The Classic Front Lawn is Quietly Disappearing from LA

Why Desert-Scape Lawns Are Taking Over Mid-City LA and Larchmont Village

Homeowners and small landlords are replacing traditional grass with desert-scape (xeriscape) designs—native plants, gravel, decomposed granite, and drought-tolerant trees. On the side streets off Beverly, 3rd, and 6th, you’re seeing fewer sprinklers running and more low-water landscapes going in.

This isn’t just an aesthetic shift. It’s a financial and practical response to living in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.

Water Costs and LADWP Bills Are Forcing a Rethink

Keeping a traditional lawn green in a semi-arid climate like Los Angeles has always been a stretch. Now it’s becoming a luxury.

• Grass lawns can require thousands of gallons of water a year, especially during hotter months.
• Many Mid-City and Larchmont homeowners have watched their LADWP bills climb as rates and usage creep up.

Recent reporting from NBC Los Angeles shows how LADWP bills are surging across LA County, putting pressure on owners to cut non-essential water use—like irrigating a front lawn that’s mostly there for looks.

Desert-scape front yards are designed to run on a fraction of that water. Once established, native and drought-tolerant plants (the kind highlighted in many California-friendly landscaping guides) can get by with drip irrigation and occasional deep watering instead of multiple sprinkler cycles per week.

Cost Efficiency, ADUs, and the New Math of Owning Here

In and around Larchmont Village—where modest bungalows now sell for seven figures—just getting the keys is only the beginning. To realistically afford to stay, most new buyers have to attack their monthly costs from multiple angles.

For a lot of Mid-City and Larchmont owners, that looks like:

• Building an ADU in the backyard as quickly as possible to bring in rental income and help cover mortgage and property tax bills, often taking advantage of LA’s streamlined ADU regulations and incentives.
• Upgrading to solar, reflective roofing, and efficient HVAC to bring down electric costs, sometimes using programs promoted through LADWP’s energy efficiency offerings.
• Swapping out old appliances for high-efficiency models.
• Tightening up insulation and using smart thermostats.

Desert-scape fits into this same survival strategy. Replacing a water-hungry lawn with a low-water, low-maintenance landscape is another lever to pull to permanently lower monthly expenses.

If you’ve just stretched to buy a house off Larchmont, Beverly, or Wilshire, the combination of an ADU rental plus reduced utility and landscaping costs can be the difference between barely hanging on and having a sustainable long-term plan.

Labor and Maintenance Are Getting Harder to Sustain

The “$80 a month gardener” is disappearing.

• Labor, fuel, and equipment costs have pushed up the price of weekly yard service.
• Reliable crews are booked, and many prioritize larger or more profitable accounts.
• Owners with small front yards are paying a premium for very basic mowing and blowing.

Desert-scape front yards reduce the need for weekly service. There’s no turf to mow, fewer plants to trim, and far less seasonal cleanup. Many homeowners in Mid-City now get by with:

• Quarterly or seasonal maintenance visits
• Light spot-weeding and pruning they can handle themselves

On the commercial side, CoStar reports that California landlords are “trading grass for greenbacks” by replacing traditional lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping to cut operating costs and appeal to tenants who care about sustainability.

Rebates Make It Easier to Justify the Upfront Cost

The main objection to desert-scape is the upfront cost: removing turf, regrading, installing drip, and bringing in new materials.

Local incentives help. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power offers a Turf Replacement Rebate Program that pays customers to remove grass and install sustainable landscaping.

For a typical Mid-City or Larchmont front yard, that rebate can offset a meaningful portion of:

• Turf removal and disposal
• New irrigation (drip or subsurface)
• Plants, gravel, mulch, and hardscape

When you combine the rebate with lower water bills and reduced maintenance, the payback period becomes much shorter—especially when you’re already investing heavily in an ADU and energy upgrades.

A Different Look for Larchmont’s Streets

Walk down the side streets off Larchmont Boulevard and you’ll see the shift:

• Traditional lawns replaced with decomposed granite, boulders, and native grasses
• Agave, manzanita, and other drought-tolerant plants instead of boxwood hedges
• Simple steel or concrete edging defining clean planting areas

The look is less “suburban lawn,” more “Southern California courtyard.” It also fits the scale of smaller front yards and narrow parkways you see throughout Mid-City.

For owners renovating older Spanish and Craftsman homes, desert-scape often works better with the architecture than a bright green lawn that needs constant watering to survive. Many design-forward projects in central LA now blend elements you’d see in places like the LA River revitalization and local native plant gardens into small residential lots.

Backyards: Artificial Turf as a Practical Play Surface

Artificial turf is appealing because it offers:

• A consistent surface for kids to play soccer, catch, or tag
• A clean, dry area for outdoor movie nights and casual gatherings
• Less mud, fewer bugs, and no grass pollen for allergy-sensitive households
• No mowing, edging, or weekly cleanup

For small lots—especially when an ADU takes up part of the yard—a 200–400 square foot turf area can function as a “backyard field” without the upkeep of real grass. The rest of the space can be low-water planting, gravel, and seating areas that don’t add much to the monthly budget.

Environmental and Quality-of-Life Benefits

Beyond cost and convenience, desert-scape can improve how these neighborhoods feel day to day:

• Native plants support pollinators and local wildlife, aligning with broader California native plant efforts.
• Less fertilizer and pesticide use means fewer chemicals washing into storm drains.
• Fewer gas-powered mowers and blowers reduce noise and emissions on already busy streets.

For residents who walk Larchmont, bike through Mid-City, or spend time outside with kids and dogs, the shift away from constant mowing and sprinklers is noticeable.

A Quiet but Permanent Shift

The move toward desert-scape in Mid-City LA and Larchmont Village isn’t a design fad. It’s a practical response to:

• Rising LADWP water and power bills
• Higher labor and maintenance costs
• The need to make ADUs, energy upgrades, and basic housing costs pencil out
• A climate that was never really suited for large, thirsty lawns in the first place

For many owners, the “new normal” looks like this: a low-water, low-maintenance front yard that still presents well from the street, an ADU in the back to help carry the mortgage and property taxes, and a compact, durable play area instead of a full grass lawn.

If you’re planning to hold property in this part of LA for the long term, desert-scape isn’t about making a statement. It’s about making the numbers work in a market where you don’t have much margin for waste.