Climate Gardens

After the Second World War, residents across the country were asked to garden to help with the food shortage crisis and boost morale. These were known as Victory Gardens. Now we are facing a new type of crisis – a warmer and dryer California.

The City of Cupertino is encouraging you to be part of the solution by installing a Climate Victory Garden in your front yard. This program is here to help you reduce the demand for water, store carbon in your soil, and give birds and bees a fighting chance. The climate-friendly native garden at City Hall has reduced water costs by 37% and it is a delight to watch change with each season. Your garden can help build up a more resilient, modern city, and demonstrate to your neighbors you are taking care of the natural world.

• Do you own a home, multifamily unit, or nonprofit in Cupertino?
• Do you currently have turf in your front or side yard that is visible to the public?
• Is your conversion area at least 500 square feet?
• Are you committed to helping the environment and improving the beauty in Cupertino?

If the answer is yes to these questions you may be eligible to have a Climate Victory Garden installed on your property. Click the interest list button to have your home added to the que of properties. This program currently has a long wait-list.

To equitability serve Cupertino residents and distribute resources fairly, we are prioritizing applications that have the following criteria:

• More public visibility
• More water savings potential due to larger lawn conversion size (square feet), and/or irrigation system in poor condition.
• Located in an area of Cupertino that has not yet been served by this program.

After eligibility is confirmed and your yard has been assessment, the customers must complete a a Project Agreement with a statement of commitment to construct the project within 90 days after design approval.

Climate Victory Garden projects must be located in a front or size yard, at least 500 sq ft, and in a location visible to the general public in the City of Cupertino.

Eligible customers receive the following benefits:

• A no-cost landscape and irrigation assessment at your property;
• *A custom planting and irrigation design to replace your lawn with an attractive, drought tolerant Climate Victory Garden;
• Affordable pricing for a basic Climate Victory Garden package installed by a qualified contractor, or hands-on assistance from Ecology Action staff to complete your own project;
• Technical design assistance for infiltrating rainwater and graywater in your garden;
• Rebates to offset the cost of your project

*After the property assessment, participants must agree to complete the scope of the project before a custom design will be created. Preview the Residential Project Agreement(PDF, 459KB) for complete details about residential commitment (do not fill out this agreement until asked).

Please Note: At this time, the Cupertino Climate Gardens program does not fund design assistance or rebates for home or community vegetable gardens or composting systems. For assistance with these important climate change solutions, please visit Yamagami Nursery's landscape design consultation page and the Santa Clara County Home Composting Education Program

A basic Climate Victory Garden package is meant to be a low-cost or even no-cost project for customers in our pilot program. Replacing all or a part of your lawn with low-water use perennial plants creates habitat for insects and birds in the watershed, increasing biodiversity and pollinator survival. Covering your soil with compost and mulch provides carbon to microorganisms and plants that remove carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into stable organic matter. Sequestering carbon as soil organic matter increases the water holding capacity of your soil, decreasing flooding and runoff. Pollution is further reduced by ditching the lawnmower, edger, leaf blower and fertilizers needed to keep that lawn green.

Ecology Action Team Members will facilitate Valley Water's Landscape Conversion Rebate and In-Line Drip Line Irrigation Rebate application on behalf our customers, as applicable. No separate application is needed.

Using rainwater captured from your roof to grow your garden saves water and energy. Harvesting water from the sky avoids greenhouse gas emissions associated with piping, pumping and treating water from the local groundwater wells to your garden. When we grow food at home, we purchase less food that has traveled in across the country, and we make fewer car trips to the grocery store.

Learn more about Valley Water's Rain Capture Device Rebate. Ecology Action Team Members will facilitate the rebate process. Separate application is not needed.

If you are willing to use plant-friendly laundry detergents, your fruit trees and thirsty landscape plants will appreciate laundry day when they can get a good deep watering from your clothes washer! Reusing your laundry graywater scores you extra climate victory points by reducing demand on the potable water supply, and conserving energy needed to pump and treat waste water.

Learn more about Valley Water's Graywater Laundry to Landscape Rebate. Ecology Action Team Members will facilitate the rebate process. No separate application is needed.

Paving streets and roads for cars has resulted in less groundwater recharge and increased risk of flooding during storm events that are predicted to become more intense with as our region's climate changes. Infiltration practices such as diverting stormwater to swales and rain gardens, and replacing concrete pavement with pervious pavements can help manage flooding and replenish groundwater reserves, relieving stress on local water supplies and reducing the need to import water.