Show #17/1204. San Antonio Botanical Garden

JOE AND PAUL NEXT VISIT WATER SAVER LANE. The premise here was to educate the public allowing them to come here and get ideas about alternatives to some of those thirstier plants. It was found that over 50% of urban water use goes to landscape irrigation. San Antonio operates on a finite water system, there is an underground aquifer and nobody knows how deep it really is. So after it's gone, it's over with, so they're trying to introduce people to utilize low water usage plants in an effort to decrease water usage and it has been fairly effective. There are several demonstration areas on Water Saver lane. The first 2 are indicative of the average homeowners lawn, with all the watering required to keep it looking green as well as all the very thirsty plants. Other vignettes provide great alternatives. With these one wouldn't need to have so much lawn, but still have great looking plants that require much less water. The water board, which sponsored this area, thinks St. Augustine grass is a big water user and they're happy when the St. Augustine dies during the summer. It has died twice and they won't let Paul replace it because they want to show people how it is not appropriate.