Lawn > Water-wise meadow

The drought's no secret, folks. 

I'm not going to sit here and impress upon you all of the details, because I know you've heard them before (and if not, go here), instead I'm going to show you one way to save water while getting some money back for your efforts.

The only catch is that it does not involve vegetables. Read about saving water in the vegetable garden here.

It does, however, involve trading in your water-sucking lawn for a beautiful, serene and xeric meadow AFTER doing a few things with the county so that you can cash in on the rebates.

1. Check eligibility
Make sure that you're eligible for the rebates through Santa Clara County by looking through the details here. 

2. Call the county
Call Santa Clara County's Water Conservation Hotline (408-630-2554) and tell them that you want to participate in the Landscape Conversion Rebate Program.

3.  Get started with your design! 
The county has a list of approved plants so that you can find ones that work with your design. 

4. Gather your goods
Fall is the best time to do the planting so that fall rains (fingers crossed) can establish your new meadow, but you can do the lawn destruction this summer and get all of your materials chosen and on order or stockpiled between now and then.  

The installation process takes about four separate days (preferably spaced out across weekends with breaks in between to heal sore muscles - there's lots of hands on work here) and the following materials:

Sod cutter or flat blade shovel for removing sod
Weed blocking or tougher landscaping fabric
Fabric staples
Gorilla hair mulch
Rake
Grass plugs
Root dip
Bucket
Bulb tool
Wildflower seeds
Trowel
Carpet knife 

5. Use your lawn for mulch

 
For the first step, either rent a sod cutter or use a flat blade shovel to scrape your lawn into strips. Water the area well 12 hours before you start so it's soft enough for your shovel or sod cutter to cut easily. If you're using a sod cutter, be sure you're strong enough to handle the monster.

Once you've cut your grass away from the soil in strips, flip it over and lay grass side down on the soil to be used as planting material for the plugs.

6. Put down weed blocking fabric

 
For this step, you'll need enough rolls of weed blocking or landscaping fabric to cover your space and fabric staples to hold it down. To be eligible for the rebates, this material must be air and water permeable, so no solid plastic mulch or anything like that.

Roll out fabric over your overturned lawn or newly bare soil, cut to cover and staple down as you go. Don't be stingy with the staples, either, you want this fabric to stay down.

7. Lay mulch

 
For this step, you'll need bark mulch (gorilla hair is good) in an amount equal to the cubic yardage of your space and allowing for at least a 2 inch depth.

Flip your rake over so that it's flat side down (no, really) and rake the mulch to an even layer over your weed blocking fabric. This will keep you from snagging holes in the fabric. Landscaping fabric is a bit tougher than weed blocking fabric, so this is a good choice if you're not usually gentle with the rake.

8. Plant grass plugs

 
For this step, you'll need enough grass plugs to cover your space based on 70 plugs for every 18 feet, root dip for the plugs, bulb tool or a trowel and a carpet knife or box cutter.

About 30 minutes before you begin planting, dissolve root dip in a bucket of water until it's the consistency of soupy oatmeal.

While the dip dissolves, lay the grass plugs evenly over the space to be planted, avoiding straight lines for a natural effect and scoring the plugs' root balls with your box cutter as you go, which will allow their roots to establish faster.

Once the dip dissolves, start at one corner of your space, move the grass plug aside, dig a small hole through the mulch and fabric to the depth of the plug, dip the plug in the solution coating it completely (this will help it retain water until it's established) and plant in the hole, compacting the surrounding soil lightly.

Repeat this until you've planted all the plugs and then water in all of your new plugs. Make sure to give them a good soak by watering thoroughly three times in the first day.

9. Plant wildflower seeds or other drought-tolerant plants

 
For this step, you'll need wildflower seeds in adequate amounts to cover your space, depending on how dense you want the flower coverage to be.

For a natural meadow effect, evenly spread wildflower seeds by the handful and water the entire space.

10. Water until it rains
Make sure to keep the soil from drying out by watering about once a week until the winter rains begin.

Come springtime, your plugs will put on new growth, early spring wildflowers will bloom and by summer you'll have a meadow where your lawn used to be. Water it if there's a hot spell, but otherwise it's fine without. You can give it a high mow before winter.

 
Maintenance
Even a meadow needs some maintenance, but it's far less than the weekly mowing and trimming you're used to with a lawn. In late spring, pull out spent wildflowers. In the fall, prune back overgrown meadow grasses or give them a high mow before winter. Prune and care for your non-meadow grass plants according to their needs.