Long before the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California declared a water shortage emergency and ordered outdoor watering limited to two days a week, Sarah Lariviere, an avid gardener, was thinking about ways to conserve water. Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive During the pandemic, the young-adult author found inspiration on the long walks that she and her husband took in their Burbank neighborhood. It wasn’t the endless series of lush green lawns that moved her, however, but the occasional drought-tolerant landscape that would materialize, sandwiched between the turf. “I grew up in the Midwest so I was drawn to the nonlawn landscapes,” says the 46-year-old. “I love the wild look of colorful wildflowers.” Precipitated by three years of record drought in California, Lariviere decided to educate herself about waterwise gardening. She took an in-person class on California native plants at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants. She consulted the SoCal Water Smart website, which offers step-by-step guidelines on how to transform your lawn using drought-tolerant alternatives to grass. …