Desert Landscaping in Lancaster (Cottonwood: HOA, house, neighborhoods)

[C_A_Braun]

I am considering replacing my natural grass yard with a combination of synthetic grass, desert rocks and succulents and other desert plants to save water and maintenance costs.

Has anyone done such a thing recently and able to recommend a company to assist with everything from design to purchase to removal of current landscape and associated plumbing to installation of the new landscaping?

[Charles]

What do your neighbors do? Is natural grass pretty common?
Do you have HOA restrictions or rules?

[C_A_Braun]

No HOA. Most neighboring homes are natural grass. 1 house is desert landscaped but I can't ever seem to catch the owner at home.

[drunk on kool aid]

There's xeriscape information here:

LA County Waterworks Districts - Xeriscape Education

Don't overlook the link on that page to the Cash for Grass Rebate which will rebate you $1 for each square foot of replaced lawn, up to $5000. I don't know if Lancaster is qualified but can't hurt to check. Sorry, I have no knowledge about recommended companies. Good luck.

[pears]

A couple key points:

1.Remember I would only take out my grass yard, if you think you can have something even more pleasant and pleasing.

2. Be sure to talk to at least your adjoining neighbors to get their feedback.

3. Remember that by xeriscaping, the amount of upkeep will actually increase, when you take into account all of the weeding and trimming of plants.

Check out the Antelope Valley Resource Conservation District.
AVRCD
Theodore Payne Foundation
California native plants, flora, wildflower seeds

Cactuses and succulents are not native to the Antelope Valley.

Junipers, Cottonwood, Yucca, Creosote, Scrub Oak, California Buckwheat, Sage Brush, Winter Fat, Poppies and Lupines are all native plants, and many others.

Synthetic Grass gets immensely hot during the heat, and smells bad if you have animals who pee on it.

Recommended plants would be: Autumn Sage, rosemary, rockrose, butterfly bush, olive trees, oak trees, chaste, tree, red yucca, russian sage, society garlic, breath of heaven, palms(washington, canary island, windmill, sago, mediterranean fan and pindo), agave, wisteria, crape myrtle, juniper and floribunda roses are just a few of the plants that thrive in Lancaster most of them with minimal water requirements. Your yard can still be very green without using much water.

Hope this helps!

Drive around town, there are some gorgeous landscapes. Maybe you can find out the best landscapers that way. Personally I did my own yard because of my history in landscaping, but I would never recommend someone doing their own yard normally. Try to find someone who actually has a background in landscape design and not just contracting landscapes, there is a huge difference. Talk to the horticulture department at the college also.

[Out_of_Palmdale]

I xeriscaped my yard 2 years ago and I'm very happy with it. Unfortunately the guy who did it went out of business.

For the first season of having the xeriscape, you will go through containers of weed killer. I know I did. I was out in that yard daily spraying weeds as soon as they appeared (which is very important .... don't let the weeds grow, catch them as seedlings before they reseed). After the first year, you will notice weeds less and less but you will still have to do weed patrol with weed killer. The watering drip system works well and my plants look great, growing bigger and bigger now. After 2 years, the wind has blown 30% of the crushed granite off the ground surface so I will need to get some granite delivered soon to replace.

All of my neighbors have green lawns which utilize a ton of water but bit by bit I see desert landscaping being installed. It is low maintenance aside from pruning, weeding and raking. You can't ignore maintenance but I find desert landscaping to be much more convenient than having to water and mow grass ..... when I had lawn, the summer's heat would kill most of it and it looked an eyesore.

Try this company for xeriscape: Sharper Landscaping http://www.sharperlandscaping.com/

[xeric]

Originally Posted by pears

A couple key points:

1.Remember I would only take out my grass yard, if you think you can have something even more pleasant and pleasing.

2. Be sure to talk to at least your adjoining neighbors to get their feedback.

3. Remember that by xeriscaping, the amount of upkeep will actually increase, when you take into account all of the weeding and trimming of plants.

Check out the Antelope Valley Resource Conservation District.
AVRCD
Theodore Payne Foundation
California native plants, flora, wildflower seeds

Cactuses and succulents are not native to the Antelope Valley.

Junipers, Cottonwood, Yucca, Creosote, Scrub Oak, California Buckwheat, Sage Brush, Winter Fat, Poppies and Lupines are all native plants, and many others.

Synthetic Grass gets immensely hot during the heat, and smells bad if you have animals who pee on it.

Recommended plants would be: Autumn Sage, rosemary, rockrose, butterfly bush, olive trees, oak trees, chaste, tree, red yucca, russian sage, society garlic, breath of heaven, palms(washington, canary island, windmill, sago, mediterranean fan and pindo), agave, wisteria, crape myrtle, juniper and floribunda roses are just a few of the plants that thrive in Lancaster most of them with minimal water requirements. Your yard can still be very green without using much water.

Hope this helps!

Drive around town, there are some gorgeous landscapes. Maybe you can find out the best landscapers that way. Personally I did my own yard because of my history in landscaping, but I would never recommend someone doing their own yard normally. Try to find someone who actually has a background in landscape design and not just contracting landscapes, there is a huge difference. Talk to the horticulture department at the college also.

While I think keeping the lines of communication open with your neighbors is a good thing, I'm curious about what you would have done or said if your neighbors had objected to your xeriscape plans. I never asked any of my neighbors before xeriscaping. In my mind, it's both my right and responsibility to do what I can to conserve water in the arid west. And I'm an advocate of fostering a sense of regional style in my landscaping. If neighbors don't care about that, I'm not going to waste my time coddling them to get their grudging approval for removing my lawn.

Also, can you elaborate on why you think a xeriscape requires more maintenance then a lawn? That hasn't been my experience. I probably spend about an hour or two in the spring trimming the dead foliage and re-mulching, then about 15 minutes a week in late spring/early summer puttering around the plantings and picking the odd weed. In late summer, the weeds have pretty much given up around here so that time is reduced even more. Then there's removing fallen leaves (from the neighborhood trees) in the fall. That's the most work but I'd have to do it anyway even if I had a lawn. But if you compare that work to mowing and trimming every week (or even every two weeks) it comes out to a lot less total time. Also, don't people with lawns have to hand weed sometimes as well?

[pears]

Originally Posted by xeric

While I think keeping the lines of communication open with your neighbors is a good thing, I'm curious about what you would have done or said if your neighbors had objected to your xeriscape plans. I never asked any of my neighbors before xeriscaping. In my mind, it's both my right and responsibility to do what I can to conserve water in the arid west. And I'm an advocate of fostering a sense of regional style in my landscaping. If neighbors don't care about that, I'm not going to waste my time coddling them to get their grudging approval for removing my lawn.

Also, can you elaborate on why you think a xeriscape requires more maintenance then a lawn? That hasn't been my experience. I probably spend about an hour or two in the spring trimming the dead foliage and re-mulching, then about 15 minutes a week in late spring/early summer puttering around the plantings and picking the odd weed. In late summer, the weeds have pretty much given up around here so that time is reduced even more. Then there's removing fallen leaves (from the neighborhood trees) in the fall. That's the most work but I'd have to do it anyway even if I had a lawn. But if you compare that work to mowing and trimming every week (or even every two weeks) it comes out to a lot less total time. Also, don't people with lawns have to hand weed sometimes as well?

The thing that takes much more time than most people are not willing to invest in is weeding. Even with landscape paper, weeds come through the rocks in profusion. Rocks are a lot of work to keep clean also because of leaves, and other junk always get stuck in them.

Many of the newer neighborhoods in Lancaster have HOAs, so it is absolutely imperative that you talk to your neighborhood association before you plan on doing anything to your yard. Even if you don't have an HOA, it is still a good idea to at least keep them abreast of what your plans are.

I find a lawn can sometimes be easier only in the sense that you know that you have to trim it and water it on a regular schedule. The best way to keep on top of a xeriscaped yard is to daily pull out the weeds coming through the rocks, but if you don't it will turn into a huge job. The difference is that you have mulch and bark I assume which does a much better job of keeping weeds down than rock. In the SW most people put down lots of rock, even though mulch is still preferable in my mind. Both kinds of yards are a lot of work, but many in the SW do not realize that xeriscaped yards still need a constant eye to make sure that the weeds do not grow through.

I say this all to make the point that if you have a xeriscaped yard, please weed it so that it can continually look nice.

[xeric]

Originally Posted by pears

The thing that takes much more time than most people are not willing to invest in is weeding. Even with landscape paper, weeds come through the rocks in profusion. Rocks are a lot of work to keep clean also because of leaves, and other junk always get stuck in them.

Many of the newer neighborhoods in Lancaster have HOAs, so it is absolutely imperative that you talk to your neighborhood association before you plan on doing anything to your yard. Even if you don't have an HOA, it is still a good idea to at least keep them abreast of what your plans are.

I find a lawn can sometimes be easier only in the sense that you know that you have to trim it and water it on a regular schedule. The best way to keep on top of a xeriscaped yard is to daily pull out the weeds coming through the rocks, but if you don't it will turn into a huge job. The difference is that you have mulch and bark I assume which does a much better job of keeping weeds down than rock. In the SW most people put down lots of rock, even though mulch is still preferable in my mind. Both kinds of yards are a lot of work, but many in the SW do not realize that xeriscaped yards still need a constant eye to make sure that the weeds do not grow through.

I say this all to make the point that if you have a xeriscaped yard, please weed it so that it can continually look nice.

Thanks for your response. Colorado has had a law since the mid-2000s that bars HOAs from banning xeriscape. I'm surprised CA doesn't have something similar (maybe it does). In any case, I suppose you would have to submit a plan to your HOA for any landscape changes (one reason I avoid those type of neighborhoods).

I do have some gravel next to the house and the one side is prone to seedlings in the spring from a small maple that is planted at the front of the gravel area. The other side doesn't require more then a weekly weeding. In my experience, the organic mulch areas in my yard do seem somewhat more weed resistant although I need to re-mulch every year. But this may be a function of the age of gravel areas and their underlying weed barrier (which are over 20 years old). I'm going to redo the weed barrier on the maple side and see if it helps. If I lived in the SW (at least the mild winter areas) I wouldn't use organic mulch because I'd be worried about termites.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Skip the astroturf.

It will look good for a couple years but will fade in the sun and will get dirty. Looks like rubbish after about 3 years.