It's true. Having plants – which you would think would use up a lot of water – can actually help you to conserve more water. If you have a huge expanse of yard it has to be watered a lot. All of that grass needs to stay green, and if it doesn't get enough water, it'll die. If you've paid a lot of money for that green lawn you of course want to keep it lush and alive, and if you care about nature and the planet, you don’t want to see living things dying for lack of water – but yet you want to conserve water, so what do you do? You landscape naturally, using grasses and plants that are native to your location.

By doing that, you avoid huge expanses of green lawn and instead have dirt or rocks and natural plants here and there to make a pleasing design. Keeping it trimmed and cared for helps make it look great and you won't be using much water. If you have a lot of plants you might need to irrigate them, especially when they're just getting started.

For the most part, though, you can just leave the natural plants to fend for themselves. They're used to growing in that climate with the water that they would normally get, so there's no need for a system to give them water every day. You'll have a beautiful, naturally-landscaped yard and the environment will thank you.