In 85-year-old Jeanne Reutlinger’s world, gardening is an act of collaboration with friends and neighbors — meaning you don’t need much of a budget at all to create a prize-winning front yard. In Reutlinger’s case, her garden is the 2022 WaterSmart Landscape Contest winner for the city of Escondido’s water district. Over three years, with some help from her daughter and grandson and the generosity of neighbors and friends from whom she gathered seeds and clippings—and was gifted with some plants—Reutlinger established a front yard habitat that attracts birds and butterflies—so many butterflies! Read how she undertook this project and get her low-water gardening tips in my new story for The San Diego Union-Tribune.