The 2026 winner of the City of Oceanside’s annual Landscape Makeover Contest created a beautiful water smart landscape focused on pollinator-friendly plants that became a personal legacy.
Oceanside resident Tom Watson and his wife Patti began working on landscape upgrades after being inspired during his regular neighborhood dog walks.
“I’d seen a lot of nice gardens going for walks with our dog,” said Watson. “It had been in my mind two years. Gee, it would be nice to have something more interesting than just grass, and if it’s good for the environment, that’s great too!”
Then Watson received information from the City of Oceanside about its WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Contest. The possibility of qualifying for a rebate for replacing non-functional turf got his attention.
“If you did a garden upgrade that met certain criteria for removing turf and replacing it in a certain way, you could qualify for a rebate,” recalls Watson. “So we did that.”
