You're in Southern California in the middle of an epic drought that has no end in sight. Forget turfgrass (even "droughthardy" types) and plant some shadetrees and native plants. Be a responsible citizen. No, you do not "have to" have a lush green lawn, which is not natural for your region. Think outside the box a little.

Not sure how to think outside the box and make a house look great with native plants. In Topanga here in Southern California we removed our sprinkler system and just have native plants and it goes with the property, also another we do not have watering either. Matter of fact the Topanga gets watered 2x a month, yes a month. The other never unless someone moves out and cleanup is done. This one in particular property needs it. Thank you

"UC VERDE" buffalo grass, ornamental peanut, rupturewort...just to name a few.

Second vote for buffalo grass. Here in New Mexico it can live on rainfall which is about 10" a year. We replaced our bluegrass with buffalo grass 3 years ago. For the first season it needs regular watering. After that we left it. It greens up when it rains, natural height is about 2-3" so never needs mowing, goes dormant during the dry season.

Jadeite you mention the dry season the grass goes dormant so does that mean it turns brown during the dry season which in Los Angeles it's always dry season?

Akarinz, great will looking into the variety. I have different areas/sections I can try / experiment. Thanks to both

You should look into having the grass painted green. It's supposed to last 6-12 weeks. http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-0410-abcarian-lawn-painting-20150410-column.html

Myspace, the grass turns brown slowly during our dry season which is from October to June. It fades gradually so is tan from about November/December until any rain falls. Our winters and springs are typically very dry. This year we're having unusually high rain, about 3" to date since New Year, and the lawn is green.

I checked annual rainfall in LA which was about 9" since 1 July. That's comparable to our normal 10" a year. I don't know if you're in that area. When we arrived here in 2011 the total rainfall that year was under 6". That's what I call dry.

Another vote for getting the grass painted. Otherwise consider some nice hardscape and low water plantings. Lawn is going to have to go out of style with the low water and high population in CA.

Check out California Native Plant Society. https://cnps.org/cnps/chapters/ and https://www.youtube.com/user/sailinsteve1/featured. A lot of good information about what to plant and how. I have already converted 200sqft of front lawn to natives. I have Mimulus aurantiacus, Monardella villosa, Solidago californica, Epilobium canum, Aster chilensis, Salvia spathacea and many different annuals. This fall I will be planting Salvia apiana, Salvia leucophylla and a little less on the annuals. It looks a lot better then lawn and really brings around the wildlife. Still trying to convince my parents to convert the entire front lawn.

UC Verde buffalo grass in a hybrid and not the same as native buffalo grass. It looks more like a regular turf grass. Most low water use turf will be dormant in the winter and will turn brown. Marathon is green all year round, but sucks up a lot more water and is not a good choice for California even though it is popular.

Here's a picture of the UC Verde that I planted in my front yard. This is replacing my beautiful marathon lawn.

Just wanted to show what a lawn can look like with just 2 waterings per month. Yes its not the full dark green like most people like but its still a healthy looking lawn for the most part. During the normal growing season it would normally be watered 4 times a month which would be 1440 gallons of water, right now its half that with 2 waterings a month.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickr2006/20660017516/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickr2006/20693051041/in/dateposted-public/

I missed it :( I am in West LA even though the property is in Hollywood Hills. When is your next one?