Andrew Ferrell, Head of Business Development, Turf Terminators: 

It’s a desert out here in Southern California and expecting every homeowner to have lush green lawns isn’t exactly realistic anymore.

John Smith, Athens Resident: 

They’re doing my rental house today across the street which is a big yard and they are doing the front and the back which is going to save me a lot of water.

Andrew Ferrell: 

Turf Terminators launched last summer so we’ve been going at it for about ten months and we’ve grown from, you know, 3 employees to 500. We realized that turf removal rebates that are available for the replacement of turf grass were rising in value so we put two and two together and figured out that we can run a business doing drought tolerant landscaping here. We’ve got a variety of drought tolerant vegetation. Primarily here we are going to be installing some lavender shrubs, we have kangaroo paw in the back, and also tea tree here. So, it’s a good variety. You get a lot of color in these yards, but none of these require much maintenance and certainly not a lot of water.

Green grass is, you know, a staple of American life. It’s been amazing to see so many people willing to stand up and sort of take action. It’s all part of a transformation of California’s relationship with water, I think. When we actually, perform services in a neighborhood, about 3.5 neighbors make the transition as well. Mr. Smith has ten of his neighbors who have already signed up with us.

John Smith: 

I’ve been living here 48 years. No one in this area haven’t been living here less than 25 or 30 years. I know all of my neighbors on this block and quite a few of them all around the area. Majority of the people over here are senior people and they are retired and on a fixed income.

This is absolutely free. If you think about the amount of water that you’re saving …

Fixed income man, I tell you. And with this program, I think I can live with that. I’ll be Hopalong Cassady on that one. [laughs]

Raye Campbell, Athens Resident:

Yes, I was the first lawn on the block to change from grass. My neighbor, Mr. Smith, he was the one who introduced me to it. I just finished this last week.

John Smith:

Hot potato …

My grandkids, my dog, and myself love the astroturf. My water bill is half of what it used to be since I had the astroturf. A lot of people think that just, somebody is just talking about a water shortage, I can do all I want with my water. But, it’s a real threat of us running out of water. As the water bill gets higher, a lot of people will think I should have done this and then if it becomes mandatory then they are going to wish they had got it done beforehand. It’s almost like Las Vegas, you go to Las Vegas, just about everybody has this type of lawn.