Each morning, Amy Parker and her husband Michael Palmer step from their front porch into a sanctuary nestled among flowers and rocks shaded by trees, luring butterflies and bees to stop and pollinate.

The Sacramentans recently transformed the front yard of their 10-year-old home into an inviting rock garden. Before it became a garden, the space was a lawn with fruit trees. Now it is abundant with colorful plants that require short watering sessions throughout the week.

Currently, city code allows Sacramento residents to water their yards three times per week during the summer. The Sacramento City Council passed additional changes to the outdoor water conservation ordinance, which took effect in June. Maurice Chaney, spokesman for the city of Sacramento, said water waste calls have increased by 70 percent in comparison to last year during the same period.

The Sacramento Department of Utilities projects that landscaping accounts for 50 percent or more of all residential water use. With a garden instead of a lawn in their front yard, Parker and Palmer use less water.

The couple’s sprinkler system is scheduled to turn on twice a week for half an hour to 45 minutes in the summer, and once a week throughout the rest of the year. Watering could be potentially cut to once a month in another year after the garden has had time to mature and the plant roots have deepened, Parker said.

"It is work maintaining it but so is mowing your lawn," she said.

Maintenance includes pruning and weeding about every two weeks. She sticks to hand tools for maintenance and avoids herbicides altogether. "I don't put any kinds of herbicide on plants. If a plant doesn't make it, it doesn't make it," Parker said.

Using western, drought-tolerant plants in her garden requires less water and less work for Parker. It makes sense to maintain a garden of plants native to the region, rather than trying to grow foreign plants unsuccessfully, she explained.

Moonbeam, yellow curry, lamb's ears, pride of Madeira and echinacea are all thriving in her front yard under her low-maintenance care. She also maintains certain plants to support various native species — she said the monarch butterfly favors the milkweed and fennel.

Once a year, Parker will distribute a composted manure or alfalfa meal blend over the garden and provide it with a light feeding in the fall and spring.

Parker and Palmer transformed their lawn into a garden less than two years ago. Like any ambitious idea, Parker said she and Palmer had considered a rock garden in their front yard for a long time but continually put it off.

The majority of the work was finally done over a weekend three or four years ago while Palmer was gone on a scuba diving trip, Parker said. With the help of two others, within two eight-hour days, Parker dug six inches deep into the grass, threw down weed cloth and soil and let the remaining lawn mulch. The rock was delivered from Silverado Nursery and the soil from Hastie’s Capitol Sand & Gravel. She estimates that the project, including the rock, cost approximately $2,000.

Parker explained that there are other advantages to having a rock garden, aside from preserving water. "The thing about a garden is that it creates a space and mood [that] a lawn doesn't," she said.

The addition of a garden can add a lot of character to an ordinary home, Parker pointed out. "It [can] give the impression of a funkier, cooler or more unique house [where] people pull up and say, 'This is a really nice place,’ " she said.

Parker and Palmer’s garden was primarily inspired by a visit they had made to San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico, where they saw botanical gardens designed with rock and drought-tolerant plants.

Parker said she hopes others will adapt similar eco-friendly front yard alternatives, otherwise, “people will react when they get the bills and start paying through the nose [for water].”

The Sacramento Department of Utilities provides services to households interested in decreasing their water consumption — most recently, it has begun offering water conservation workshops. See link for more information.

Additional Resources: 

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/utilities/u-media/pubs-imgs/Overwatering_Brochure.pdf

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/utilities/u-media/pubs-imgs/Water_Wise_Gardening.pdf

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