Built to last on little water

The median used to send irrigation water into the drain. The new garden puts drip water at each plant's roots, and the plants were chosen to need very little of it.

Looking down the planted median along the curb, with a yucca and agave in gravel and yellow school buses parked alongside. — November 2026. Plants are spaced 3.3 ft apart, leaving room to fill in.

What the design does

Four goals from the plan

Low waterAgaves, aloes, yuccas and hesperaloe on drip irrigation, so water goes to the roots instead of down the median.
Low maintenanceGravel over weed barrier, and plants that don't need mowing or regular trimming.
Year-round colorBlue agaves, variegated yuccas and the red and orange blooms of the aloes and hesperaloe.
PollinatorsAloe and hesperaloe flowers that feed hummingbirds and bees.

Growing in

Where it's headed

The design rendering shows the median filled in. Eight months after planting, the garden is on its way.

Rendering of the median from above: a pale gravel river winding between boulders, surrounded by blue agaves, aloes and red mulch. — The design rendering: a gravel river between the boulders.

A large blue-grey agave in sharp focus with a flowering aloe beside it and a blurred school bus behind. — An agave and a flowering aloe, November 2026.

An aloe with orange-red flower spikes in gravel beside the curb. — Aloe in bloom at the curb.

A large rust and pink boulder in the gravel median with yellow school buses behind it. — One of the four Apache Sunset boulders.

What's next for Samuel

Studying how change happens

Moving 800-pound boulders turned out to be the easy part. The hard part was getting an idea that everyone agreed with through months of meetings, emails and approvals.

That is what Samuel wants to study next: government and the environment together, and why institutions make even obviously good environmental change so slow.

Back to the garden today →