For The Union-Tribune
Ramona Copley has lived in her Encinitas home since 1976, sharing it with her husband, David, who died last year. Their grown daughters live nearby. Today, her 16-year-old Chihuahua mix Cookey is her constant companion. Before David’s death, the couple had been planning the relandscaping of their front and backyards. They let the lawns die and David installed brick planters and concrete. They got rid of a cypress and ants destroyed white birch trees, Ramona said. Once he was in hospice and then passed, the landscaping project obviously was put on hold.
Within months, Ramona Copley, in her 80s and retired from being a seamstress for the San Diego Chargers, began to reignite the ideas that she and her late husband had put together. She had help from her stepdaughter Michelle in choosing plants that would be drought tolerant, hired a gardener after taking several bids and, in one month, had a front landscape anchored by three, four-trunk king palms that she’d been fixated on to provide shade over a dry creekbed and a variety of variegated agaves, mat rushes and dymondia lining it.
She’s purposely kept a minimal look, and by the end of December 2024 she had her dream garden. She also won the Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s 2025 WaterSmart Landscape Contest, for which she received a check for $250.
“The first thing I bought was one of those steel cable hoses, which are nice because they don’t kink,” Ramona said.
Blue fescue grows next to the sidewalk. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The inspiration
The Copleys wanted a low-water garden that would be simple to care for. Ramona took advantage of her neighborhood walks with Cookey to get ideas from her neighbors’ gardens and, from there, formed an image in her mind of how to lay it out.
“I had drawn pictures of what I wanted and knew exactly where to put the trees,” Ramona recalled.
The trees were the four-trunk king palms. She had seen them at the homes of a couple of neighbors, and that was it for her.
“They’re beautiful and they’re clean,” she said. Fortunately, they were available at Moon Valley Nursery.
A monarch butterfly alights on a Cleveland sage plant. Pollinators are frequent visitors. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Then there was the river rock — a whole pile of river rock that was gifted to the couple and had been sitting in their side yard for about 10 years. When Ramona mentioned to her gardener that she wanted a dry stream, he told her the rocks alone would be expensive.
A plaque honors David Copley, Ramona’s late husband. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“I said, ‘Come take a look at my rocks.’ They used every one of them,” she explained. “I’ve always liked beach rocks, but I didn’t want to go down stealing from the beach. So, they’re being offered. I’ll take.”
The dry creek isn’t just decorative. The front yard had a history of flooding during hard rains when the water from the backyard would go down the drains and under the walkway. So the creekbed was designed to move the water across the front yard and guide it down to the street; any residual water can irrigate the plants.
Originally, the idea was to plant reeds and ferns along the creekbed, but they didn’t thrive, so Michelle took them for her house.
Ramona decided to replace them with succulents and asked Ricardo Rodriguez of Tiger Landscaping, whom she had hired, to find plants with color.
High on Ramona Copley’s wish list was a dry creekbed. As luck would have it, she had been given a big pile of river rock. The feature helps direct water across the front yard and toward the street, avoiding flooding. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The details
Rodriguez was working from a clean slate, thanks to David Copley’s advance work. Ramona had kept the L-shaped low brick planter her husband had built and that has been used to house a variety of aeoniums. As they have produced pups, Ramona snips them and replants them. They’re thriving in the semi-shade provided by the roofline of the front yard’s western exposure.
The house is elevated a bit from the street. Below the retaining wall is a field of blue fescue that lines the sidewalk. Above is the garden, grounded by two of the king palms on the street side. The garden is divided horizontally by the creek bed and the third king palm is closer to the house and is expected to provide more shade as it matures and spreads. The dymondia is thick and thriving below it. Ramona had Rodriguez put down a small patio for a chair and table nearby that allows her to sit outside and watch the neighbors walk by, as well as the many butterflies and hummingbirds that visit.
A ruffle-edged Echeveria succulent. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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A ruffle-edged Echeveria succulent. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Interspersed between the palms and the rock bed are a variety of low-water plants that provide both texture and color. There’s a butterfly bush that attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Close to the little patio is a deep red-black New Zealand flax. The Cleveland sage boasts purple ball-shaped flowers, while the red autumn sage by the street is filled with small red flowers. There are kangaroo paws, California lilac, white rockrose, coastal rosemary and mat rushes.
While Ramona doesn’t claim to be a gardener per se, she does do periodic pruning and hand watering. She had a drip irrigation system installed but she’s found that some of the plants benefit from some overhead watering, particularly as the temperatures rise.
The garden is satisfying to Ramona.
As the aeoniums have produced pups, Copley snips them and replants them. They’re thriving in the semi-shade. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“It gives me a feeling of calm when I go out there and sit with the trees,” she said. “We always have a nice breeze and so the trees are rustling.”
The neighbors are enjoying it, too.
“It was empty, so all my neighbors think this is wonderful,” she said. “They think it’s beautiful. Some of the people I talk to have been inspired. I’ve invited one man I’ve seen on my neighborhood walks who’s working on his garden to come over and take a look at what I did. It’s like paying it forward.”
Costs
Ramona Copley said that they had planned to spend $12,750 on the project and it came in close to that.
Roses. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Water saved
David Copley had removed the lawn and the trees in anticipation of redoing the landscapes in front and back so Ramona doesn’t have any comparison.
A closer look: Ramona Copley
Plants used: California lilac (Ceanothus – unknown variety), Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii), variegated agave (Attenuata), silver carpet (Dymondia margaretae), butterfly bush, red autumn sage (Salvia greggii), sweet flag (Acorus gramineus), mat rushes (Lomandra), kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos yellow), coastal rosemary (Westringia), Echeveria ‘Bittersweet,’ Echeveria ruffle neon purple,’ ‘Charlie Boy’ cordyline (Cordyline australia ‘Charlie Boy’), king palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae), white rockrose (Cistus x hybridus), New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri), purple salvia (Salvia leucophylla), blue fescue (Festuca glauca), white rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus ‘Albus’), variegated flax lilies (Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’), New Zealand flax (Phormium), tree aeonium
Salvia plant. (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Estimated costs and any rebates you got: Copley estimated that it was close to $12,750.
Who did the work: Ricardo Rodriguez of Tiger Landscaping did the work.
How long it took: The project was done during December 2024.
Water savings
Copley said there was very little change, considering that the area was bare for some time before the drought tolerant landscape was installed.
Advice
• Compose a picture of what you have in mind ahead of time and be open to change.
• Take into account the “lay of the land” of your property and note naturally occurring runoff areas and/or roof edges or downspouts to assess, for example, an ideal location for a dry creekbed.
• Save money and resources by making use of existing rock, brick or other material you may already have available.
• Even drought tolerant landscape requires a period of “watering in” following initial installation. Keeping a soil moisture meter on hand is helpful even if you have an automatic irrigation system.
• For larger specimens such as boxed trees, installing a PVC pipe near the trunk of each tree for direct water delivery to the root ball is a wise idea.
About the series
This is the second this year in an occasional series on 2025 winners of the annual WaterSmart Landscape Contest, conducted in partnership with the San Diego County Water Authority. To learn about entering the next contest, visit landscapecontest.com.
For details on classes and resources through the WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Program, visit watersmartsd.org. Landscape rebates are available through the Socal WaterSmart Turf Replacement Program at socalwatersmart.com.