This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.

Mere minutes after setting foot in the sloped backyard of Poonam Sharma and Ali Jeevanjee in Mount Washington, a hillside Los Angeles neighborhood, the couple’s 11-year-old son, Surya, starts listing Southern California plant and bird species with the alacrity of a Pokémon enthusiast. He’s eager to show off the family’s cascading garden, which vibrates with blooms and the hum of pollinators.

But the garden wasn’t always so diverse and engaging. Poonam and Ali, principals of LOC Architects in L.A., bought the home in 2013, and until 2021 a lawn was the defining landscape feature. The family would eventually find help in Keely Luna and Parker Davis of Hardy Californians, a landscape design studio that specializes in sustainable native plant gardens. Impressed by Surya’s enthusiasm and knowledge, the pair quickly recognized a kindred spirit they could collaborate with.

Central to their plan was removing the lawn. Recognizing the unpredictable nature of Southern California’s rain seasons and the ever-looming reality of drought, they concluded that the yard would need one more feature to keep Surya’s plants healthy and happy throughout the year: a graywater system.

So they called in the help of an essential specialist, Leigh Jerrard of Greywater Corps. Before a single hummingbird sage or California fuchsia was ever planted, Jerrard drew up plans to integrate a gravity-fed, laundry-to-landscape system with a network of shallow depressions to allow water to infiltrate the soil directly.

“Surya was the driver behind the whole project—we just helped facilitate it.”
—Poonam Sharma, resident

Graywater building codes vary across the nation, but because the family lives in California, their system could be installed without permits or inspections. The cost of professional installation ranges from $2,000 to $3,000 for a system like the one feeding Surya’s garden—larger whole house systems can cost up to $10,000—and there’s little upkeep needed. “The low-tech systems that we install generally will last for decades, requiring only minimal maintenance done once a year,” says Jerrard, noting the need to replenish the wood-chip mulch.

Most plants will thrive with graywater, though some have difficulty surviving overwatering or sodium compounds in the water. “A California live oak is not going to want much water in the summer, and graywater is year-round,” says Jerrard, before listing a cornucopia of fruit trees that thrive with this system.

Guiding me through his garden, Surya points to what’s flourishing, like the evening primroses, a morning glory, and a California grape that popped up on its own. A nice plus: A pair of skippers flutter near a blooming penstemon he helped plant. “We’re trying to get max diversity in the plants so that there will be max diversity in all the animals that will visit,” he says.

Project Credits:

Landscape Design: Hardy Californians / @hardycalifornians

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An 11-Year-Old Angeleno Turns His Family’s Yard Into a Graywater Garden