Drought takes center stage at weekend SmartScape Expo

The question was simple and light-hearted, yet timely and serious.

“Can I water the trees?” Steve Stewart asked a group of horticulture and landscape design professionals gathered inside Laguna Beach County Water District headquarters a few weeks ago.

“Not until the drought is over,” district Assistant General Manager Christopher Regan replied, eliciting a chorus of laughs from the group, which discussed preparations for the district’s annual SmartScape Expo that runs Saturday and Sunday.

Stewart’s question — he owns a landscape business in Laguna — and Regan’s response cut to the heart of the quandary residents, growers and other stakeholders face as California withers along in a crippling drought: being as frugal as possible with available water. The trees, likely to include California natives, that Stewart spoke about would be shipped to district headquarters for the expo.

“I fully anticipate an all-out awareness with the drought,” Saddleback College Landscape Design Alumni Assn. interim President Laura Bard said as she looked at a floor plan of the district’s parking lot. “I get calls every day from people asking, ‘How do I get rid of my lawn?’”

For the past week, district staff and volunteers, most of them students and faculty from Saddleback College, transformed the lot into a drought-tolerant garden with walkways made of decomposed granite along with a model of a house with catch basins that trap rain water and direct it into soil, instead of into storm drains.

“The goal is zero runoff,” said Bard, a San Clemente resident who owns her own landscape design business.

And for the first time there is an 85-gallon aquarium with sharks and star fish.

The purpose of the tank, and a nearby mural area for kids to paint fish, is to show the public how trash and other debris that enters the ocean from storm drains can negatively affect living creatures, Regan said.

The expo, in its fifth year, provides an opportunity for the public to glean water-efficient ideas from landscape and irrigation professionals, participate in hands-on demonstrations and receive freebies such as compost and sprinkler head nozzles.

Bard has participated for three years and said attendees leave encouraged to make changes in their yards.

“The focus is education,” Bard said. “They’re not selling something.”

Customers from both Laguna Beach County and South Coast water districts can take advantage of rebates and free programs to reduce outdoor water use and runoff.

The expo runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Laguna Beach County headquarters, 306 Third. St. Admission is free.

As for Stewart’s question about watering trees, Regan said the district has it covered.

For more information, visit www.lbcwd.com/smartscape.