Central Basin has completed six demonstration gardens in cities throughout the service area. These gardens highlight the state's native plants and serve as a water efficient model for outdoor landscape design.

The California Department of Water Resources awarded Central Basin with a grant that made this project possible. Funds from this grant were generated from Proposition 50 and each garden received a base amount of $10,000.

Between 2,000 and 10,000 sq. feet of turf was removed from each garden and replaced with drought tolerant plants and water permeable decomposed granite. The demonstration gardens were created to motivate community members to use sustainable landscaping. In an average household, the majority of water is consumed outdoors; in fact grass uses 50% more water than any other outdoor plant. Replacing water-thirsty grass with drought tolerant landscape makes sustainable gardening second nature.

Below are images of five demonstration gardens. We recently completed a demonstration garden for an office building located in the city of Commerce at the corner of Telegraph and Washington (not pictured).

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