To Kitty and everyone else interested in Florida-friendly landscaping. (FFL)
Years ago I was appointed by the governor to a term on the Southwest Florida Management District (Swiftmud) and as was pointed out by Kitty, Swiftmud was mandated by law to encourage FFL.
I decided it was a worthwhile initiative so I installed a lot of Florida-friendly landscape plants at my house at that time, and reduced how much I watered the lawn.
To me, one of the best documents being offered by Swiftmud is the brochure found here
http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/public...tguide-web.pdf
It is incredibly detailed and is just one of many documents on the Swiftmud list of free publications relating to FFL.
Free water conservation publications and materials
My favorite of the nine principles of FFL is Number 5.
Numbers 2, 4 and 8 brought me to the point that I hardly had to water the lawn at all.
A word of caution might be in order. Although the ARB cannot foreclose the use of FFL plants, they might still have a voice in the aesthetic application of the various plants. One shouldn't assume that they could just run over the ARB. Careful and artistic planning would be in order.