During the drought of the late 1980s, overhead watering was prohibited and lawns soon began to suffer. People devised many strategies for dealing with the situation, from the ludicrous (importing water by tanker truck, painting dead lawns with green dye) to the sensible (removing unnecessary turf, reducing lawn areas to a manageable size, and replacing lawns with drought-tolerant plants, drip irrigation systems and water-conserving mulch). The result was a conversion of vast areas of useless, barren, thirsty turf to practical, drought-tolerant "xeriscaping" as it was called then. Santa Barbara spawned a revolution in site-appropriate landscaping, and Owen Dell was one of the leaders of this movement.

This garden was originally almost an acre of turf, boring to look at and expensive to maintain. We removed most of the turf, relocated the sprinklers to irrigate just the remaining turf, and planted a series of perennial borders using species that require little watering and provide an abundance of bloom and interesting foliage. The result was a strolling garden that was much more resource-efficient and looked great with the handsome half-timbered Tudor-style residence.

Plants include sea lavender, Geranium incanum, Artemisia 'Powis Castle', Penstemon varieties, Euryops daisy, catmint, lavender cotton, Aster frikartii, fortnight lily and many others.

The garden has been featured on local tours, in a video on sustainable landscape design, and on television.