There was a time when Lois and Jeff Scott’s El Cajon front yard was awash in lawn, from the street to just a few feet from the house itself, where a bed grew roses and a large rosemary bush.
No more.
Since 2021, when Lois Scott dug into her landscape renovation project, it has been a low-water but high-color haven of succulents, natives and other low-water compatible plants and trees. In fact, it is so striking and well-conceived that her “Nana’s Garden” was awarded the 2023 Otay Water District Landscape Makeover Contest winner.
The Scotts moved into their home in 2012. The landscaping became Lois’ purview. She started in on the backyard first, explaining that the house had been in foreclosure when the couple bought it, and while the former owners had put in a new front lawn, the backyard and its steep hill was a mess.
Scott’s landscape before the transformation.
(Lois Scott)
“They hadn’t done anything, and the back hill had nothing but a crepe myrtle tree,” Scott recalled. It’s now terraced, has a Meyer lemon tree on one side and a grapefruit tree on the other, and features a lovely seating area at the top. The rest of the yard below has a patio for entertaining, a swim spa and plenty of space covered in artificial turf for her two 3-year-old Cavachon pups as well as her grandkids, when they visit.
When it finally came to the front yard, Scott, who had spent 42 years working as a registered nurse before retiring, decided to first eliminate the grass from a narrow strip of land between the front yard and the driveway, simply because it was so hard to mow. She kept a small palm, but planted several succulents, like aeoniums, and covered the exposed dirt with gravel.
By 2020, Scott finally grew tired of rabbits destroying the lawn, not to mention the cost of watering it. And while she’s happy with the artificial turf in the back, “I wanted something living for my front yard,” she explained.
A wide variety of succulents are interpersed among the boulders; Scott got some from nurseries and some from a seller she saw on Craigslist.
(Otay Water District)
“My motivation was that what normally was green grass had now turned brown from the weather, lack of water, weeds and rabbits” she explained. “Also, I was tired of wasting money on high water bills and wasting a precious resource like water, which we need more of in California.”
Scott read an article in the Otay Water District newsletter about its turf removal and rebate program.
“When I saw that they were offering a substantial rebate along with support through classes and meeting with a landscape architect, I knew the WaterSmart program was for me.”
A gardening-themed flag adds a little splash of color.
(Otay Water District)
The inspiration
Scott applied in 2020 for a rebate from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Landscape Transformation Program. The water district sent someone out to measure the property to determine the rebate. She had 1,387 square feet of grass removed professionally and for that earned a $4,161 rebate.
She then participated in the San Diego County Water Authority’s WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Program, which offers free classes to learn about water conservation, different plants and different garden types. Since this was against the backdrop of the pandemic in 2021, her classes were held online.
“My focus was to use as many native plants and succulents as possible,” she said. “I watched the videos the Water Authority showed and learned about the landscaping process. That was my inspiration.”
Scott said she also learned about the importance of not using too many plant types, but acknowledged that she “went outside the box regarding that rule. I fell in love with all the different plants I was learning about in class. With all the colors and textures, I couldn’t just limit my garden to a few plants. I call my garden ‘Nana’s Garden,’ full of lots of variation, just like my grandchildren.”
Then came the fun part. Scott was excited by the prospect of designing the landscape herself.
Scott likes to sit on the private patio in the front yard to enjoy her plants and pollinators; a path leads from the patio to a gate to the backyard.
(Otay Water District)
Scott had some help from neighborhood kids to create the path to from the patio to the backyard, using decomposed granite and pavers for steppingstones.
(Otay Water District)
“Jeff and I would go and look at different projects,” she recalled. “We went to Cuyamaca College’s Water Conservation Garden along with other places where there was interesting landscaping, and my husband would take pictures. I started getting a vision in my mind of what I wanted to do.”
Scott went about doing plant research on water requirements, size, growth and when they’d bloom. She wanted to be sure to have some plants blooming at different times of the year. The other thing that was very important to her was to create a patio in front of the house that provided privacy.
“I wanted to sit and have peace and enjoy my garden with the butterflies and hummingbirds,” Scott said.
Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) adds a bright punch of color and draws pollinators.
(Otay Water District)
The details
Scott designed an intimate patio surrounded by wood-poly composite Modinex panels from The Home Depot. She had them installed atop a short brick wall by gardeners and added a dining set and umbrella, as well as strings of lights. She also planted a few geraniums to add color.
With the lawn cleared out, and her overall design in place, she hired gardener David Ramirez to transition her sprinklers to drip irrigation, having 17 of the 19 existing spray sprinklers capped to eliminate water runoff over the sidewalks. The remaining two got a drip retrofit with a Rain Bird 1800 Retrofit kit. Drip lines irrigate the succulents and circle around the few trees she planted. Scott also has a separate line and a rainwater barrel on the side of the house to give a soak to the rest of the plants.
Aeoniums grow around a broken ceramic pot that serves as the start of a dry rock “waterfall.”
(Otay Water District)
Scott shopped at a variety of nurseries for her plants, including Native West Nursery, Rancho Valhalla Nursery and Armstrong Garden Center. She also found a man on Craigslist who was selling succulents in Chula Vista and brought back tons with the help of a good friend she describes as a “succulent queen.”
Scott did the planting herself and with her friend’s help. The space is filled with a variety of low-water plants, including Jerusalem sage, different colored lantanas, fairy duster, lion’s ear and lion’s tail, cigar plant, lavender, velvet centaurea, fuchsia heath and Mexican honeysuckle. In front of the fenced-in patio, Scott planted a gold medallion tree. To the left of the patio is a Western redbud tree. Toward the back of the garden is a wispy palo verde.
Interspersed between the plants are groupings of large and small boulders, including one highlighted by a sprinkling of aeoniums, and the remains of a distinctive broken ceramic pot that Scott found at a garage sale. Scott found the smaller boulders on Craigslist — the large one was already on the property and the guy who had installed her backyard’s artificial turf used his truck to pull it down to the front of the yard where Scott wanted it.
A rainwater barrel on the side of the house collects water for use on the plants not watered by drip lines.
(Otay Water District)
Scott had Apache Gold and Ruby Red gravel delivered to the house and, using a wheelbarrow, spread it around the plants herself. But she did engage neighborhood kids to dig up dirt and rocks to create a little walking path from the patio to the backyard gate, using decomposed granite and pavers for steppingstones.
A couple of years in, the plants are maturing and showing their colors — but, of course, Scott’ has lost some plants and replanted with others. She consciously planted shorter ones, like purple penstemon ‘Margarita BOP,’ at the front and taller ones like lantanas and Mexican honeysuckle behind and on the sides. She still has some palms that had come with the house and is looking forward to the maturation of the three trees, which will provide some shade for her southern exposure.
Yellow lantana
(Otay Water District)
Her neighbors seem impressed by the transformation.
“People walk by and tell me my yard is so beautiful,” Scott said. “Yesterday I was out trimming a few things and a neighbor walked by and said, ‘it’s gorgeous!’”
The variety of colors and textures thrills Scott.
“Some are soft, some fuzzy. Others are slick and smooth, while others are a little prickly,” she observed. “The richness of the purple in the lavender and the bright fluorescent of the honeysuckle amazes me. The fun part is now to sit back and enjoy the gentle breeze while watching the honeybees, butterflies and hummingbirds have their feast in my garden.
“Back when I was an RN, most of that time was doing mother/baby care and lactation counseling. Now I have moved on to taking care of new babies!”
Costs
Scott said she and her husband didn’t have a set budget, but they ended up spending $12,000, plus the cost of the patio furnishings. Fortunately, they got more than $4,000 in the turf removal rebate to put toward expenses. The couple also received a $250 gift card to the nursery of their choice. That, said Scott, was spent at Rancho Valhalla Nursery.
Scott had 1,387 square feet of grass removed professionally and, for that, earned a $4,161 rebate from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Landscape Transformation Program. “My focus was to use as many native plants and succulents as possible,” she said.
(Otay Water District)
Water saved
The Scotts had monthly water bills of $66 before the landscape project. Because they installed the swim spa, their bills have most recently been around $96. But, explained Scott, looking at the monthly bills over the years, the bills would have been much higher. In fact, the new landscape has reduced overall water use on average by about 41 percent.
“I’m loving the low water bill and knowing that I am helping the environment by saving water,” Scott said.
A closer look: Lois Scott
Plants used: tree houseleek (Aeonium), Aeonium ‘Kiwi’), Echeveria agavoides ‘Lipstick,’ Santa Cruz Island buckwheat (Eriogonum arborescens), fairy duster (Calliandra eriophylla), cigar plant (Cuphea ignea), Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa), hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea), cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis), Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera), mealycup sage (Salvia farinacea), giant chalk dudleya (Dudleya brittonii), lion’s tail (Leonotis leonurus), speedwell (Veronica officinalis), lantana (Lantana camara), verbena (Verbena officinalis), Penstemon heterophyllus ‘Margarita BOP’
Jerusalem sage
(Otay Water District)
Trees: palo verde (Parkinsonia aculeata), Western redbud (Cercis occidentalis), gold medallion (Cassia leptophylla)
Estimated costs: $12,000
Who did the work? Homeowner Lois Scott, gardener David Ramirez, as well as other gardeners no longer around, Scott’s good friend, and neighborhood children
How long did it take? After removing the grass in 2020, Scott worked on the landscaping during 2021.
Water savings: About 41 percent
Advice
- Do your homework before you get started. You will see many beautiful plants in the nurseries, but they may not like your climate zone or soil type.
- Get help if you need it. Originally I planned to do the block work and irrigation on my own, but I realized I needed help and am so happy I had those important things done to perfection.
- Don’t let weeds get too far out of hand; otherwise, they become a huge problem.
- Enjoy your garden! Look for all the wonders that nature provides in bright and muted colors with plants of various sizes. Listen for the sounds of the wind, the bees buzzing, the clicking of the hummingbirds, and the chirping of the birds. Feel the wonderful textures from smooth to prickly to even soft and fuzzy. Smell the wonderful smells, including that of the fresh breeze or new rain in addition to the beautiful fragrance of many of the plants.
About the series
A gold medallion tree is planted in front of the fenced-in patio.
(Otay Water District)
This is the second in an occasional series on winners of the annual WaterSmart Landscape Contest, conducted in partnership with the San Diego County Water Authority. To learn about entering the next contest, visit landscapecontest.com.
For details on classes and resources through the WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Program, visit sdcwa.org/your-water/conservation. Landscape rebates are available through the Socal WaterSmart Turf Replacement Program at socalwatersmart.com.
Golden is a San Diego freelance writer and blogger.