California’s been suffering drought for the past years and a beautiful garden seems too hard to achieve. Of course, you can overdo with irrigation, but wasting water is expensive, inefficient and careless with the environment. But let’s not lose the hope! Follow our quick guide and have a gorgeous landscape, even with this harsh dry climate.

Reduce or simply ditch the lawn

Grass is the most water-demanding part of a garden. Even in more humid climates, it’s hard to keep it well without irrigation and fertilizers. Besides, lawn asks to be mowed and replaced frequently, and you can use that time with more rewarding garden chores ;) If you don’t want to add concrete or blocks, and like to keep the garden more “organic”, you can use irregular patches of gravel that come in various colors, sizes and textures.

Use flower beds and pots for the seasonal plants

If you want to add a touch of color, you can get some seasonal plants with flowers, planted in closed flower beds or pots. With a correct mixture of sand, soil and compost, you can have a bunch of nice-looking flowers with a limited amount of water, because it won’t percolate and get lost in the dry ground. For watering those planters, always use the very early morning or the sunset/night to prevent the evaporation.

Put volume with drought-resistant shrubs

Dry climate gardens usually look flat and boring, thanks to its clay soil and the absence of volume from plants. This can be very easily fixed adding blocks of drought-tolerant shrubs like hydrangeas, euphorbia and lavender that require very little water to thrive, and usually need little trimming or pruning.

Switch to a rock garden

There is a certain appeal to rock gardens in dry climates because they beautifully integrates with the major landscape. This type of gardens might need an expert to design it -to achieve the best configuration for the specific ground- and a lot of work for setting it up, but is the least demanding afterwards. For the low water demanding rock gardens, you can rely on simple dripping irrigation systems that feed just from rainwater collection or condensation, with no need for extra city water.

Create paths and dry patios

When having a large garden the best option is to integrate hardscaping and landscaping to create intricate designs. Adding concrete doesn’t mean getting all flat and grey if you choose a nice theme and follow it with your designer. A zen garden, a Spanish patio or a Tuscan veranda setup use huge dry, grass-free spaces and they are nothing near flat. Work alongside your contractor to find a style that best matches your home’s architecture and your lifestyle.

As you can see, there are plenty of options that can adapt perfectly to most home designs, to have a nice garden without a huge water impact. Take advantage of the warmer days to start your home landscape transformation and have a nice outdoor right away!