A small help for the California drought crisis

Evidence that my argument here is bogus!

I dreamed I visited an old girlfriend who looked me in the eye. She advised me not to water the lawn because it is wasteful. I told her that I would consider her words carefully. Then I (still dreaming) looked at her house with its weedy, barren yard and dried plants where a flower garden might be. Yeah, I told myself, not too bad. I mean, no actual papers or anything blowing about or stuck to the dried plants. Just dirt and an occasional weed. Good honest weeds. I woke up.
P. was already busy with her morning activities. I asked her what she thought about us not watering our yard. She said she doesn’t water much, but she likes to keep the trees watered (she uses a special deep root device that delivers water through a metal tube about 2 feet below the surface). Otherwise, she is okay with a brown lawn. Our lawn is splotchy, bumpy, and riddled with dandelions and other weeds. She said she doesn’t water the boulevard, but she likes to water our tiny back yard because we like to go back there. She said she thinks because we hardly do anything to our yard it is remarkably drought resistant. It has the same tired old grass as when we moved in 31-1/2 years ago. Except for a few places where we’ve put in some grass seed.
Once when the city was collecting toxic waste I took a coffee can with grass seed, along with the usual motor oil, paint thinner and used batteries. A man handed me back the grass seed through the window of the car. “Not waste,” he said. Apparently I’m not the only one who tried to palm off grass seed as toxic waste.
Over on Lewis Avenue a few years back someone’s lawn turned bright yellow as though someone had poisoned it. I asked P. if she remembered. She supposed it had been over-fertilized and burned up. As I recall the folks on Lewis dug up their dead sod and replaced it with green.
My nephew and his wife have a lush lawn which they feed and water. Of course, without the attention to their lawn the places where the dog goes to the bathroom would cause unsightly dark green spots. With the feeding they have done by Chemlawn(TM) their entire lawn is dark green.
If only they would not use so much water the world would be a better place!
Here, according to a small section, which I cut and pasted from a Wikipedia article, are six advantages that my nephew could accrue if he and his wife used xeriscaping techniques:

• Lowered consumption of water: Xeriscaped landscapes use up to two thirds less water than regular lawn landscapes. [5]
• Makes more water available for other domestic and community uses and the environment.
• Reduce Maintenance: Aside from occasional weeding and mulching Xeriscaping requires far less time and effort to maintain.[6]
• Xeriscape plants in appropriate planting design, and soil grading and mulching, takes full advantage of rainfall retention. [6]
• Less cost to maintain: Xeriscaping requires less fertilisers and equipment, particularly due to the reduced lawn areas. [6]
• Reduced waste and pollution: Lawn clippings can contribute to organic waste in landfills and the use of heavy fertilisers contributes to urban runoff pollution. [5]

I hope you were not startled by capital exes nor by the British spelling of fertilisers. The most important downsides, briefly, are the initial cost, the possibility of getting poked by thorns or thistles, the difficulty of playing volleyball or shuttlecock, and the perception of ugliness by some cynical types.