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A yard should be a reflection of a home's environment. If you live in a desert, the surroundings of your house should match that. You can be very decorative wit

A yard should be a reflection of a home's environment. If you live in a desert, the surroundings of your house should match that. You can be very decorative without having to use a substantial amount of water. Then again, I'm from Upstate NY, where nobody waters their lawn because the region is soaked. But that doesn't mean grass is sacrosanct. We removed the entire back yard of grass between our house and the lake because it made more sense to have a stone patio. We also replaced our front yards with gravel driveways because we rent the house out fairly often and have far more bedrooms than parking spaces. I think in general people should look to more than a flat pane of grass as the answer to the space around their home.

bengoodger 11y ago
To some extent. But we have a diversity of architecture in California, we're not all adobe mission huts and mid century modern homes. Old Palo Alto for example has a preponderance of 1920s/30s Tudor Revival homes, which really deserve an English garden. IMO the issue here is really the ridiculously low cost of water. If someone wants to have an extravagantly lush lawn let them. But it's only fair that they pay through the nose for it. This makes it clear to consumers what their choice costs. Hitting people in the wallet is a far more effective way at changing behavior than lecturing people about civic mindedness which happens too often in California.