Editorial:

With the new landscaping regulations adopted Tuesday by the City Council, Glendale may look like a desert before long. And, ironically, that may be the best way to go green.

For years, the city has required that residents’ front and side yards be fully landscaped with grass, gardens, trees, shrubs and other plant life — in short, things that require water on a regular basis. As the state forecasts severe cutbacks in water imports this summer, however, the council passed a new rule that up to 49% of front yard landscaping can consist of rocks, mulch, bark and other materials that survive out in the sun.

Anyone who has visited a big city in the desert — Santa Fe, for example — can vouch that it’s possible to create beautiful landscaping with brown the predominant color. Glendale’s aesthetes, then, shouldn’t worry too much about their neighborhoods’ appearance if a sizable number of residents opt for the new local guidelines.

And, in fact, this is the responsible way to go. Using gallon after gallon of water to grow weeds and roses not native to the area is wasteful. If you want to live in the area, you should respect it for what it is and not try to make it look like the tropics or the Midwest. That is not to say such gardens are not beautiful. But as Southern California grapples with a serious water shortage year after year, and Glendale imports water from afar, it’s just not responsible. We must take care of and preserve the resources that we have.

One item mentioned Tuesday but not adopted as part of the regulations was artificial turf, which is allowed in backyards and other private areas but not anywhere visible to the public. Artificial turf may be one way of saving sprinkler costs, but it’s hardly the only method — or the best.

Covering the earth with more synthetic materials is not the answer. Many of our climate and water issues can be traced back to the paving over of the planet. Artificial turf, like any manufactured substance, also requires materials for packing and fuel for shipping, and like anything else that comes from the factory, it eventually wears out and needs to be replaced.

And the money and time spent determining the best artificial grass for residents to lie on their lawns could be used a number of other ways, no small consideration in a tough budgetary time.

Artificial turf is as bad an idea as native and non-live landscaping is good.

The city should stick to the natural materials it approved Tuesday.

We do live in a desert, all after. And in a desert, sometimes green isn’t the only color of green.