They replaced the lawn with a gorgeous drought-tolerant meadow that doesn’t need mowing

In our latest lawn-to-drought-garden makeover submitted by readers, a Cheviot Hills lawn is removed and replaced with native grasses such as _Carex pansa_ and _Carex tumulicola _ to create a

low-water urban meadow. Inspired by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, a leading proponent of choosing perennials more for shape and texture than for color, landscape designer Jonathan

Harnish created the no-mow meadow that provides year-round interest. The homeowners wanted to remove their barren lawn and replace it with a more naturalistic, meadow-like garden. “They

wanted something a little more innovative but also low-water and ultimately low-maintenance,” Harnish said. They also wanted subtle color. To create the meadow-like garden, Harnish dug up

the lawn and rototilled the soil in April. As at Oudolf’s landscape at the High Line in New York City, Harnish proceeded to plant a limited mix of perennials, grasses and shrubs.

Drought-tolerant plants include fountain grasses, white yarrow, salvia, verbena, sage and an assortment of lavenders. The salvia and verbena will bloom year-round, providing continuous color

each month. The garden faces north but receives plenty of sun, which suits the garden. “This would not work in a shady space,” Harnish explained. It also requires a drip irrigation system.

“It is completely necessary for this type of garden,” Harnish added. “If you use sprinklers, it won’t work.” The grasses are extremely resilient and need little maintenance. Harnish said

they need a hard cutback every February but little else. “You can mow them and cut them down,” he said. “The _pennisetum _can be cut down to 4 inches. The lavenders need selective pruning,

and the salvias need to be cut way back.” Harnish, a recent graduate of the Cal Poly Pomona Masters of Landscape Architecture program, is particularly pleased that the garden — with little

carbon emissions from gas mowers — is a sustainable option to the previous lawn. “I’m trying to do all I can to help ecology,” he said. “Meadow gardens use very few chemicals. They don’t

need rich soil, so you don’t have to fertilize them. They tend not to have a lot of pests. With this type of garden, the idea is to leave it alone and let it grow and develop.” Although

Harnish declined to discuss the garden’s cost, he stressed that a meadow garden can save money in the long run. “It can add value to your home and pay for itself,” he said. “You end up

spending less money on a garden like this than some sort of succulent garden. You can buy grasses that will grow 4-by-4 feet for $2.50 at a wholesale nursery. Very rarely do they not make

it. Also, there is a certain value in watching your garden mature.” For Harnish, change begins on a residential scale by creating gardens that nourish ecology. “I suspect the movement

towards gravel is going to be redirected towards more ecologically friendly approaches once homeowners get tired of looking at their sparsely planted, mulch- and gravel-dominated front

yards,” he said. PLANT LIST GRASSES _Carex pansa,_ California Field Sedge; _Carex tumulicola,_ Berkeley Sedge; _Pennisetum,Little Bunny,_ Little Bunny Dwarf Fountain Grass; _Pennisetum Fairy

Tales,_ Fairy Tales Fountain Grass GROUND COVER _Cerastium tomentosum,_ Snow in Summer; _Nepeta faassenii,_ Walker’s Low Catmint SHRUBS _Achillea millefolium,_ White Yarrow; _Verbena de la

Mina,_ Cedros Island Verbena; _Salvia “Mystic Spires,” _Compact Indigo Spires Sage; _Lavandula “Munstead,” _Munstead Lavender; _Lavandula “Goodwin Creek,” _Goodwin Creek Lavender; _Lavandula

“Otto Quast,”_ Spanish Lavender _If you’d like to submit photos of your drought garden makeover, please do so at [email protected]. Bonus points if you include a “before” image as well._

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MAKEOVER MANAGES TO KEEP THINGS GREEN A SPRAWLING SOUTH PASADENA LAWN GETS A CHIC LOW-WATER MAKEOVER THEY RIPPED OUT THEIR 3,500-SQUARE-FOOT LAWN AND CREATED A MAGICAL ‘RANCHO RELAXO’ BEFORE

AND AFTER: A TUSTIN GARDEN GOES FROM THIRSTY LAWN TO DROUGHT-TOLERANT OASIS MORE TO READ