Landscaper Helps Launch South Bay Eco-Fair

Every day the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California pumps more than 1.5 billion gallons of water into Southern California.

As long as the area continues to grapple with a drought, water will become scarcer and more expensive, said Mike Garcia, founder of Redondo Beach-based Enviroscape, a landscape and pond contracting company.

"Sustainability is this: It's living today without borrowing from tomorrow," Garcia said.

Garcia is partnering with the city of Manhattan Beach in its upcoming  Sustainability Summit and Eco-Fair on Oct. 10. The free program is designed to give South Bay residents the tools to grow beautiful gardens while conserving water, Garcia said.

The summit will offer panel discussions on topics such as energy efficiency and climate change, a bus ride to tour the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden and homes that have sustainable landscapes, a hands-on demonstration of landscaping outside City Hall and a fair with green technology vendors.

If people aren't concerned about water conservation yet, they soon will be when utility rates increase, Garcia said.

Enviroscape is the recipient of the Environmental Business of the Year award from the South Bay Business Environmental Coalition. Garcia will accept the honor Sept. 23 at the 2010 SEED Awards in Manhattan Beach. Patch spoke with Garcia about living with less water.

Manhattan Beach Patch: What's your background and how did you partner with the city for the summit?

Mike Garcia: For over 30 years, I've been doing landscaping. We live in a desert here in Southern California. Everything that you see around you that's green is really a façade.

Fifteen years ago, there were some designers, we all got together and said we should put in a native garden. People thought, 'You guys are nuts, you guys are environmental wackos, who would think of a native garden?' A native garden doesn't need a lot of water. It's stuff that grows here naturally, and the stuff that's native doesn't need a lot of water. 'You should put in grass and roses and stuff that need a lot of water,' [the thinking went].

Well, we forged ahead, and we put together the Manhattan Beach Botanical Garden (see photos). It's a native, drought tolerant garden. Most people water their gardens five to six times a week. A drought tolerant garden gets watered five to six times a year.

Patch: Why should residents be interested in drought tolerant gardens?

Garcia: All of a sudden, a drought came, and it continued and continued and persisted. This time, it's about as bad as it's ever been. Now they're rationing water.

A couple of big issues are affecting change. In a way it's kind of good, but it's kind of a bad thing when it hits your pocketbook. My prediction is that within three to five years, tap water will become as expensive as bottled water.

If people don't believe we're in a drought, they're going to believe it when their pocketbooks get drained out because we're just out of water.

Patch: Some may think that a drought tolerant garden isn't as aesthetically pleasing as a garden, say, with roses. Can you have a beautiful garden that doesn't need much water?

Garcia: One of my missions in life is to show that you can have a beautiful garden and not take a lot of water. We're putting in tons of parks like that all over the South Bay. We're putting a lot of color, and it's cheaper to have this type of garden installed. You're not going to have a gardener come as often.