Drought Tolerant Landscaping

Drought tolerant landscapes have been proven to conserve water and save homeowners and businesses time and money with reduced maintenance needs. Turf Terminators’ landscapes can reduce customers’ average yearly home garden maintenance from approximately 80 hours to approximately 15 hours (assuming a relatively small, 1,900 foot garden). If efficient irrigation practices are implemented in caring for a drought tolerant landscape, customers could save approximately $2,200 per year in water and lawn care costs!

A Pivotal Case Study

A nine (9) year case study conducted by the City of Santa Monica demonstrates that lawns containing native plants and alternative ground cover use 83% less water; generate 56% less green waste; and require 68% less maintenance than traditional lawns when they are treated with efficient irrigation practices. The study pitted two lawns against each other. The first contained a drought tolerant landscape with low-water-consuming plants, ground cover and a drip irrigation system, and the second was a traditional lawn, 95% of which was covered with turf grass. Both lawns were approximately 1,900 square feet. Assuming that all the lawns in the greater Los Angeles area are around the same size (a conservative assumption, indeed), the owners of those lawns could save 300,000 acre feet of water per year if they replaced their turf with California Friendly landscapes and utilized efficient irrigation practices. This is a massive amount of water, an amount capable of satisfying the annual water needs of the roughly 2,000,000 residents of Southern Nevada.

The study was conducted by the City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica College and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. http://www.smgov.net/Departments/OSE/Categories/Landscape/Garden-Garden.aspx