Fly into San Diego you can’t help but notice the number of pools and spas decorating our landscapes. Designing these areas, along with the patios, structures, and plants that go near them, come with some basic do’s and don’ts to consider.  Most of these precepts are common sense, yet it is surprising how often they are not followed.  Here are a few important guidelines in designing a pool and spa areas.

• Make a list of how the pool will be used. Swimming laps daily? Kid play? A relaxing soak in hot water while gazing at the stars? Pool games? Aesthetic value? Now design your pool dimensions based on all these qualifiers.
  
• Define a basic shape. Pools shapes vary widely. I personally prefer rectangular (rectilinear) pools and spas that offer a classic shape. As an added benefit, automatic covers fit with relative ease.
  
• Position the pool close to necessary facilities. Unless you plan to add a pool room with a kitchen and bathroom facilities, the pool area should be placed within a reasonable distance to the home.
  
• Plastic or Pebble – If the budget allows, you will be better off with a pebble type surface. Not only does it look better, it should last two to three times longer than plaster.
  
• Tile and Coping – there is a wide range available so select with care. Both need to coordinate with the other elements in the landscape as well as the home. Be sure NOT to select a flagstone or tile coping that will flake or wear down. Softer flagstones erode continually.
  
• Surface areas around the pool – Most importantly, make sure patios are of sufficient size to allow you and all your guests to enjoy a pool day. Allow for patio furniture and easy movement around that furniture.
  
• Choose a patio surface that is not slippery when wet. This is a no brainer but sometimes gets overlooked.  Stick with textured concrete, pavers, or stone patterns that provide sufficient traction when wet.
  
• Planting plans around pools should remain relatively consistent with the rest of the landscape, however the plantings should look a bit more lush. In San Diego County, drought tolerant plantings are here to stay. However a pool area is an oasis of sorts, it should have plants that look like they would naturally grow near water – big leaves, showy flowers, year-around appeal, etc.
  
• On the practical side of the planting plan, use plants that don’t shed or cast shade around your sunny pool. And be very certain not to plant trees and large shrubs with roots that may grow to potentially crack the pool liner.
  

      This basic checklist on pools and spas should give you a head-start in creating a San Diego outdoor landscape environment to enjoy and admire. 

      Removing the grass lawn has become the poster child to creating drought tolerant landscapes in San Diego.  Landscape professionals now recognize that reducing or complete removing lawn is a huge incentive to people wanting to renovate their outdoor environments. Residents who have purchased new homes on lots of bare dirt are not subscribing to the idea of the traditional lawn either.   Local governments in regions of water scarcity actively discourage the planting of lawn, actually paying homeowners to remove it.  Like the low-flow shower head of the past decade, it seems that the public has accepted the notion of little or no lawn as the new norm.
     Despite its villainous portrayal, lawn can serve both aesthetic and functional purposes.  Yet lawn alternatives do exist – from dozens of low-growing plants to rock and gravel surfaces – that make eliminating lawn from the landscape a viable option.    Some folks are even choosing to mimic the look of lawn with artificial turf – a green synthetic surface that does not require one drop of water.  Lawn has become one of the dilemmas of ethical and sustainable building:  reduce the size of the lawn or eliminate it altogether?
    Why install lawn at all? To be sure, this is an individual choice.  Turf adds a horizontal component that visually provides horizontal space, allowing plants and other landscape components to be seen.  The rich green surface is cooling to the eye.  It literally cools the temperature a few degrees on hot summer days when compared to hardscape surfaces including artificial turf.  As for function, it is a living surface that can be walked upon repeatedly.  For a family with children and dogs, lawn can be an important space for recreation and play.  And in fire prone areas, it serves as a non-flammable border around a home.
      Lawn is not going to totally disappear from most neighborhoods, even in dry regions, because it offers families with children and pets a functional surface for activity.  But those folks should  specify a few hundred square feet of turf for  the landscape plan, not the wide expanses of lawn common in the past.  Those days are gone.   The kids can walk to the local school to kick and throw a ball; the money saved on the water bill can go instead to their college fund.

      It’s the height of spring in San Diego and our gardens look as beautiful, probably more so, than at any other time of the year.  Flowering plants droop heavy with bloom, fruiting trees hold armloads of maturing summer fruits, ornamental plants sit with fresh canopies of leaves, and lawns stretch before us as verdant blankets of green.  Wouldn’t it be nice if these iconic spring scenes would last throughout the year?  They do not.  Take photos in memory because, as we know, the beauty of spring is fleeting.  As soon as the first prolonged heat spell arrives, the spring look fades much too quickly as plants brace for the summer.
     The first sign of summer heat often shows in the lawn.  Swaths of browning turf can be seen from home to home within a few days of sustained heat. The top of the soil profile dries rapidly and the tiny root systems of lawn grasses can no longer slurp moisture.  It is a sign that irrigation timers are not programmed to account for the heat, or in many cases, these irrigation systems have not been correctly designed and installed.  With patches of brown inching into the ocean of green, it is the perfect time to either replace or at least reduce the size of the lawn.  But with what?  The solutions to replacing lawns vary from landscape to landscape and can be a worthy challenge to professional designers.  If lawn alternatives test the pros, they can bewilder homeowners. 
     Solving the lawn replacement puzzle is not an easy task and there are experiments gone awry in every neighborhood to offer as proof.  And like a puzzle, there are many pieces or components that need to fit together to design an effective lawn alternative landscape.  Unlike the lawn, where thousands of the same plant blades are massed and installed as easily as carpet, the landscape without lawn often needs a mix of dozens of different elements to be effective.   Lawn provides a horizontal surface that can be used for walking and play, the landscape without lawn must take into account how to provide low surfaces not only for aesthetics  but also for pedestrian  access and use.  Removing the lawn is a no brainer but replacing it with the right mix of landscape takes time, thought, and a bit of skill.