California keeps getting hotter and drier, and the rules for how much water a landscape can use are changing with it. For landscape architects, that means recalculating water budgets, rethinking turf and finding plants that hold up to the climate while still feeling lush and inviting to the people who use the space.

Dionisio Roman and Ethan Hartzel sit down with Greg Ross, founder of Contour Landscape Architecture and a lecturer at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, to talk about how he balances code, water and beauty on projects ranging from backyard gardens to 92-unit townhome developments. Greg shares how California’s updated evapotranspiration numbers caught him by surprise, why artificial turf rarely solves the problem it promises to, and how he uses “rings of influence” to blend pure natives with hybrids on sensitive coastal sites.

The conversation also takes an honest look at what native planting really means today, how to design for color in every season and what the next generation of landscape architects needs to learn in the field. If you design, install or care for landscapes and want a smarter way to think about native species and water use, this episode is for you.

Timecodes:

00:00 – 01:40 | Welcome and Meet Greg Ross
01:40 – 04:44 | Early Roots: Nurseries, Palms and Cal Poly
04:44 – 07:22 | Why a Small Firm Shaped His Career
07:22 – 08:58 | Opening a Firm and Teaching During COVID
08:58 – 13:02 | California’s ETo Update and the New Appendix C
13:02 – 15:02 | Code Expertise and Using AI to Sort the Fine Print
15:02 – 18:22 | Spending Water Where People Actually Gather
18:22 – 21:03 | Nonfunctional Turf and the Artificial Turf Problem
21:03 – 24:42 | Resilient Lawns and the Barefoot Test
24:42 – 28:48 | Right Plant, Right Place Over Native-Only Design
28:48 – 32:42 | Hybrids, Cultivars and Summer Dormancy
32:42 – 35:31 | Rings of Influence on a 22-Acre Coastal Site
35:31 – 39:02 | Planning Color Across Every Season
39:02 – 43:23 | Design as a Lifelong Practice and Starting by Hand
43:23 – 50:49 | Teaching Over Zoom and Getting Students Into the Field
50:49 – 52:39 | Wrap-Up and How to Reach Greg

Resources:

Have an upcoming landscaping project? Contact Tree Staple for a quote treestaple.com
Connect with Jim Mancini on LinkedIn
Connect with Dionisio Roman III on LinkedIn
Connect with Greg Ross on LinkedIn
Contact Greg at Contour Landscape Architecture: greg@contourlandscapearchitecture.com
Follow Tree Staple on LinkedIn: [LinkedIn URL: add before publishing]

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