Heaviland selected native and drought-tolerant plants to help cut down on water demands.Photo: Heaviland Landscape Management
Water conservation is key in California and Heaviland Landscape Management predicts that it has saved Palomar Tech Center 2.3 million gallons of drinking water annually after completing its landscape makeover.
The Vista, California-based commercial landscape management company was contacted in 2015 by Covey Commercial, a commercial property management company, and real estate firm Rexford Industrial to turn the campus into a water-wise landscape.
The objective was to make the 24,754 square-foot industrial office complex and 8.5-acre lot in Carlsbad more sustainable.
Before Heaviland retrofitted Palomar Tech Center’s irrigation system, the complex used millions of gallons of potable water.Photo: Heaviland Landscape Management
In June 2015, the landscape renovation and recycled water conversion project began. By August, a colorful collection of drought-tolerant plants, including agaves, kangaroo paws, succulents, salvias and other Mediterranean climate vegetation, had been installed.
Heaviland also converted the site’s irrigation system to use recycled water rather than potable water to irrigate the plants. The retrofit was completed in September 2015. It is projected this will save 1.26 million gallons of potable water annually.
“These irrigation system retrofits provide our client a savings on water bills as well as landscape maintenance costs, as the new landscape requires less daily care,” said Rajan Brown, Heaviland’s vice president of design, construction, and sustainability. “Now the client has a total of 92,010 square feet of sustainable, low-water-use landscaping complete with a recycled water irrigation system.”
Brown designed and managed the installation of the Palomar Tech Center project.
By replacing the irrigation and the turf with drought-tolerant plants, Heaviland estimates it will save 2.3 million gallons of water annually.Photo: Heaviland Landscape Management
