Is San Diego green? (Santa Barbara, Santee: gated, living in, backyard)

[cvanripe10]

With the sun always out and no rain, is San Diego's landscape that of a desert???

I'm from the NYC vicinity where the country side is lush with green rolling hills and maple trees. Although the winter sucks, the rest of the year is great.

But anyway, what is San Diego's countryside like??? Is there any green or is it all brown?

[greco1]

NO! brown and less brown! ..some palm trees , NOTHING like upstate NY!! TRUST ME..thats why there are those awful fires.

[Huckleberry3911948]

lowering that water table all the time.

[Sampaguita]

Well, it's not as brown as Arizona but it's not what I'd call lush either. When we do get a good rain, we see some pretty nice green - lots of surprises pop up from the earth - but I don't recall getting a really good rain since I've lived in SD the last 5 yrs. The last big rain I remember was when I was living in Santa Barbara; I remember driving down towards LA and being surprised at seeing how green the landscape was - had never seen it that green before.

[jksouthbay88]

It's in between brown and green.

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by cvanripe10

With the sun always out and no rain, is San Diego's landscape that of a desert???

I'm from the NYC vicinity where the country side is lush with green rolling hills and maple trees. Although the winter sucks, the rest of the year is great.

But anyway, what is San Diego's countryside like??? Is there any green or is it all brown?

The countryside is scrub chapparal and bare dirt. Mostly a desert climate. Green but a dark, olive green, not that glowing emerald green you're used to.

The coastal zone is greener with more mature trees. It's nothing like NY and is basically a desert next to the ocean.

[elcapitan]

I lived in La Jolla and it seemed to be much more green than other areas of SD. When you go inland it starts looking like the desert very fast.

[tande1n5]

Other than the fringe on the ocean, the only true green is manmade ala people's lawns.

[roger9552]

You must understand that while San Diego is arid, the coastal areas get fog and this allows trees like the Torrey Pines to grow on the hills around UCSD. Otherwise most green areas are irrigated from imported water. In Mission Trails park out in Santee you can see the natural green vegetation along San Diego river.

[sdurbanite]

Like others have already said, most of the green we do have here is man-made. While it's nothing like upstate NY, it's isn't barren like Death Valley.

Originally Posted by greco1

NO! brown and less brown! ..some palm trees , NOTHING like upstate NY!! TRUST ME..thats why there are those awful fires.

You know, the brown scrub that burned during the recent wildfires were once green.


Here's a pic of what the chapparal looks like during a normal rainy season.


...and here's a pic of my backyard that I took today. I bet it's alot greener than what you have in NY now.