Easy on the eyes and Earth

Downtown Huntington Beach resident Mark Sasina never used to spend time in his front yard. His house, built on one of the narrow lots once given away for free with purchase of an encyclopedia set, didn’t give him much of a lawn.

That all changed when he built a low-water Mediterranean garden in the lawn’s place, Sasina said. And for his efforts, Sasina is one of two Huntington Beach residents in the finals for an eco-friendly gardening contest that will net the winner $2,500.

“It’s just unbelievable how this stuff took off,” Sasina said. “It’s a full blown garden now.

“We sit out there all the time now, and I do a lot of reading and writing out there.”

Just like the other Huntington Beach semifinalist, Kelly Holcomb, Sasina made it this far in the Second Annual California Friendly Garden contest by garnering votes from the public online. The contest is put on by Roger’s Gardens in Corona Del Mar with sponsorship from Orange County Coastkeeper, the Southern California and Orange County water districts, the Surfrider Foundation, and others.

Awards are going to be handed out at a dinner at Roger’s Gardens Friday, spokeswoman Genevieve Anton said. Awards for best aesthetics, best use of plants, best water efficiency, best native plant garden, best do it yourself and best overall are still being decided on, she said.

“The judges this week are going to go out and look at the homes,” she said. “They’re looking at things you can’t tell from the pictures.”

Sasina ripped out his sprinkler system and put in an olive tree surrounded by rosemary, lavender, agave plants, Italian cypress and other greenery that reminded him of his time studying abroad in Italy. But on top of the comfort it brings him, it cuts his water consumption radically, he said.

“I was amazed at how there’s no maintenance involved,” he said. “We have a water bill each month — I think it’s $16. With the rain we had this past year, I didn’t water from October till April.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].