Are you thinking about walking on water with your landscape? It’s paying off in parts of Utah.

This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to solving Utah’s greatest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.

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Removing the grass from your parking lane – the area between the sidewalk and the street – can take a bit of work, but in more counties than ever you could get paid to do it.

Cindi Griswald is one of these discount recipients. She got the opportunity after her husband’s death when one of her first jobs was cleaning up her home’s messy sprinkler system.

“It was on my to-do list to get the sprinklers up after he was gone,” she said. As she explored her options for replacing the sprinklers, she found that removing the sward entirely might be the best option, especially if the grass on her parking lane was not serving a specific purpose.

“It seemed pretty daunting at first,” said Griswald. “But I thought if I did I might as well do it.”

The Griswald area offers a “Flip Your Strip” program, which gives residents discounts for converting lawns to water landscaping. Despite the laundry list of requirements under the program, Griswald said she achieved something she was “quite proud” of.

“It’s definitely the reward just knowing you’re beautifying the community,” she said. “It’s not just a pile of stones that you’re replacing the sward with. You’ll save tons of water and help your state, city, and community. That was pretty motivating for me. “

How it works

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Waterwise Orange Carpet Creeping Hummingbird Trumpet. With the help of state discount and incentive programs, Draper resident Cindi Griswald transformed her grass park strips into a colorful, water-rich landscape on August 6, 2021.

The West Jordan Water Conservancy District’s Flip Your Strip program pays users one dollar for every square foot of their strip they “flip” over. When turning, the grass is removed from the strip and replaced with a mixture of mulch, drip irrigation and plant cover. The type of mulch someone uses can vary, but it can also include stones and bark mulch. In addition, participants can choose from a wide range of native plants.

The district is also offering an increased discount amount – $ 1.25 per square foot – if the user chooses to participate in the district’s training program covering various water-related parking lane designs.

To participate, residents currently need to have healthy lawn in their parking lane, ie no removed or killed grass and no artificial turf. And once users get started, they must adhere to several guidelines, including that half of the strip must be covered with perennial plants and the strip must be watered with low drip irrigation.

According to the organization’s Megan Jenkins, Flip Your Strip is effective because it targets a smaller portion of the lawn, making progress seem more achievable.

“It’s a beneficial program for us because we are finding that the parking lane is a really easy place for homeowners to begin the transition to a more water-efficient garden,” she said. “The little project doesn’t seem as intimidating as maybe examining the entire landscape and figuring out a way to do it all over again.”

The program has existed in the district since 2017. It is gaining more users every year. This year the participation has already increased by 166% compared to the previous year, she said, with 303 applications already submitted.

However, that doesn’t mean that others haven’t flipped their strips. She noted that peer pressure often means that when someone turns their strip, their neighbors follow suit. Sometimes these neighbors are not counted when participating in the program.

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Solutions in Practice

• First, check whether you are eligible for the program. Even if your water company isn’t authorized, you can try turning your strip around. Not only does Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan offer a glimpse of many plants to use for your strip; It also has some digital cues on how to switch to drip irrigation.

• Check out this slideshow that details the steps to flip a strip.

• Have you cemented your parking lane and noticed weeds have grown? See if any of these tips could help you.

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Extension of the program

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) “I really believe in the program,” said Cindi Griwald with her son Collin (21), who helped. “That is the smartest thing. We are in a drought in a desert region.” With the help of government discount and incentive programs, Draper resident Griswald believes that she got 80% of her money back to turn her grass park strips into a colorful, water-rich landscape on August 6, 2021.

Flip Your Strip originally covered only part of Salt Lake County. Last week the Central Utah Water Conservancy District (CUWCD) announced its own Flip Your Strip program. The program is now available to water users from CUWCD (including Salt Lake, Utah, Wasatch, Duchesne, Uintah, Sanpete, and Uintah Counties), the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, and some within the Weber County Water Conservancy District. New homeowners hoping to take advantage of the program’s expansion in central Utah can get the same discounts – $ 1 per square foot and $ 1.25 with class – as those in Jordan Valley. Eligibility to participate in the region was officially opened on August 1st.

“We cannot ignore wasted water outdoors, and as we grow rapidly, we must focus on more sustainable landscapes that not only save water but also look good,” said Gene Shawcroft, general manager of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District.

Central Utah will also adopt the Localscapes program, which offers a similar discount for general redesign of lawns outside the park strip. Rebekah Dunham Connors and her family ran both the Localscapes and Flip Your Strip programs and said the Flip Your Strip aspect was a lot easier and a great place to start. With both programs, she noted, a lot of people misunderstand the point – they are not designed to turn lawns into barren wasteland.

“It’s a misconception that you have to tear up all the grass and then just put stones in it,” she said. “But we didn’t find that at all, and that’s not the aim of the program either. They don’t want you to grow anything, they just want you to be more focused on what you use your water for. “

Utah residents can, and many do, flip their strip without the incentive program. But without program requirements, those who flip their own strip may not follow the same guidelines as those receiving a discount. One of these requirements is plant coverage. Alyssa Johanson of West Jordan, looking down her street, noticed that some people in her neighborhood were turning their strips over, but either cementing the strip or putting stones in it.

“Often times the rocks are just weeds and the cement is a pile of cement,” said Johanson. “We haven’t necessarily seen many great examples around us. We wanted to take part in the program because we want to keep plants in the area and make it a little nicer. “

Living in West Jordan, the Johansons were able to visit the district’s conservation garden, which is home to local plants ideal for water landscaping. The garden, she said, was part of what inspired the family to move.

Jenkins said it was difficult to track the overall impact of the program in terms of aggregate water savings. It is estimated that flipping the strip on average saves between 5,000 and 8,000 gallons – enough to fill a commercial tank truck with water. Those who spoke to the Tribune all reported remarkable water savings; Dunham Connors said their property consumed a total of 163,000 gallons between April and September 2018 – a number that dropped to 49,000 gallons in 2019. The decline was the result of participating in both the Flip Your Strip program and the Localscapes program.

Turn around without discounts

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) With the help of state discount and incentive programs, Draper resident Cindi Griswald turned her grass park strips into a colorful, water-rich landscape on August 6, 2021.

While Central Utah’s inclusion within Flip Your Strip’s reach means many more Utahners can access the program, there are still many districts that aren’t covered. Plus, as the water districts have a limited number of staff to help homeowners through the process, these programs are filling up. But that doesn’t mean flipping the strip isn’t an option.

Ogden’s Mandy Hutchison lives outside of Flip Your Strip’s geographic reach. Her neighbor had already made the move and she decided to do the job without a discount.

“Turning the parking lane wasn’t too difficult,” she said. She found that getting rid of all of the weed was by far the greatest challenge, but she was able to get someone else to do it for her. Still, she said more Ogden residents would take the opportunity if there was an incentive. “If Flip Your Strip had offered a discount it would have been really nice.”

Now there are three homeowners on Hutchison’s Street that she knows are considering switching lines. She got a lot of compliments and even worked on redesigning the garden. So far, she has seen a 30% decrease in water consumption.

Her advice to those going on the uninspired journey: Find out about local laws. In Ogden, she could not grow plants on her strip that were taller than a few meters. Without the program, she said, the important thing is to find out what you can and cannot do.