KICK-BUTT SELF-DEFENSE: Lori Hartman Gervasi, author

home & garden | water conservation
Dry can be beautiful
Southern California, Inland empire —
don’t be fooled. While lush verdant
landscapes filled with tropical color and
homes surrounded by carpets of thick green grasses
may be the 1950s dream of suburbia, it’s just not
reality — at least not here and not without
unnatural intervention.
While the occasional misty or overcast day may
speak otherwise, our own Ie is actually an arid
climate. It’s a place where scrub, California Coastal
oak and drought-tolerant natives are at home —
especially on the alluvial fans where our foothill
communities have built up.
With landscape irrigation accounting for as much
as 60 percent of water usage according to the Chino
Valley Water District, it’s no wonder local water
providers are asking homeowners to get real when
it comes to landscaping.
the district recently held its first landscape tour,
24 | inlandlivingmagazine.com | may 09
which attracted some 150 residents who explored
local landscape options that require little or none
of the wet stuff.
the tour included homes, public properties and
the Maloof Foundation Discovery Garden in Alta
Loma, where visitors wandered the trails to find
a wide variety of drought-resistant plants — many
of which offer bright color.
After checking in at the district offices,
participants received a tour binder with maps, plant
lists, gardening and conservation information and
CDs. that, coupled with handouts at the Maloof
garden, and the take-home was a fat packet of ideas
that also included fliers about upcoming events,
plants for birds, butterflies, erosion control and
aroma. the tour was part of the district’s water
conservation recognition program and is expected
to be an annual event.
— Don Sproul
Below, a garden at the Brinkley home, also on the tour, used rock pathways to set off a displays of statice, sedum and a collection of droughttolerant
plants including varieties of yucca, aloe, cactus, sage, yarrow and heavenly bamboo. Photos By thomas R. coRdova
r e a l i t y c h e c k f o r l a n d s c a p i n g
The Maloof Foundation
Discovery Garden in
Alta Loma sparkled with
smart color during a recent
low-water use landscaping
tour. At top of facing page:
a wandering path is lined
with drought-resistant
plants. The rest of the
gallery, by color: the
purple-blue flowers are
statice, also known as
sea lavender; the orange
blossom on the left border
is a sun rose, which can
serve as a nice complement
to California poppies;
the cream-white blossoms
at bottom left are from
the Coppertone sedum,
the leaves of which have
the metallic copper tint
(also shown in lower right
side of frame). The final
plants in the frame
are the red Navajo
Autumn Sage salvia
and the isomeris arborea
Bladderpod, shown bottom
right, and, at bottom
center, a cactus from
the Brinkley home in
Rancho Cucamonga.
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