Landscaping

Easy Guides

• Are you a site manager or property manager and don't know where to start? The Pacific Institute offers this step-by-step guide for taking sustainable landscape projects from ideas to reality!
   
• Ready to remove your lawn? Apply for the rebate and once approved, start with this comprehensive guide to Sheet Mulching.
   
• Tree Care:
  • Easy guidelines to follow and protect your trees during drought or high temperatures, from Save Our Water
  • Quick Tips for planting, watering, and pruning your trees, from Our City Forest
  • A thorough list of Best Practices from the City of San José
     
• This City of San José Sustainable Landscaping Guide will help you make your garden more sustainable. How would you make this work in your own garden? This page offers visual guides and sustainable-landscaping gardens you can visit in San José for inspiration.

Native Plant and Master Gardeners

• Receive advice and resources on home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices from Santa Clara County's UC Master Gardeners.
   
• Promote native plant species biodiversity within your landscape, and learn about the natural ecosystems of Santa Clara Valley: California Native Plant Society.

Lawn Resources

• The district's Drought Survival: Lawn Care Guide will help you take care of your lawn during high temperatures or drought.
   
• Lawn irrigation, fertilizer-use, and maintenance information from the California Water Efficient Partnership.
   
• Thinking of artificial turf? Although artificial turf is appropriate for some properties and uses less water than natural turf, the district’s artificial turf information sheet may help encourage you to choose low water-using landscapes that can effectively promote biodiversity and help fight climate change instead.

New Ways to Irrigate

• Send laundry water to your landscape instead of the sewer with graywater (rebate available).
   
• Put Rainwater to good use! New rebate available for rain barrels, cisterns, rain gardens, and other types of rainwater capture. 

• Irrigation scheduling assistance, developed by the San Jose Water Company.
   
• From basics, to guidelines, to water-efficient technology to help you schedule your irrigation system, from the California Water Efficient Partnership.
   
• The Irrigation Association has a wealth of irrigation information including online learning, videos and webinars, and technical resources for irrigation professionals.

• Don't know where to start? This guide can inspire you to install a vibrantly beautiful and sustainable landscape by thinking of your property as a watershed.
• Design templates of water-wise gardens from the South Bay Green Gardens Work Group, which also provides resources for composting, rainwater harvesting (including rain barrels), stormwater pollution prevention, integrated pest management, climate-appropriate landscaping, and more!
   
• For Photo Galleries:
  • Check out this Photo Gallery of landscapes that completed our Landscape Rebate Program.
  • Photo Gallery from the California Water Efficiency Partnership can provide more inspiration. 
     
• Looking to install beautiful, low-maintenance landscaping that won't burst your water budget? Get your project started with some ideas from San Jose Water Company.

A demonstration garden uses sustainable landscaping techniques, native plant species, water wise plants, and more to show you examples of what your own garden can transform into with a little planning and inspiration.

• Water-efficient demonstration gardens are wonderful sources of inspiration and practical information. All are open to the public at no cost.
   
  • Come take a walk around the Santa Clara Valley Water District's Demonstration Garden and get inspired with this interactive map of our campus.
     
  • An interactive map of Demonstration Gardens in Santa Clara County. Keep reading for more places to visit.
     
• The City of San José has garden designs and well-maintained gardens for you to visit.
   
• The Mountain View Green Garden Showcase Program highlights environmentally-friendly gardens inside Mountain View to be used as examples and inspiration for the community. 
   
• Going Native Garden Tour showcases California native plants on Saturday April 7 and Sunday April 8 in 2018.
   

• Looking for plants that are water-wise? We have a list of local nurseries here [PDF].
   
• Here are some local irrigation supply stores that carry water-efficient irrigation equipment.
   
• EPA WaterSense-certified products and water-saving tools, tips, and more.

• Landscape Professionals Lists 
  • Companies that have worked on at least 3 Landscape Rebate Program projects. This list of landscape design, construction, and maintenance companies is intended to help participants find landscape professionals that have had experience with the Landscape Rebate Program; it is not intended to be an endorsement of any one company. If you wish to be removed or added to this list, or have general questions, please contact our Water Conservation Hotline information provided at the bottom of this page.
  • List of certified landscape contractors that completed the California Landscape Contractors Association’s Certification Program. 
  • To hire a gardener trained in sustainable landscape maintenance practices, contact the Santa Clara Valley Green Gardener Program.
     
• Qualified Water Efficiency Landscapers (QWEL) List 
  Find a Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper in your area. A certification program to educate landscape professionals and their customers on the benefits of effective landscape design, management and irrigation practices, QWEL landscapers are trained in water-wise landscape practices including plant selection, irrigation system design and water management. These QWEL graduates will help meet your landscape needs while keeping your outdoor water use in check. Want to know more about QWEL?
   
• WaterSense Landscaper List
  WaterSense Program certified professionals for help finding locally-trained landscapers to help you reduce your water use and maximize the efficiency of your irrigation system.
   
• Landscaper Leaderboard
  Local landscape contractors ranked by their water management skills. Independently developed by Waterfluence as part of the district’s Large Landscape Survey Program, this list ranks landscape companies according to how closely actual water use tracks to a site-specific landscape budget. Updated monthly, the sites are scored over the last 12 months relative to all other sites in the program. If you have questions about this list, contact Waterfluence.