{"id":11162,"date":"2012-05-24T06:36:15","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T11:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=11162"},"modified":"2012-05-24T13:38:58","modified_gmt":"2012-05-24T18:38:58","slug":"going-native-in-texas-with-less-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/24\/going-native-in-texas-with-less-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Going ‘Native’ in Texas With Less Water"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Jillian Schantz-Patrick\/StateImpact Texas \/ StateImpact Texas<\/p>

Janna George of Fertile Ground Organic Gardens takes the grass lawn out of a backyard where hardier native species will be planted.<\/p><\/div>\n

Landscape worker Janna George sweats in the midday sun as she thrusts her shovel into the ground. She\u2019s trying to get up all the grass in the backyard of a South Austin home.\u00a0 As anyone who’s dug into the Central Texas ground and come out with a rock-dented shovel knows, there’s little dirt to dig into. So for the needs of her job, she says,\u00a0she has to salvage as much precious soil as possible.<\/p>\n

Why save the dirt but take away the grass? It’s because the company she works for, Fertile Ground Organic Gardens, designs landscapes to be more compatible with the Texas climate. They follow an ethic of conservation, viewing grass lawns as a unnecessarily thirsty option for our semiarid climate.<\/p>\n

Consider the findings of one Texas survey: about 2\/3 of residents’ water use in the summer goes to watering their yards. Is the desire to have a nice yard in opposition to conserving our volatile water sources? For co-owner of Fertile Ground, Alexa Villalobos, achieving the two is not only possible; it\u2019s ideal.<\/p>\n

Villalobos describes what happens when Fertile Ground installs a new yard: \u201cIt\u2019s fun to see what happens when you put the native plants\u2026into your yard. Suddenly there\u2019s butterflies, there\u2019s hummingbirds, there\u2019s bees, there\u2019s lizards. There\u2019s stuff to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo by Jillian Schantz-Patrick\/StateImpact Texas<\/p>

Alexa Villalobos (left) and Julie Donie (right) are the co-owners of Fertile Ground Organic Gardens. <\/p><\/div>\n

Before they can create this type of environment, though, they must build up the soil that Central Texas lacks, as Janna George was attempting to do. The built-up soil, in turn, retains water much better, explains Villalobos. In that soil they plant shrubs, flowering annuals, and succulents mostly native to Texas that save water and thrive in dry, hot weather. Once established, these plants will be irrigated mostly by water falling from the sky.<\/p>\n

But what if you would<\/em> like a nice lawn in front of your house, where the kids can play and the dog can roam? A University of Texas ecologist explains that you can have your cake and eat it too\u2026 sort of.<\/p>\n

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