Introduction to the Website

Looking to install a beautiful low-maintenance landscape that won’t bust your water budget? A world of ideas is just a few mouse clicks away.

The Santa Barbara County Water Wise Landscaping web site is a guide for water conservation in the home or commercial landscape. The website combines many sample water efficient gardens for you to view and the ability to identify and learn more about the plants within these gardens.

The following is a quick overview of each of the sections. For a more detailed description of any of the sections, please click on the section name.

• Garden Tours - From the main screen you can visit outstanding gardens found throughout Santa Barbara County. Click on photos to expand them and to reveal clickable hot links to individual plant information windows.

• Garden Gallery - Landscape photos grouped into multiple categories, such as Front yards, Backyards, and Native Gardens. Photos expand with individual plant hot links.

• Plants - Detailed descriptions (including water needs) for more than 600 plants can be found using Plant Lists (e.g. Lawn Substitutes, Clay Soil Plants), our guided Plant Search, or alphabetically in Plants By Name.

• My List - Go plant shopping! Click the Add Plant button on any of the plant information windows to save the plant. On the main screen, click My List to see the contents of your saved plants and to print reports to bring to your local nursery.

• Watering Guide - Ever wonder how much to water your plants? Click here to get specific information about watering the plants in your landscape.