Historically, urban developers, politicians, and public water utilities have invented Los Angeles as a semitropical oasis in a dry climate. During the California drought of 2011 through 2016, however, the city’s residential gardens became a new frontier of water conservation policy. Water agencies started to subsidize the replacement of lushly irrigated lawns with California Friendly® landscapes, thereby endorsing a technology-centered “infrastructuring” of gardens to increase water conservation. This approach contrasts with California native plant gardening promoted by nature conservationists, which uses vernacular horticultural techniques to restore native plant biodiversity and reduce irrigation. The article shows that each approach has important political implications for urban space and water use, the value accorded to nature and gardening work, and relations between citizens and experts. Analyzing the differences between these approaches, we critically interrogate Los Angeles’s modern infrastructure regime that shapes water conservation policy. Particular attention is paid to how new material objects, knowledges, and practices in gardening recompose relationships between water, plants, technology, humans, and urban space. We argue that the notion of infrastructuring gardens offers a fruitful lens for ascertaining how expert cultures shape urban environmental change and how alternative gardening practices (re)produce urban nature differently.

从历史上看，城市开发商、政客和公共供水公司将洛杉矶打造为干燥气候下的亚热带绿洲。然而，在 2011 年至 2016 年的加利福尼亚干旱期间，该市的住宅花园成为节水政策的新前沿。水务机构开始补贴用 California Friendly® 景观替换郁郁葱葱的灌溉草坪，从而支持以技术为中心的花园“基础设施建设”，以加强节水。这种方法与自然保护主义者提倡的加利福尼亚本土植物园艺形成鲜明对比，后者使用本土园艺技术来恢复本土植物的生物多样性并减少灌溉。文章表明，每种方法对城市空间和用水都有重要的政治影响，赋予自然和园艺工作的价值，以及公民和专家之间的关系。通过分析这些方法之间的差异，我们批判性地审视了影响水资源保护政策的洛杉矶现代基础设施制度。特别关注新的物质对象、知识和园艺实践如何重构水、植物、技术、人类和城市空间之间的关系。我们认为，基础设施花园的概念为确定专家文化如何塑造城市环境变化以及替代园艺实践如何以不同方式（重新）生产城市自然提供了一个富有成效的镜头。我们批判性地审视洛杉矶的现代基础设施制度，该制度制定了节水政策。特别关注新的物质对象、知识和园艺实践如何重构水、植物、技术、人类和城市空间之间的关系。我们认为，基础设施花园的概念为确定专家文化如何塑造城市环境变化以及替代园艺实践如何以不同方式（重新）生产城市自然提供了一个富有成效的镜头。我们批判性地审视洛杉矶的现代基础设施制度，该制度制定了节水政策。特别关注新的物质对象、知识和园艺实践如何重构水、植物、技术、人类和城市空间之间的关系。我们认为，基础设施花园的概念为确定专家文化如何塑造城市环境变化以及替代园艺实践如何以不同方式（重新）生产城市自然提供了一个富有成效的镜头。