I stood in my yard watching the sprinklers in my yard in August. My husband wanted to water twice per day. I wanted to stop.
As I watched my water bill climb higher every year and knowing what that water use actually costs this region, something inside me snapped.
Why are we doing this?
This isn't just about my yard
I want to be honest with you about something, because I think it matters for why Tanager exists at all.
Spokane has a water problem. Not a future problem — a right now problem. The Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, the sole-source aquifer that provides drinking water for more than half a million people in the Inland Northwest, is under real and growing pressure. We are using water faster than it is being replenished. And a staggering share of residential water use — estimates put it at 30 to 50 percent in summer months — goes straight onto lawns.
Lawns that are extremely thirsty. And the state just announced a drought!
I am not someone who can sit with that information and do nothing. Once I understood the stakes, the struggling grass in my front yard stopped being an annoyance and became something more like a moral question. What was I going to do about it?
The moment I saw what was possible
When I started as a Master Gardener in 2022, I had the opportunity to volunteer every week in the summer at the Master Gardener WaterWise Demonstration Garden — and it changed what I thought a drought-tolerant landscape could look like. As I sat in the WaterWise Garden I found it was alive. Color from spring through fall, the yellow golden currant, the blue flax, and purple asters. Bees and hummingbirds working every inch of it. In the fall and winter I saw textures, heights and movement in the wind that a lawn could never offer.
And we have reduced the drip irrigation every year since it was established.
I felt empowered… Not overwhelmed by the problem anymore, but lit up by the possibility. This was what a yard in eastern Washington could look like. This was what pollinators and wildlife actually needs.
I went home and started planning.
The lawn was never going to win here
Eastern Washington is not lawn country. It never was. Before the subdivisions and the seed companies and the cultural idea that a green carpet of Kentucky bluegrass equals a good home, this landscape of Ponderosa Pine forest with serviceberry, mallow ninebark, oceanspray, and snowberry, or shrub-steppe with big sagebrush, bunchgrasses, buckwheat, and rabbitbrush. Plants that evolved over thousands of years to thrive in exactly the conditions we keep fighting against. Plants that feed the wild pollinators and critters that call the inland northwest home.
The lawn wasn't struggling because I was doing something wrong. It was dying because it was never supposed to be here.
Once I understood that, I couldn't unknow it. I wanted my yard to belong to this place — to make sense here, ecologically and visually. I wanted less water, less maintenance, more life. I wanted pollinators and birds and something that didn't make me feel like I was losing a fight with the climate every summer.
The moment everything got overwhelming
I picked up the SpokaneScape program — Spokane's water-wise rebate program that pays you to replace your lawn with drought-tolerant plantings. I was in immediately. Then I opened the plant list. There were so many species. Forbs, grasses, shrubs, groundcovers. I felt paralyzed with so many options and eventually created about 20 different designs. I eventually made some choices for keystone species in my design then grew from there.
What I actually needed — and why Tanager exists
Here's what I wish someone had told me at the very beginning:
You do not need to become a botanist. You do not need to become a master gardener… You need someone who can help you stop spinning and start planting. We are not looking for perfect… We are looking for progress… Considering a few questions can help you decide on design elements that are right for you!
~ What light conditions are in your garden?
~ How big of a space do you have? Is it flat, have hills, or steep slopes?
~ Do you currently have grass? Need erosion support? Have basalt or rocky soil?
~ Want your yard to support hummingbirds, birds, butterflies, bees, other critters, big or small?
~ Any particular goals with how you use your space?
The Master Gardener garden showed me what was possible. The SpokaneScape program gave me a framework and a financial incentive. But there was still a gap between inspiration and execution — between wanting a water-wise landscape and actually having one.
That gap is exactly why I started Tanager. Here are some great starting points…
~ Check out our collections for plants that thrive in your light conditions, attract pollinators to your garden, and for keystone plants that do the most good in your garden: https://www.tanagergreenhouse.com/collections
~ Pre-designed garden packages at https://www.tanagergreenhouse.com/collections/waterwise-plant-packages
~ Small garden pairings for plants that look fantastic and grow well together: https://www.tanagergreenhouse.com/collections/small-collections
~ In addition, at the end of each plant description are suggested companion plants.
Please reach out if you have any questions or need support. I’m here to help you.
Tanager Greenhouse is a native and drought-tolerant plant nursery in Spokane, Washington, specializing in plants that thrive in eastern Washington's climate — and in helping homeowners create landscapes that are beautiful, ecologically meaningful, and genuinely water-wise.