3958 Michael Avenue (Map 6 - F)

This garden  is a great example of a low maintenance, drought tolerant front yard that still feels green and lush.  The design balances usable hardscape with an existing Jacaranda tree and a variety of succulents and native or naturalized plants.  Simple off the shelf pre-cast concrete pavers and black river rock creates an access path to the side yard and functions as a decorative element in the garden.  The featured plants are a Blue Agave, used in Mexico for making tequila, and a sea of native Douglas Iris that provides a burst of spring flowers that come year after year.  Focusing more on texture and shades of green and purple then on flowers, this garden has a contemporary look that compliments the resident’s eggplant painted home.  Best of all, this garden only requires periodic weeding and a fraction of the water that a traditional front lawn requires.

Design by: Crystal Gaudio, RLA

4140 Tivoli Avenue (Map 6 - B)

Both the front and backyard flourish with absolutely no irrigation! They were planted and designed by the former owner. The new owners are enjoying it and plan to make some changes, big and small, to make it our own.

Far from being a desert, the yard is always full of squirrels, blue jays(?), humming birds, and an occasional possum.  Plus they get to enjoy the fruit grown on the trees. It makes you wonder why people ever opted to plant lawns in LA. 

12220 Everglade Street (Map 3 - F)

This homeowner was inspired by morning walks around the neighborhood - especially the gardens designed by Grow Garden Design, who they chose to design their own garden.

Both the front and back gardens are a balance of drought tolerant plants from around the world and Yosemite flagstone and Yosemite pebbles. They removed all of the grass from both front and back garden to drastically reduce their water use. Their favorites would have to be the three Cercis canadensis forest pansy in the front garden and the Dymondia between the flagstone. The garden attracts butterflies, bees and tons of birds. The irrigation is a combination of traditional sprinklers and drip irrigation.

11430 Kingsland Street

This garden has many beautiful drought tolerant plants, solar power, a compost bin, a rain barrel, tankless water heaters, and raised vegetable beds.  It hosts the sign-in booth for the solar tour with guest presenter   Sierra Club’s LA Beyond Coal, a great source of information about solar power.

The owners’ green journey began 9 years ago with the design (by Linda Endler) & installation of an almost grass-free garden. After trying and failing to grow a chamomile “lawn,” they spread redwood chips instead and turned off some sprinkler heads.

As they toured other gardens and learned more about being green, their desire for drip irrigation and some new plants grew. In March 2010 they took the plunge, bringing in Gary Kamisher of Gary's Greenery to install a Netafin drip system and transform their landscaping, and Constant Solar to install solar power. Stunning—the name of one of the unusual plants Gary brought in—best describes the result. Old mingles with new in a wonderful mélange.

Gary used many of his favorite Australian and California natives as well as other eco friendly plants. They have thrived! Some of the more unusual ones are: Lecodendron ‘Jester’ with its beautiful striped foliage; Leucodendron ‘Spider hybrid’ and L.’Yellowbird’ which produce beautiful pincushion cut flowers; Leucodendron ‘Stunning’, a new plant introduction; and P. plumosa, which has a wonderful glow sitting next to one of their "pet rock" Golden Granite boulders. Rocks and boulders accent the trees, with different succulents peaking their heads out between the rocks. Hummingbirds dance among the pineapple and Waverly sages as well as on the Grevillea ‘Superba’. Herbs and vegetables grow among the many rose bushes as well as in raised beds. The owners are experimenting with a square foot garden in one of the raised beds and heirloom tomatoes grow in another. A chair carved from the stump of a large tree removed many years ago is a fun place for children to sit.

Gary of Gary's Greenery will be at the garden with samples drip irrigation and low flow heads and answers to your garden questions.

Robert Constant of Constant Solar will be there to show their solar system and answer your questions. Using Google Earth, he can give you an immediate assessment of your solar energy potential.

11430 Woodbine Avenue - Mar Vista Recreation Center (3 - A)

This is a great addition to Mar Vista’s efforts towards responsible gardening and water use – even our park has reduced their water use! Preview some of the landscaping and the exercise equipment in this video of the ribbon cutting on Mar Vista Patch.

During the summer of 2010, Mar Vista Recreation Center undertook a revision to the western section of the park.   To assist their reduced water use focus, the soccer field was redesigned using artificial turf.  Around the periphery, more lawn was removed and replaced with walking paths of decomposed granite and multiple plantings of California and Mediterranean plantings. The plantings are drought tolerant and irrigation is by smart sprinklers!  

Several stations for physical workouts are positioned along Palms Blvd, Barrington Ave and Woodbine Ave and are receiving great reviews from neighbors who are there from 5 AM on.   

To better serve the drought tolerant plantings, the irrigation system was reconfigured, thus reducing water use, wasteful runoff and expense.  Mulching is next on the to-do list.   With Los Angeles City budgetary and staffing restrictions, the park staff is working diligently to keep the grounds in top condition.   The community can assist by showing respect for the planted areas when they or their pets are out walking.

Stop by and take a walk.   The picnic areas await, with new trees and boulders, making for a refreshing and fun area to gather.   What a great resource we have in our community.  

3745 Maplewood Avenue (Map 6 - K)

This garden is a home project that they play in daily with their three children. They have 5 chickens that lay eggs for them, eat greens from their garden and are sweet pets for their children. They grow a range of seasonal organic edibles; almost anything that they can eat straight from the garden. Some of their favorites include, Taiwanese spinach, snap peas, basil and swiss chard. We also have a very productive peach tree, lime, apple, guava and persimmon tree. They also have a large composting area with three bins that house red wiggler worms. They make their own organic compost to fertilize the garden. Their garden is a wonderful place where their children learn and explore about our natural world.



They water once a week by hand with a hose and watering cans. They used a lot of compost as mulch on top of the soil that keeps the moisture in the ground from evaporating. They compost almost all their household green waste; food scraps, paper towels, grass clippings and leaves. They love composting!

Their website http://www.kidscancompost.com/ provides a free digital instructional illustrated guidebook for all ages, to anyone interested in starting a compost or learning more. They will have some hard copies of the book available and red wiggler worms to share.

As a committed environmentalist who teaches composting to kids, Parker has concerns that run deeper than simply sticky, stinky shoes. Rainwater and sprinklers wash dog waste into the storm drain. It then flows, untreated, into Santa Monica Bay where it poisons marine life, she says. Surfers, swimmers and lifeguards become ill from fecal contamination.  In an effort to change the way dogs do their “business” in Mar Vista, and together with LA Stormwater’s efforts to keep pollutants out of local waterways, Parker will be distributing free biodegradable dog poop bags at her home. Read more about her efforts in this article by Jeanne Kuntz in Mar Vista Patch.

12513 Indianapolis Street (Map 5 - K)

This homeowner was way ahead of the green curve. The garden was created 15 years ago when most of us didn’t really understand what California Native meant. It is special to them because they created it knowing it was good for the environment - and they did it on a budget!



They really don't water except in the summer. Then they give the roses a soak once a week with a slow flow hose and keep the plants in the main yard alive with a sprinkler once a week. A kitchen timer is used to keep the watering to a minimum.

3914 Michael Avenue (Map 6 - G)

This homeowner was inspired by a desire to conserve water and rewarded with beautiful landscaping and visits from hummingbirds! They use micro irrigation and hand watering.

Walgrove Elementary and Ocean Charter School - 1630 Walgrove Avenue

Photo courtesy of Michelle Dean for Mar Vista Patch

The learning garden at Walgrove Elementary School lay fallow for sometime until it was “reinvented” about 5 years ago. Today, the kids are literally making salads from lettuce they grow outside their classroom! This year, the garden looks better than ever!  Student and adult volunteers have been busy planting milkweed and other plants to provide way-stations for monarch butterflies.  The school curriculum now includes monarch lessons in the kindergartners and first graders.

Read this article that was written by Walgrove parent Brooke Wirtschafter for Mar Vista Patch -

This week my son’s kindergarten class at Walgrove Elementary made a garden fresh salad from the lettuce the students planted eight weeks ago in the planter box right outside their classroom.

“We reviewed some of the ways we buy salads—in plastic bags and boxes—and found that we could rather easily grow our own fresh vegetables that tasted a lot better," said Ruth Handel, a kindergarten parent and volunteer who helped the kids with the planting and the harvest. "Being involved directly in the process, from mixing up the dirt and planting the seedlings, to watering, harvesting and preparation took away the mystery and put the ability in the children’s hands.”


Parent volunteers make this possible at our school, as they do at schools all throughout the neighborhood. At Walgrove, a handful of dedicated green-thumb parents were not satisfied with the vegetable garden they’ve been helping kids to tend in a back corner of the schoolyard. Read the full article here.


See a video preview of the garden from Mar Vista Patch here.

11930 Lawler Street (Map 3 - E)

The gardeners removed the grass in the front yard and the homeowners took over the project, choosing plants for color, low water use, butterflies and hummingbirds…and, of course, for humans to enjoy. They used homemade compost and find the lantana, geraniums, nasturtium (which are natural in my garden), succulents, bird of paradise, statice, and agapanthus are all flourishing. This garden has a wild beauty that offers surprises and fun.


It never gets boring because the colors and plants are always changing. Also, there is a big increase in wildlife. Watering is done by hand, as needed. A patch of backyard grass is watered only when Mother Nature decides that the time is right. They hand water as needed. There is still some grass in the backyard but it rarely gets any water that doesn’t fall from the sky. And, of course, this is a no-blower zone.

In addition to the delightful flowers, this gardener will happily introduce you to the resident worms that assist with composting.

3657 Boise Avenue (Map 5 - R)

The owners wanted a maintenance-free and low-water garden for the front of their home. They have accomplished this by removing the lawn and replacing it with decomposed granite and sustainable, drought tolerant plants. The cordelyne, phormiums and Agonis flexuosa (2 peppermint trees) are native to Australia. The agave is native to Mexico and the Senecio mandraliscae (bluish ground cover) is native to South Africa. The blue fescue grass is from Europe, and the purple flowering heliotrop comes from South America. All of these plants can sustain themselves in our Mediterranean climate of extreme temperatures, long periods of drought and occasional flash floods.

The garden was designed by  Ania Lejman of ALD Designs. The installation was  facilitated  by Sarah Pugh of Outside Landscape Design by interpreting a photoshop elevation illustration -  creating a site plan and planting plan from which the correct plants and number of plants could be obtained. The owner is a building contractor and oversaw the installation of the DG, and irrigation, etc. 

4136 Tivoli Avenue (Map 6 - A)

This is a unique offering on the tour as they are living the Green Life that many of us aspire to.  Sustainable Works will also be a special guest presenter at their garden.  This is a great stop for tips on how to make your own home more sustainable.

Learning about the health risks of pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified seed, these homeowners decided to grow their own organic vegetables in their backyard. They created and installed a water drip systems for the garden watering the vegetables everyday with a few drips of water.  Water is also collected from the metal roof and collected in a rain barrel, which is connected to a water drip system running underground all the way to the front of the house watering the plants a few times a week with the collected rain water.  They are also using a composting bin.  

3407 Federal Avenue (Map 3 - D)

Before

What a transformation! It just takes one look at the ‘before’ picture to appreciate how exciting it can be to tear out your lawn! This is also a great example of do it yourself.

The front yard was poorly suited to the house when they bought it in 1999 – a thirsty lawn that was both interrupted and surrounded by roses, and caged by a white picket fence, framing a house design that was anything but Ozzie & Harriet.  Parking can be a problem in the area, so they determined to make a semi-circle driveway to always have access to the house.  This presented a challenge to create an attractive design that gave some measure of privacy, was durable, low maintenance and low water consumption.  The solution they arrived at was a cluster of birch trees at an island in front of the circular driveway, to provide a screen and visual appeal, surrounded primarily by grasses and flax on all sides.  They added some rosemary for a durable and fragrant side hedge, and lavender for color.  They consulted one landscape designer for initial ideas, but afterward designed the entire yard themselves.  A contractor provided the concrete work, but all planting and other hardscape was done by the owners, over time on weekends.

Sprinklers are set into the center, with drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers where possible.  The landscape maintenance is minimal, so there is little need for anyone other than a gardener occasionally for leaf cleanup.

3759 Boise Avenue

This is a very special home on a very social block.  Kids and their parents spend many hours outside playing, chatting and keeping up with what is happening in their corner of Mar Vista.  The homeowners’ goal was to improve the curb appeal of the home, making the front yard as usable as the back by creating an inviting place to sit and watch the world go by. 

Planning started in November, they broke ground mid-January, and the project was completed in mid-February.  How’s that for fast and easy!?

The slope in the front was a challenge.  They wanted a design that would welcome people in rather than close the property off at the sidewalk.  The decomposed granite area at the top of the wall will host a sitting area and, with the two large trees, there will be ample shade. A lovely stairway has replaced the broken driveway and lawn area as the main access to the front door. The steps provide a convenient spot to sit and chat. 

They were committed to saving water and using native plants that only required drip irrigation.  In fact, the design qualified for the Turf Removal Rebate Program. The new front yard is irrigated by drip line twice a week. The plants that were chosen offer a variety of texture and visual interest. A rain barrel in the back helps tremendously with a previous runoff problem. The guava tree will provides with a bit of privacy between the street and our large front window. 

A few well-established plants in the back that were original to the house when we bought it in 2003 (hibiscus, holly, orange tree, camellia tree)  draw in many small birds, bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.  Also noteworthy, the wall in the front and north steps were built with recycled broken concrete.   A composter in back completes this environmentally sensitive oasis.

3141 Greenfield Avenue (Map 4 - A)

These do-it-yourselfers deserve a hand! They started overhauling the front yard garden just two years ago, in the spring of 2009, as a way to reduce water consumption and create an exploratory site for their two curious young sons.  The results will inspire even the most timid amateur gardener.  

They created a stunning design and did the manual labor themselves. For six months the neighbors endured/enjoyed the sight of clear plastic covering the Bermuda lawn as the homeowners did their best to suffocate every last blade of grass. They couldn't be more thrilled with the results and love watching the garden change and grow each season. Given the flat, horizontal shape of the lawn, they started by creating a small pebble path that meanders across the space and flanked it with grasses, succulents, natives, cacti, and two trees donated by the city (a Fruitless Olive and an Australian Willow). They used old pieces of concrete from the backyard to create a small corner planter. They planted sparingly and filled in the rest with decomposed granite--all in one weekend.

The garden has become home to a host of bees in the spring when the succulents bloom and two resident hummingbirds are crazy about the giant Grevillea. Watering is super low-tech. Just a sprinkle with the hose once a week in the dry months.  Come early and take home free seedlings or succulent cuttings while supplies last.

4127 Tivoli Avenue (Map 6 - C)

"Vanities & Narcissus" by Marina DeBris.
All the flowers are made entirely of washed up debris, and the bust & plinth were found on the street 

Aeroponic Towers by Waters Wheel

This will be an amazing stop for so many reasons! This is four stops in one.

The artist Marina DeBris has launched a journey to convert her lawn and for the tour it will be transformed into a gallery of her work – all of her art is made from trash that she has collected while cleaning up our beaches for the last twelve years. We have dubbed this our ‘Eco Junkyard Tour’.  Watch this wonderful preview of her work by her nephew.

She will also share the raised bed garden that she began in April 2010 with Gardens of Gratitude. She stopped watering the lawn and began to compost years before this but never had the funds to replace the lawn. The garden is watered with rainwater that is collected in a large trash can & what is saved from the shower before the it heats up. There is also a worm & a compost bin. Her inspiration was the desire to reduce water consumption and grow her own food. This would not have been possible without Gardens of Gratitude!

This garden will also play host to a special presentation by Rafael Quezada of The Waters Wheel, LLC on Aeroponic Tower Farms for the Urban Home and Garden. Raised bed gardens are excellent if a city dweller has a yard. Many do not. Rafael will show you aeroponic tower farms, developed by EPCOT, NASA and DOE that grow plants in vertical towers without soil and, therefore, are not subjected to soil-inhabiting pests. The systems produce flawless produce and can be positioned in any sunny place: driveway, terrace, rooftop, even indoors if a south-facing window is available. There is no turning of soil, no weeding, and harvesting is done standing upright. It's the only gardening system that is conveniently accessible for people in wheelchairs.

The system uses 5 to 10% of the water and nutrient needed for dirt-farming and recycles every bit of what is provided. It is a "closed-loop umbrella" meaning that by recycling, it discharges nothing into the watershed or the air, other than transpired and evaporated moisture that is pure. It is also able to be solar powered with a mini-panel.

And finally - Advanced Solar will be there as part of our American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour!