Get Rid of Your Water-Guzzling Grass and Make Some REAL Green!

Category: Community News
Published on Friday, 08 August 2014 16:30
Written by D.V. Lawrence
To encourage more outdoor water conservation, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has increased its Cash In Your Lawn incentive to $3 a square foot from $2 a square foot for residential customers to replace their water-thirsty grass with California Friendly plants and other water-wise landscaping. (Of the 600 million gallons of drinking water delivered daily in the City of Los Angeles, about half is used for watering outdoors.)

LADWP water customers must adhere to the current, mandatory Water Conservation Ordinance that limits watering with sprinklers to three days a week. Making the additional switch to gardens featuring native California Friendly plants is voluntary, but encouraged, as Los Angeles and many other water utilities are looking to longer-term solutions in dealing with dry climate cycles.

All LADWP customers interested in the Cash In Your Lawn Program must pre-apply for a rebate and receive LADWP approval before starting the turf replacement project. The Department will rebate up to 2,000 square feet of lawn replaced, for a maximum cash repayment of $6,000. LADWP may also inspect the lawn before it is removed, and return when the project is completed.

The California Friendly plant palette is rich and diverse, with a wide variety of beautiful trees, perennials, vines, succulents and shrubs from which to choose. To help customers transition to water-wise gardens, LADWP, through its partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, offers California Friendly landscape and gardening classes for customers to attend in person or take online. Classes include tips on drawing a site plan, installing drip irrigation, utilizing water permeable ground cover, selecting a water wise planting palette, and other elements of a sustainable garden.  Information can be obtained by visiting http://www.socalwatersmart.com/.

Since LADWP implemented the California Friendly landscaping incentive program in 2009, more than 8 million square feet of turf has been replaced, resulting in 250 million gallons of water saved.