Master gardener uses rebates to create her dream outdoor space
Elaine Fitzgerald replaced her lawn with a peaceful landscape of low-water plants that also attract beneficial insects and birds. Courtesy Elaine Fitzgerald
Elaine Fitzgerald wanted to see more life in her Rosemont backyard. To get that, the lawn had to go.
“I had a lot of lawn, but no life,” she recalls. “It was a dead environment; no insects, no birds, nothing.”
A Sacramento County master gardener, Fitzgerald decided to transform her lifeless lawn into an easy-care garden filled with low-water plants.
“It’s something I wanted to do for a really long time,” she says. “I’ve been an environmentalist since I was a kid. … I wanted to create an environment where wildlife can thrive.”
Fitzgerald has done just that. Her backyard is now filled with bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. Birds are constant visitors.
“I love the way it’s laid out,” she says. “It’s all curvy; it moves. It’s very peaceful to be out in the middle of it; it’s so full of life. Nowhere can you look and not see insects and birds; it’s phenomenal. I sit out there and watch. It brings me a lot of joy.”
For her efforts, Fitzgerald was honored by the Regional Water Authority as a “Summer Strong Yard” winner. Her garden was featured on local billboards to provide inspiration to other gardeners interested in transitioning to a water-wise landscape.
Fitzgerald got a big boost for her project from her local water provider, California American Water. She took advantage of rebates for River Friendly Landscape conversion.
“The rebates were wonderful,” says Fitzgerald, who completed the project in 2023. “I was stunned. I got $2,300 for my backyard; that was a big part of my budget. It really pushed me over the edge to do it.”
With the help of two friends, Fitzgerald competed the project for about $6,000, she adds. “So, minus the rebate, it was under $4,000 for a whole redesign and brand new landscape.”
Her new backyard is much more inviting to people and wildlife.
“I now have a space with a combination of planting beds, vegetable beds, seating areas, swales and water features for birds and insects,” Fitzgerald says.
Her water use “has gone down tremendously,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about drip irrigation before this project. Now, I do.”
And maintenance? “When I was mowing and blowing my own yard, it would take me most of Saturday every week to do the lawn,” Fitzgerald recalls. “It was so pointless – and I’m not doing it any more.
“Because I am getting older, I wanted a space that would require minimal upkeep and I have achieved that goal,” she adds. “I spend more time enjoying my landscape rather than maintaining it.”
For more information on rebates and other Summer Strong winners, go to: https://bewatersmart.info/
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Garden Checklist for week of Sept. 8
Temperatures are headed down to normal. The rest of the month kicks off fall planting season:
* Harvest tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant.
* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.
* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.
* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.
* Plant onions, lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.
* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.
* Sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.
* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.
* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.
* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.
* Divide and transplant peonies that have become overcrowded. Replant with “eyes” about an inch below the soil surface.
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