When Laurie Tuff and her husband moved to a hilltop home in Selah from Whidbey Island over a year ago, she knew she wanted something more interesting than sod grass in her front yard.
An inquiry to the Washington State University Master Gardener program led her to North Yakima Conservation District’s heritage garden program, which helps people add native plants and promote water conservation in landscaping. Mikki Boughton, the local heritage garden coordinator, designed Tuff’s garden and offered tips on how to source plants for and maintain the garden, all for free.
“It’s an amazing service. I couldn’t believe it when I found out about it,” Tuff said.
Now, only a few months after planting, tufts of native shrubs and flowers are sprouting out of Tuff’s newly renovated yard, designed to match the basin’s native shrub-steppe. She hopes to get it officially certified as a heritage garden next year.
The program has certified hundreds of heritage gardens since it started in Benton County in 2010. In Yakima County, 40 gardens have been certified since 2019.
Tuff worried about what people might think when she and her husband took out the sod in April — it was happily snatched up by neighbors the same day — and replaced it with showy milkweed, sunset hyssop, rabbitbrush, and nodding onions. But the feedback has all been positive in her turf-heavy neighborhood.
“Lots of people stop and tell us they like what we’re doing,” she said.
Having a native plant garden is not an all-or-nothing endeavor, Boughton said. Getting rid a lawn or part of one can be a big cultural change, and it has environmental and water conservation benefits. Homeowners can start by replacing the outer edges of their lawn with a heritage garden or by replacing sod with yarrow or buffalo grass.
Challenging perceptions
The heritage garden program was founded in 2010 by Washington Native Plant Society member Donna Lucas and Heather Wendt, then with the Benton Conservation District.
It’s now offered across Central and Eastern Washington conservation districts, including the ones in Yakima, Kittitas, Franklin, Chelan and Walla Walla counties. Hundreds of gardens have now been certified.
Lucas approached the district about an idea for a program to get more people using native plants in their landscaping.
“It was a beautiful collaboration,” as conservation districts exist to provide landowners with technical assistance, Wendt said.
Heritage gardens challenged public perceptions and demonstrated that native plants can be colorful and visually interesting, Wendt said, not just the sea of browns and tans seen out the window from the highway.
“Not only does it preserve water, but it also promotes a beautiful landscape that’s good for pollinators,” Wendt said. It also differs from other low-water landscaping concepts, like xeriscaping, in that it requires a rock feature to be added that honors local geologic history, like basalt. It also requires a plant that has cultural significance to the local Indigenous tribes.
“It brings our rich Columbia Basin history to your back or front door,” Wendt said.
Wendt is now deputy director of the Washington Association of Conservation Districts, but still finds time to volunteer at a half-acre heritage garden at Hansen Park in Kennewick.
Water issues in Yakima County
If you live in a city or have senior water rights, you may not immediately feel the effects of the third year of drought in the Yakima Basin. But experts say that these drought years will happen more often.
A heritage garden uses 65% less water than a lawn, according to district estimates. A lawn in Yakima County requires about 20 gallons of water per square foot per year.
Though not widespread throughout the county, heritage gardens could be a solution to conserving water at the individual level. The Yakima and Kittitas heritage garden programs are funded through a grant from the state Department of Ecology through a subgroup of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan. YBIP seeks to resolve water allocation issues among otherwise competing interests.
It’s tough to gauge how much water might be saved if lawns across Yakima County would be replaced overnight. Likely, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to other uses in the Yakima River Basin, like irrigated agriculture. But individual homeowners may see substantial water and cost savings after the initial upfront costs.
The certified gardens in Yakima County are saving anywhere between 1,400 to 197,000 gallons per year of water, depending on the size.
There are a few public examples of gardens to view in Yakima County, including at the North Yakima Conservation District office at 1606 Perry St. in Union Gap and at the South Yakima Conservation District office at 200 Cheyne Rd. in Zillah.
There are also heritage gardens at the WSU Master Gardener demonstration garden at 1000 Ahtanum Road in Union Gap and at the Yakima Arboretum.
Pros and cons
Not having to mow a lawn would be considered a pro for most people, save for the most ardent mowing enthusiasts.
But there is a lot of planning and upfront cost in lawn replacement. Tuff spent nearly $3,000 to replace her front yard by her estimate, including for the gravel, rocks, plants, and tool rentals to remove the sod. As a former botany undergraduate, Tuff was up for the challenge.
Another difficulty is that native plant sales are often in the spring, but native plants are best planted in the fall so that they can establish roots over the winter. Tuff is watering her newly-planted garden this summer for that reason, but anticipates not having to much next year. Part of her garden shouldn’t need watering at all, and the other part might only be watered every other week.
Tuff was not primarily concerned about conserving water, though she sees it as an added benefit. She pays the same rate per month for the use of a private well.
She wanted something fun and different for her yard, and to be able to attract pollinators like monarch butterflies. Already, she’s seen quail making their way through her garden.
After this past year’s work, Tuff is now thinking about converting some of her backyard, too.
“Grass is freaking boring!” she said.