Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles’ past. In this series , we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future. Looking out the front windows of their northeast L.
A. home, Kyle Anido and Katie Cordeal say their front yard is barely recognizable from a year ago when it was a lawn. “It’s crazy to see how lively the garden is now,” says Anido, a 37-year-old camera operator.
“There is so much bee activity.” “It has absolutely exploded,” adds Cordeal, 38. “It’s pretty incredible what has happened over the past 12 months.
And we haven’t even watered the yard this year.” The colorful ecosystem, which thrives without sprinklers, amendments, fertilizers, gardeners and gas-powered lawn equipment, is not lost on the couple’s 21⁄2-year-old son, Owen. “Bees!” he yelled with delight from the front porch, pointing to the pollinators feeding on the native California flowers in his front yard.
“Owen loves bugs,” Anido says of the boy’s vibrant playground. When the couple purchased their first home in 2021, the front yard was an uninspired swath of Bermuda grass, an oddly placed palm that real estate agents hastily planted for staging purposes and white gravel. After renting an apartment in Brooklyn, the couple felt intimidated by the prospect of caring for a home and yard and decided to keep the previous owners’ gardener.
They did this, they say, because it was easy, but the noise and environmental pollution from t.
