DonateHome Demonstration
Locally adapted
Water Savvy and Thriving
The Water-wise Home Demonstration Section features California’s native plants that are recommended by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden to create wildlife habitats and that are easy to grow, readily available at the Garden Nursery (and other locations), drought tolerant, and beautiful. Water-wise Home Demonstration also features water-harvesting techniques, such as bioswales, basins, and water-collection tanks, which reduce the need for irrigation.
Its small scale and realistic setting make this garden relevant to today’s home gardener, displaying ways you can be water savvy at home.
garden map
Finding the Garden’s Home Demonstration Section
Noteworthy Plants
Deergrass
Muhlenbergia rigens
This large, native bunchgrass provides year-round interest in a variety of settings. Its billowing form can be used in masses to create a rhythmic effect, or it can be used individually for emphasis.
Allen Chickering sage
Salvia ‘Allen Chickering’
This hybrid sage is an excellent choice for the home gardener interested in low maintenance and seasonal beauty. Allen Chickering sage tolerates a variety of conditions, blooms in late spring/summer, and provides fragrant aromas year-round through its leaves.
Coral bells
Heuchera sp.
A beloved ground cover, a mass of coral bells can provide year-round green and seasonal splashes of pink or white. With a variety to choose from, these reliable plants can fill in many spaces in the home garden.
Western redbud
Cercis occidentalis
This is a shrub or tree that provides sculptural beauty year-round and a reliable display of seasonal color. In late winter, before the leaves have fully developed, magenta flowers cover the bare limbs, creating an eye-catching blaze.
Beach Aster Wayne Roderick
Erigeron glaucus ‘Wayne Roderick’
Don’t let the cute flowers and short stature fool you. These plants are tough! This low-growing daisy is a perfect plant for borders and small spaces. In full sun, they flower readily and, when happy, will spread via their roots.
Clustered field sedge
Carex praegracilis
Clustered field sedge is a great substitute for a lawn and requires significantly less water than more traditional grasses. In the home garden, this plant produces soft foliage that tolerates mowing.
Solutions for a Fickle Climate
Fight Drought with Water Harvesting
With a guaranteed dry season every year and unpredictable precipitation patterns, gardening in California requires creative water use. Fortunately, a variety of solutions exist to enhance soil moisture and help plants thrive. Using topography to create bioswales and basins passively encourages water to slow down, spread out, and sink into the soil, while rain barrels and cisterns can provide a buffer for especially dry times.
Bursting with color, native monkeyflowers (Diplacus spp.) (left) put on a show near some massive liveforevers (Dudleya brittonii) (right). (Photo: Randy Wright)
Hardscape features can help channel rain to create visual interest and provide water for thirsty plants. (Photo: Randy Wright)
A cistern like the one we have attached to the cottage can help store rainwater for irrigation. (Photo: Randy Wright)
Careful planting can give you colorful flowers throughout the year! Consider flowering time when you are designing a water-wise native plant garden! (Photo: Rebecca Mordini)