Creating a Backyard That’s Easy on Water and Maintenance

All three stories of Gordon Gray’s Berkeley Hills home have glorious southern and western views of Berkeley and San Francisco Bay. But when Gray and his partner bought the house, the yard was unusable, nearly totally paved, and detracted from the view. They reconfigured the yard to enhance the view and created a low-maintenance garden that consumes little water and requires little or no pesticide use. By doing much of the research, design, and plant sourcing themselves (Gray has an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture), they kept the three-month project’s cost close to $30,000.

Design: Climate-Appropriate Plants, Strategically Placed
When we bought the house, an L-shaped retaining wall topped by a chain-link fence divided the backyard in half, creating a rectangular pit eight feet deep, nearly sixty feet long, and twenty feet wide. The bottom was a level swath of asphalt covered with brick and separated from the lot behind by a dilapidated redwood fence. Most of the remaining yard was covered with brick used as pavers.

I decided the best solution was to rebuild the retaining wall, fill in the pit, and nearly level the yard. This would provide a broad base for the view and make the whole yard accessible.

I hired an engineer to design the wall. I designed the landscape: A layer of trees and shrubs is loosely massed along the fence but strategically placed to screen out undesirable views and direct the eye to the Bay views. I laid out grasses in large swaths, interspersed with masses of salvia, lupine, and sedum. All plants are arranged with height, texture, and color in mind as well as their seasonal change. A small brick patio sits in the middle of this sea of grasses. The transition area from the house to yard is a lawn of sedge.

I looked for plants that were suitable for summer dry climates, subject to very few pests, required little maintenance, and had at least two seasons of interest. I struggled with using only native plant species, which I found too bland aesthetically. We chose a mix of native and non-native grasses, some of which can be invasive to the environment. I am using Mexican Feather grass, but with a wary eye. If I find it too weedy and invasive, I will remove it. I did not consider Pampas grass, as it is becoming a pernicious weed in Northern California. I am taking similar precautions with other grass species.

I wanted to create a lawn area but did not want what comes with a conventional monoculture lawn: lots of fertilizer, pesticide use, water, and mowing. I envisioned a lawn that would be green during winter, then gradually turn brown during the summer. After much research and talking with experts at the University of California Botanical Garden and several nurseries, I decided to plant a sedge lawn. This grass requires minimal to moderate water, can tolerate light traffic, and requires trimming only once or twice a year. Its coarse texture and gray-green color provide a great initial transition to the wilder grass yard. 

I took my scaled planting plan to the Urban Farmer Store. They designed an irrigation system based on the plantings, soil type, and so on. It consists of five circuits—one for the sedge lawn, one for trees and shrubs, and three for the grasses and perennials. A well-designed irrigation system will enhance plant growth and health and let you fine-tune water requirements.

Construction: Creative Reuse and Careful Timing
I hired laborers to remove the brick paving. I did not want to add brick to a landfill, so I’ve set it aside and hope to sell it or give it away—old brick is popular for landscaping (and expensive).

After many interviews, I found the right concrete contractor to build the wall. He was competitive on price and liked this project because we needed the 25 truckloads of clean fill he was generating with another local project. By using the fill in our yard, he saved on fuel and landfill fees and we contributed to cleaner air and less landfill.

The wall contractor used a jackhammer to break up the asphalt base so water can enter the ground, and the fill was then poured over it. I rough-graded the fill with a rented Bobcat. As the concrete wall was being poured, I embedded Simpson post holders in the top of the wall to hold four-by-four fence posts. I was able to salvage the redwood slats from the old fence and incorporate them in the new fence. The weathering and light coating of green moss on them creates a beautiful pattern in the finished fence.

I installed the irrigation system from the Urban Farmer Store, then had topsoil delivered and used a rototiller to blend it into the top layer of fill. Previous owners of the house were rock collectors: there were more than 70 large rocks all around the house in various places. I gathered them and arranged them to look like bedrock was being exposed through the soil.

Finally, it was planting time! We got the plants in the ground in time for the winter rainy season. The cool, wet weather lets the plants, especially trees and shrubs, establish root systems before the dry season. This timing dramatically reduces the water requirements for a newly planted landscape. I mulched the yard with wood chips to reduce weed growth, prevent erosion, and conserve water during the summer.

Results
Spring and summer will show how well my careful planning worked. Will the grasses and salvias grow out as planned? Will the sedge lawn cooperate with my vision? There are already more birds in the backyard—I’ve seen warblers and other ground-feeding birds.

Resources

I primarily consulted three books when designing the yard:

Sunset Magazine’s Western Garden Book

Plants and Landscapes for Summer Dry Climates, published by the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)

Grasses, by Nancy J. Ondra, Storey Publishing.