Drought-Tolerant Landscapes: Lessons From California’s Central Coast with Greg Ross

<p>California keeps getting hotter and drier, and the rules for how much water a landscape can use are changing with it. For landscape architects, that means recalculating water budgets, rethinking turf and finding plants that hold up to the climate while still feeling lush and inviting to the people who use the space.</p><p>Dionisio Roman and Ethan Hartzel sit down with Greg Ross, founder of Contour Landscape Architecture and a lecturer at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, to talk about how he balances code, water and beauty on projects ranging from backyard gardens to 92-unit townhome developments. Greg shares how California’s updated evapotranspiration numbers caught him by surprise, why artificial turf rarely solves the problem it promises to, and how he uses “rings of influence” to blend pure natives with hybrids on sensitive coastal sites.</p><p>The conversation also takes an honest look at what native planting really means today, how to design for color in every season and what the next generation of landscape architects needs to learn in the field. If you design, install or care for landscapes and want a smarter way to think about native species and water use, this episode is for you.</p><p><b><strong>Timecodes:</strong></b></p><p>00:00 – 01:40 | Welcome and Meet Greg Ross<br />01:40 – 04:44 | Early Roots: Nurseries, Palms and Cal Poly<br />04:44 – 07:22 | Why a Small Firm Shaped His Career<br />07:22 – 08:58 | Opening a Firm and Teaching During COVID<br />08:58 – 13:02 | California’s ETo Update and the New Appendix C<br />13:02 – 15:02 | Code Expertise and Using AI to Sort the Fine Print<br />15:02 – 18:22 | Spending Water Where People Actually Gather<br />18:22 – 21:03 | Nonfunctional Turf and the Artificial Turf Problem<br />21:03 – 24:42 | Resilient Lawns and the Barefoot Test<br />24:42 – 28:48 | Right Plant, Right Place Over Native-Only Design<br />28:48 – 32:42 | Hybrids, Cultivars and Summer Dormancy<br />32:42 – 35:31 | Rings of Influence on a 22-Acre Coastal Site<br />35:31 – 39:02 | Planning Color Across Every Season<br />39:02 – 43:23 | Design as a Lifelong Practice and Starting by Hand<br />43:23 – 50:49 | Teaching Over Zoom and Getting Students Into the Field<br />50:49 – 52:39 | Wrap-Up and How to Reach Greg</p><p><b><strong>Resources:</strong></b></p><p>Have an upcoming landscaping project? Contact Tree Staple for a quote <a href="http://treestaple.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">treestaple.com</a><br />Connect with <a href="mailto: