HOME & GARDEN
2020 Water Wise Awards Winning Yards Make Water Conservation a Priority BY MARCIA BIGGS
the winners first and foremost based on how they use water in the landscape. Many will collect rainwater or stormwater, have Florida-friendly landscaping, minimize turf, use appropriate plants to attract pollinators and wildlife, and understand right plant, right place.”
Every year the City of St. Petersburg presents a Community Water Wise Award to recognize a resident or business that maintains an attractive, waterefficient landscape. For 2020, two homeowners were presented with the mosaic glass yard stepping stone in a tie. We came along for the February award presentation with Chris Claus, water conservation coordinator for the St. Petersburg Water Resources Department, and several other staffers. “What you will see is what I believe represent the recent trends in residential landscapes – the recognition of being a part of the natural world, and self-sufficiency,” Claus told me. “We select
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StPeteLifeMag.com
May/June 2021
*** Along a street of tidy bungalows in Central St. Pete, Scott Bitterli and Jasmina Janjic have transformed a tiny front yard and sizeable backyard into their own gardens of Eden, filled with fruit trees, herbs, grasses, shrubs and flowers. Take a stroll around and you’ll find papaya, fig, yucca, mulberry, elderberry, and sugar apple trees. In terracotta pots are
