There is a common trend here in Southern California, away from water-thirsty lawns, toward more drought tolerant gardens, and in theory, that’s fine. Unfortunately, the response from low-end landscape operations, usually trying to get your hard-earned money from the LADWP “grass for cash” program, is to cover your property in gravel or “DG” (decomposed
granite), and plant a few non-native succulents. The problems with this are many and critical.