adding Beauty, Family Style

Patti and Don Boone are native San Diegans. Don grew up in Point Loma, the neighborhood where they raised their daughter Kim. After Patti’s mom passed away, the couple, now retired, decided to leave Point Loma to move into the Chula Vista home where Patti was raised. Patti had been a receptionist at a downtown San Diego law firm, while Don was a carpenter with Kaiser Permanente’s engineering department.

About 10 years in, during the fall of 2022, they decided it was time to change up the front yard from the longtime lawn. Kim, now an adaptive physical education teacher, and her husband, Parker Richardson, a biologist and restoration ecologist, encouraged her parents to install a native garden. They also played a large role in helping select the plants and put in the garden. It truly was a family project that took about six months.