San Diego County’s Water Conservation Garden has a serious mission: to educate county residents about the looming water crisis and to change cultural attitudes about landscaping.
Public gardens are a wonderful way to affect people’s behavior. What we can do, can be much more powerful than any program in a classroom,” says Marty Eberhardt, executive director of the Water Conservation Garden.
As you enter the Water Conservation Garden in eastern San Diego County, CA, a large panel greets you with words becoming faded by school children’s hands. It tells the story of how water comes to San Diego County from northern California, and from the Colorado River, to the east of the county. Only 10% of the water consumed in San Diego County is of local origin.
In the coming year, the amount of water San Diegans will have to drink and to irrigate, is likely to shrink enormously, because of shrinking snow pack, and because of a legal decision to protect Delta Smelt in the San Joaquin Bay Delta. Allocations from the Colorado River will also shrink due to reduced waters at its source.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| View through white garden trellis |
The San Diego County Water Authority has been notified by the State Department of Water Resources, that initial allocations may shrink to 25% of its request for 4.15 million acre-feet of water, for 2008. Last year, it got 60% of its request. It all depends on how much snow falls in the state in January and February, says a county water authority spokesman.
Furthermore, the judge’s final Delta Smelt decision, which has not been released as of this writing, may impact the county by an additional 17%. The ultimate decision on the county’s water allocation will not come until late April.
Thus, the Water Conservation Garden has a serious mission to educate county residents about what is likely to be a water crisis, and by changing cultural attitudes about landscaping.
A Visit to the Garden
Laid out on 4.2 acres on land owned by Cuyamaca Community College, the Water Conservation Garden features a variety of micro-gardens, each showcasing a different waterwise landscape. For example, there is a native plant garden, a vegetable garden, plantings that attract birds and butterflies, a sensory garden for children, a white garden, a cactus and succulents garden, a container garden, and a children’s discovery trail where mothers bring their pre-school children.
One exhibit in particular illustrates, for homeowners, the costs of watering back-yard lawns. Standing in front of what is described as a typical San Diego home’s stretch of backyard grass, visitors read that it drinks up 25,000 gallons of water per year. Turning to their right, they see a waterwise landscape with a small patch of green groundcover surrounded by CA-friendly shrubs, perennials, and small trees, all using just 6,000 gallons per year.
Scattered throughout the garden, are 60 signs loaded with educational information describing the gardens. “We have enough information on these signs; you could earn a xeriscape degree if you read them all,” Eberhardt says.
Then, there are the education classes offered both on weeknights and Saturdays. A new class is entitled, “Bye Bye Grass.” In two parts, of two hours each, the first part shows homeowners how to exterminate their lawns for good. The second part focuses on designing a new landscape and evaluating the irrigation system.
There are classes on: the seven principles of xeriscape; gardening for sustainability; designing landscapes with native plants or cacti and succulents; classes on using mulch, compost, and fertilizer; what to plant on a hillside; irrigation design for waterwise gardens; and managing irrigation water.
Guided tours of the gardens are led every weekend by some of the 60 garden docents, and they listen to the questions people ask and want answers for. The classes grow out of these questions. For example, the question, “I want to get rid of my grass. What do I do?” led to the creation of “Bye, Bye Grass.”
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| Fire-wise landscape exhibit |
Three festivals are held each year. The Spring Garden Festival, cosponsored by Cuyamaca College, and Heritage of the Americas Museum, both immediately next door, and the Water Conservation Garden, attracted 6,000 visitors in 2007. Cuyamaca College’s horticulture department sells waterwise plants, and landscape designers and architects offer free 20-minute demonstrations. Fun stuff is provided for kids, as well says Eberhardt. Two other yearly festivals attract around 2,000 visitors at each. Cuyamaca College’s horticulture department uses the garden as a teaching tool, regularly bringing classes to the garden, Eberhardt says.
Quarterly newsletters are full of advice, programs, and announcements of annual festivals. Handouts promoting drought tolerant plants—such as “Nifty 50 plants for California Friendly Landscapes”—can be found at local nurseries that have reported a boost in business as a result of the brochure. Another handout available at the exhibit describes sprinkler system design capacity, and explains how to design the correctly sized sprinkler system.
One of the most innovative exhibits in the garden is the miniature house and landscaping, designed, with the advice of a local fire protection district, to reduce a home’s vulnerability to wildfires. For example, it defines a defensible buffer needed to provide a minimum of 100-foot-clearance around structures. A handout listing fire-resistive plants located throughout the garden accompanies the display. The plants significantly improve the survivability of a home when a wildfire threatens.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| Newly replanted cactus and succulent garden |
But, as Eberhardt says, everything burns if the fire is hot enough. The October 2007 fires in San Diego County were proof. Looking across the main thoroughfare outside the garden, one could see the brown hills. A market down the street was burned, and employees at the garden were evacuated. It was a scary time, but the fire did not come to the garden. A fire department representative told Eberhardt that the winds were so hot, that everything he has known about fires for the last 30 years is now thrown out the window.
While the emphasis has been on educating homeowners, new education tools have or are being designed for professional landscapers and homeowners associations. Don Schultz, horticulture manager at the garden, in addition to teaching homeowners the basics of irrigation, also leads classes for commercial landscape managers.
Schultz says he teaches homeowners very basic stuff, like what a sprinkler looks like and how to hook it up. But the workshop for professionals is designed for people who manage several properties and who don’t have time to go onsite regularly. For example, he teaches how to determine a water budget and to do a cost analysis. There is software they can use to track and audit water usage for 40 or 50 properties.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| Close-up of grevillea, one of the "Nifty 50" plants for California |
Schultz says a landscaper will tell his or her client a repair or upgrade will cost X amount of dollars, and the client will question why it is necessary. Schultz’s information will give them the quantitative tools to say, “you will save $10,000 in water costs if you do this.” He also shows them how to write reports with concise summaries for their clients.
Schultz is designing a class for homeowner associations, scheduled to start in January. His intent is to get a property manager, contractor, and HOA Board member to come as a team to learn about water use monitoring, how to create a water budget, and do a cost analysis. He will talk about the roles each of the team members can play in the maintenance of the HOA’s landscape.
Schultz says there are often deficiencies in irrigation that produce dry spots in a particular landscaped area. The contractor’s goal is to see all green and no dry spots, but that may not be cost effective. The team must be committed to available resources, so that, when they see dry spots together they can make a decision about investing in changes, rather than the HOA members sitting in the background criticizing the landscape contractor.
The History of the Garden
How did this southern California gem happen? It took years of work for a small number of dedicated horticulture experts and utility water conservation specialists, to persuade water engineers of the value of a water conservation garden.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| Close-up in bird and butterfly garden |
California urban water management and conservation came alive starting in 1990, during those drought years. The Metropolitan Water District, that provides water to most of southern California, was cutting water allocations. The California Urban Water Conservation Council was formed in 1991, and nearly 100 urban water agencies and environmental groups signed a memorandum of understanding, pledging to develop and implement comprehensive conservation best management practices. Today, there are 384 members.
In 1991, in a beautiful southeastern corner of California, east of San Diego, several regional groups concerned about the drought, then, in its sixth year along with MWD’s cutbacks to water districts, formed a task force with Otay Water District as lead agency, to propose creating a water conservation garden. The intent was to create a teaching garden to educate the area’s future water users how to have colorful green landscaping without thirsty green lawns.
Both Otay Water District and Helix Water District were facing 30% cuts in water allocations from the MWD at the time, and they knew that 50 to 70% of all water is used outdoors.
Jan Tubiolo, now retired, was water conservation coordinator for Otay, and she and Helix board member Warren Buckner spearheaded the drive to create the garden. A succulent garden within the larger garden, designed by his son, is named in Buckner’s honor, in recognition of his devotion to succulents.
Tubiolo recalled that her board sometimes says yes and sometimes says no, to investing in the garden. She attributed the vacillation to “government conservatism.” Furthermore, the area was in an economic downturn in the early 1990s and the landscape industry was suffering—nurseries were going out of business.
Gerry Kiffe, a former landscape designer and general manager of GardenSoft, which creates presentation software for the landscape industry, explained why water engineers were so reluctant to embrace the idea of a water conservation garden—they had no concept of marketing water conservation. Instead, they wanted to quantify how much water a water conservation garden would save. It’s almost impossible to measure, he says, in explaining why it took six years to get the garden up and running.
A joint powers authority was established in August 1992, and Jon Powell was hired to design and present a preliminary budget for the Water Conservation Garden. Funds totaling $700,000 were raised over the next two years from the landscape industry, including nurseries and irrigation suppliers. But still, the bulk of the $2.3 million to build the garden had to come from Otay and the Helix Water District that had joined the JPA by 1995.
The preliminary budget indicated that Otay’s investment would cost each of its ratepayers 47 cents per year, for 20 years. The far greater number of Helix ratepayers would pay 35 cents per year. That was what convinced the boards of both water districts, to finance the water conservation garden in 1996, says Tubiolo.
In 1994, Cuyamaca College joined the JPA and approved locating the garden on its property as part of its master plan. The college already had a strong horticulture department led by Brad Monroe, and he was one of the original drivers to create the garden. The college paid for a new design, when it shifted the location of the garden on the campus. This turned out to be a blessing, because the garden immediately grew from a planned 1.5 acres at the original location, to 4.2 acres at the new location adjacent to the college entrance.
Construction of the garden began in June 1998, and the grand opening was held in May 1999. Trubiolo managed the garden program and its operation until she retired in 2001. The San Diego County Water Authority became a garden partner in 2001, and its administrative agency in 2003. The City of San Diego joined the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) in 2002, and Padre Dam Municipal Water District joined in July 2003.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| Plantings in cactus and succulent garden, featuring a South African pencil tree |
Katherine Breece, the public affairs manager with the Helix Water District, says her district is looking at a large campaign to promote the garden. “I see the garden as being the keystone of what I believe will be an aggressive outdoor water saver. We want San Diego [County] to have a San Diego landscape, and not look like Hawaii. San Diego doesn’t have an identifier, and we need to change the attitude about landscaping,” she says.
Breece says that at the peak of the drought in 1990, Helix ratepayers were using 177 gallons of water per day. Today, they’re using 131 gallons per day. Since people have changed their behavior, the necessary changes that will be needed in the future will be difficult.
Breece explained that one-third to two-thirds of the water a household uses is saved when the lawn is converted to a xeriscape landscape, depending on the replacement plants. This is easily done, she says, and the water conservation garden illustrates how to do it. A homeowner could put in a drought-tolerant front yard; roses could be moved to its own water-zoned area; and sage, rosemary, and blue hibiscus planted in another water-zoned area.
The garden has received international attention. The premier of Victoria State in Australia, which is experiencing extreme drought, came to see how the garden was promoting outdoor water conservation. Breece says she learned that many of the districts in Australia sold their facilities to private entities that make money selling water. The districts are now trying to buy them back so they can promote water conservation.
Irrigating Wisely
Schultz described the irrigation system operating in the garden. Six controllers operate remote valves. Each is set up to run about 24 valves, with the exception of one that operates eight valves. The valves will control either a sprinkler or a drip system. and the operation of each valve is determined by hydrozone characteristics. Each serves plants that have the same water requirements and sun exposure. Slopes will have separate valves for different rows, since water requirements of plants at the top will be different from those at the bottom of the slope.
An irrigation system always needs regular upgrading, Schultz says. Plants mature and change the elements surrounding them. A plant may grow to block the spray requiring that the sprinkler be moved. Drip irrigators will have to be added as a plant grows from its five-gallon container size. “I don’t think it is possible to design landscape irrigation that doesn’t need changing,” he says.
Dave Johnson, director of corporate marketing at Rain Bird, says watering the right amount of time is important feature of a waterwise garden. Too much water produces wasteful run-off. Just enough water means it is soaked into the root system and promotes deeper root growth. So, monitoring soil moisture to optimize irrigation running time becomes important.
Johnson described some of the new technologies now on the market to help gardeners do that. Pressure compensator (or reducer) sprayheads will automatically respond to the amount of water pressure in the pipes. If pressure is high, it will be reduced at the sprayhead. When water comes out with too much pressure, it comes out as mist and gets blown away, producing wasted water.
The biggest development is the smart controller. It utilizes weather data and measures the temperature, rainfall, and solar radiation, and calculates how much water the plants should use. The controller can be located in a garage on the side of a building. Program in the date, the time, number of zones, and the controller will tell valves when to turn on. Larger installations like golf courses will have weather stations on site. Rain Bird has a controller called the ET manager. It is a wireless technology that communicates with local weather stations.
“As the technology costs come down, we’ll eventually have weather-measuring devices and data for each zip code, that will communicate with weather stations.” It is expensive, says Johnson, so its application is limited to larger installations.
Schultz says he installed one weather controller, manufactured by Hunter Industries, recently in new plantings, but, it is not yet operational, and he is looking forward to observing its performance. It has a weather station communicator on-site, and an automatic rain shut-off valve. Controllers provide a wonderful tool for people who have multiple properties and don’t have the time to check soil moisture, he says. “I do have that time, and can do a better job,” he says.
What is the Reach?
Eberhardt says they track their visitors by zip codes. According to the garden’s annual report, visitors have increased steadily from 800 in 1999-2000, to 35,000 this year. In the beginning, people from the eastern portion of the county visited the garden, but now, the largest numbers are from the city of San Diego. However, the garden is still not getting visitors from northern San Diego County, known in the area as North County. She says they are planning to export the “Bye Bye Grass” class to North County and other places.
Otay Water District surveyed its 49,000 customers in 2005 and 2006 seeking opinions and awareness of the district’s activities, including questions about the water conservation garden. Survey respondents were asked if they had every heard about the garden, and 47% says yes, while 20% had visited the garden.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
| Courtyard in front of entrance in distance |
The percentage of those who visited doubled 10 times or more, in 2005, and the mean number of visits increased from 2.9 to 3.66. More importantly, in 2006, 50% of the visitors to the garden have made changes to their landscaping as a result of what they learned on their visits, in comparison to 45% in 2005. “The most noteworthy and predominant change was the use of drought tolerant plants, and secondarily, changes in watering practices,” the survey says. Other characteristics of the visitors were that 50% were homeowners, compared to renters (19%).
Armando Buelna, a communications officer with Otay Water District, says San Diego County, in general, uses the same amount of water today as it did in 1990. The garden is just one facet of the district’s conservation efforts. It offered vouchers for high-efficiency toilets until all old toilets had been removed. It continues the voucher program for high-efficiency clothes washers and weather-based controllers.
Looking to the Future
Eberhardt, who was director of the Tucson, AZ Botanical Garden for 12 years, before coming to San Diego and taking the job three years ago, noted that Tucson has had a real consciousness, a sense of urgency about water conservation, that San Diego does not have. And local flora is not as appreciated in San Diego as the Saguaro Cactus is in Tucson, she says.
So the kid’s classes at the water conservation garden are important in educating future water users, giving them a sense of place—showing how leaves adapt to climate and that banana leaves, for example, don’t live here. “The basis for understanding conservation is to understand nature,” she says.
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Photo: Helix Water District |
Native plant garden |
Regarding future plans she says, “We see ourselves as being the education center for the county.” She hopes to partner with for-profit businesses to increase funding. The irrigation exhibit, which just opened, cost $58,000, and just $9,000 came from various irrigation companies. Rain Bird, in November, named the water conservation garden as its 2007 “Intelligent Use of Water Award,” and will give the garden $10,000.
A huge problem at the garden is lack of space for classes. They currently have a 30-person classroom that must also serve as a staff meeting room. They are having trouble accommodating all the classes, Eberhardt says. Fortunately, the Heritage of Americas Museum allows them to use a 70-person meeting room when necessary.
The garden has a large open-air amphitheater used for special programming, but it has no shading to protect visitors from the hot sun experienced in eastern San Diego County during the summer months. (In July 2007, there were three days with highs over 112°F.) Eberhardt says they are now raising $138,000 to add shading, and once that is done, the amphitheater can be used for classes.
The water conservation garden has been given additional acreage by the college, directly adjacent where a children’s garden will be developed. It has been delayed until the money can been raised to build it.
The water conservation garden’s 2007 annual budget is $570,000. Member agencies and private sources contribute 64%. Special events and classes contribute 8%, and net assets released from restrictions contributed 11% this year. Gift shop and plant sales contributed 4%, and in-kind services 10%. Program expenses are 78% of the budget. The five or six-person staff is supplemented by 60 volunteer docents.
Eberhardt says that building new exhibits, or remodeling mature gardens, requires fundraising. In 2005, Friends of the Water Conservation Garden was created to increase private support.
Eberhardt is full of energy. She recognizes the challenges San Diego County faces with shrinking snowpack and diminishing water allocations. “As a culture, we want immediate change. The garden must focus on creating long-term behavior and aesthetic changes,” she says.