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WaterSmart makeover: Escondido yard is a handcrafted haven
In Jeanne Reutlinger’s world, gardening is an act of collaboration with friends and neighbors — meaning you don’t need much of a budget at all to create a prize-winning front yard. In Reutlinger’s case, her garden is the 2022 WaterSmart Landscape Contest winner for the city of Escondido’s water district. Reutlinger, now 85 and physically unable to do much gardening these days due to a back problem, took on the landscaping project in 2019 when she moved into her Escondido home at age 81. It was two years after the death of her husband Ron, following more than 50 years of marriage. The couple had lived for many decades in…
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WaterSmart makeover: Welcoming a sense of whimsy
Cathy and Mike Godfrey’s most recent front yard landscape project was not their first rodeo. The couple, who bought their Carlsbad house in August 1997 and are empty nesters with two adult daughters, are avid gardeners and DIYers. Twenty years ago, Cathy dug 40 holes to sink posts for the white picket fence that encircles their small front yard. They reduced the scale of the lawn (mostly to discourage neighborhood dogs being walked from pooping on their property) and, for a tropical look, added palms and decorative plants like red fountain grass, which Cathy said they regretted. “It’s beautiful, but maintaining it is terrible. It spreads everywhere,” she said with…
