521 Laguna Pl., Seal Beach, CA

• Date: Jul 26 2013 Time: 00:34
• Description:
  For my project we had 3100 sq. ft. of turf we removed, for which we received a rebate check from the county for $3100.00 after we finished. That paid for most, if not all of the plants and materials we used. I started off by renting a sod cutter and cutting the top layer of grass, then rolling up and removing it. Next I raked out as many remaining roots as possible. Some people choose to spray their yard with herbicides to kill their grass rather than dig it up and compost it like I did. While this may be a quicker result, I don’t like the idea of spraying these highly toxic substances on my yard that could affect my family, neighbor’s pets, wildlife, water quality, etc. I then contoured the yard and formed the dry creek bed and bio-swales where I wanted to capture as much rain water runoff from the property as possible. I incorporated my landscape design around the downspouts from my roof and how I would use this runoff in my landscape. After contouring the soil I covered the entire site with compost, watered heavily, and then put down a layer of cardboard as a bio-degradable weed barrier. After all the cardboard was in place we got some Surfrider volunteers to help put in the plants and then covered it all with 4-6 inches of mulch. Our landscape also has a large portion of veggie boxes and edibles, and the 6 fruit trees are all irrigated with grey water from our washing machine which further reduces our water usage. We have approximately 1600 sq. ft. of roof plus another 5000 sq. ft. of yard and driveway which captures a lot of rainwater. All of this rainwater is diverted into the yard and using bio-swales, staying on the property, preventing runoff and keeping our oceans clean.