How to Create a Low-Water Garden That's Beneficial for Everyone

After 20 years of having a lawn that took, I wanted a yard that contributed: to the planet, to local animals, to biodiversity, to my neighbors, to my mental health. With the sage (native plant pun intended) design work, counsel, and collaboration of David Godshall of Terremoto and David Newsom of Wild Yards Project—and a plant-friendly paint palette from color consultant Teresa Grow—another little garden that gives was born.

Thomas J. Story

Just one hour per weekend on average is all that this densely planted front yard requires of its human custodians. But what it returns is infinite: the subtle gradations of blue-green going to dusty sage as the sun bakes a maturing canyon prince that rightly gets its name from its original habitat and its coronal structure; the aromatic fronds of Artemisia californica, a.k.a. cowboy cologne, reaching skyward; copper-hued clarkia stalks going dry at the end of summer and the attendant pleasure of snipping them on-site into mulch for the oak tree that will shade them when they return next spring; prolific swaggering poppies asserting their status as the California state flower, stopping kids and neighbors in their tracks with their blaze-orange petals; native bees sweetly napping in the chill of the morning, waiting for the sun to warm them enough to fly; blue-eyed grass and its purple and yellow flower sprays swaying in the shade of the oak. This lovely ex-lawn shelters and feeds hundreds of local insects, birds, and rare bees, requires very little water, and sequesters multiples of carbon over a standard lawn. Here’s how it came together. 

Thomas J. Story

Instead of a cinderblock and stucco retaining wall that will inevitably crack, an organic tumble of boulders from a dig 30 miles away