Drought-Stricken Lawn?
Try Some Dye and Potpourri

Some people know how to make the best of times out of the worst of times.

R.W. Reiniger recently wanted to hold an outdoor Tuscan-style pasta party at his summer home in Northville, N.Y., but found that his lawn had been ravaged by the prolonged drought. His solution: He sprinkled $2,000 of fragrant potpourri on the three-quarter-acre lawn, leaving just enough space for walkways to the candlelit bistro tables.

"It was magical," says Mr. Reiniger, who had considered trying to trick his guests by attaching plastic flowers to the bushes but then thought better of the idea. "When your yard looks bad, you have to be creative."

All across the country, weird weather patterns are seriously challenging the ingenuity of people who are determined to entertain outdoors no matter what. Both coasts are experiencing severe droughts, with rainfall this year averaging three or more inches below normal, according to the National Weather Service. The problem is just the opposite in the country's midsection, where many yards are drowning in above-average precipitation. "The grass is brown, the flowers are wilted," sighs Lisa Wagner, a party planner in Rockaway, N.J. "Everybody's garden looks awful."

Dealing With Drought

But clever homeowners are finding ways to improvise so the show can go on. Don't want the guests to know your lawn looks like a nuclear test zone? Spray it with green vegetable dye. Desperate to distract attention from wilting shrubs? Try stringing them with Christmas lights. Some people have even erected tents with fake windows that appear to look out into lush gardens. "You do whatever it takes," says Ms. Wagner.

That's certainly what actor Richard Dreyfuss and his wife, Janelle Lacey, did for their recent wedding on the lawn of their home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. They concealed the yard -- including the pool, which they covered with plywood -- with thousands of brightly colored flowers and 3,000 square feet of astroturf. "I had people in snorkels out there for a week setting things up," says Robert Glucroft, owner of Be A Guest At Your Own Party, the local firm that handled the logistics. The couple actually walked over the water to the chuppah where they were married.

James and Kitty Graves enlisted the neighbors in their scorched-earth strategy. The Westport, Conn., couple was determined to host a high-school graduation party in June for one of their sons, even though heat and drought had made the plantings languish at their historic Victorian home. They asked similarly drought-stricken neighbors for their dead cedar trees and had a contractor fashion them into a rustic, 15-foot-tall arbor. Then they stapled on a temporary roof made from grape-leaf-pattern tablecloths and partied on. "Sometimes you just have to go with the moment," says Mrs. Graves.

Of course, some yards are basically healthy but exhausted, and these can be perked up rather easily if you plan ahead. Nitrogen-heavy liquid fertilizer can be spritzed on a lawn for a quick greening, water-hogging plants such as hydrangeas can be replaced with drought-tolerant ones such as echinacea, and trees can be whitewashed to prevent sunscald and mask trunk damage. "White trees can look pretty in the moonlight," says San Rafael, Calif., landscape designer Pete Pedersen.

Mr. Pedersen also uses a red-tinged mulch he calls "gorilla hair," made from shredded redwood trees. Before holding a party at his house, he spreads the stuff over weeds and spent flowers in his beds, then lays in a few pots of greenhouse-grown annuals to add color. "It freshens everything up," he says.

But some yards are past resurrection. In especially hard-hit coastal regions, the current drought is the second-worst of the century. Wildfires have broken out in parched California, and rivers and streams in seven Eastern states are at 25-year lows. In many areas, residents are now banned from watering, and their yards are shriveling.

But that's nothing a little theatrical illusion can't help fix. Monrovia, Calif., party planner Tina Aluzzi uses a tent with fake windows that are actually photographs of rose gardens. The scenes are silk-screened onto the tent, which rents for about $1,000 a day. To create a tropical rainforest look, Ms. Aluzzi sometimes also trots out a fog machine that rents for $30 a day.

Colin Cowie, who specializes in organizing elaborate extravaganzas for the rich and famous, says his clients are so fussy they don't want even a small patch of dead grass marring the view. He once resodded an entire 100-acre estate for a party at a cost of $60,000. He also recommends spraying with vegetable dye. "It makes the place look like Ireland," says Mr. Cowie, who has offices in New York and Los Angeles. (Mr. Cowie warns that spraying actual green paint may damage the plants.)

Other party planners haul in fake silk flowers and topiaries to enliven withered lawns. The cost is about $200 for a simple border around the garden and obviously a lot more for the whole yard. Cincinnati wedding planner Pat Collins resorts to a technique she calls "tulleing" to disguise sorry-looking saplings. She strings small white Christmas lights over the branches, then swathes it all with tulle, a decorative netting.

Jodi Moraru won't use fake flowers or shrubbery at the Washington, D.C., power parties she organizes. "I can tell the difference," she says. Instead, she brings in fresh flowers and rents big potted plants at a cost that can reach $5,000 for a one-acre yard. Still, to disguise bad patches in a lawn, she doesn't mind a little artifice, such as beach sand for a pool party or picnic blankets for an outdoor luncheon. At most events, "no one looks down," she says.

Homeowners have become particularly adept at such tactics in places where dried-up yards are a regular fact of life. "We always have drought," says Mr. Glucroft, the Los Angeles-area planner who handled the Dreyfuss wedding. He recently astroturfed a tennis court and brought in thousands of flowers for the wedding of actor Dick Van Patten's son Jimmy, a movie writer, to former Playboy playmate Shana Hiatt. Mr. Glucroft also set up the sidewalls of a tent to screen out the imperfect portions of the yard, leaving the top open so guests could dance under the stars.

The demands of a drought can be daunting for those who prefer a casual approach to outdoor entertaining and don't use party planners. Publicist Brooks Rogers says the cutting garden at her weekend Martha's Vineyard retreat has been so devastated by bugs and smothering heat that she has secretly taken to snipping wildflowers from the roadside. To add color, she decorates tea-party tables with big bowls of fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, and she has even broken out the garish Mexican tablecloth she thought she would never use.

But she refuses to disguise her fried lawn, because in her set not watering is considered the height of environmentally correct chic. "It's the ultimate status symbol," she says. "A brown lawn is a badge of honor."

Dealing With Drought

Don't let the fact that your yard looks the Sahara dissuade you from enjoying it. Here are some quick fixes to revive your lawn and garden -- or at least fool visitors into thinking you've kept it all thriving.

Soothing the Soil. To keep plants from drying out too quickly, you can mix water-absorbent granules called TerraCottem into the soil. When wet, the granules turn into a gel that absorbs many times its weight in water. The manufacturer is World-Wide Products Inc. , Dearborn Heights, Mich. A pound costs $7.50.

Portable Waterfall. Plastic ponds and waterfalls abound, but here's one you can move to whatever part of your yard looks most haggard. A combination pool and waterfall, it is actually a set of two dishes that spill water into a five-foot-wide basin with a fountain and underwater light. It costs $200 and is available from Leslie's Pools, Chatsworth, Calif. (888-251-1051)

Torch the Weeds. This is a way to get out your weeds and your frustrations at the same time. Even as grass and ornamentals get scalded, tough weeds always seem to survive the heat. Lee Valley Tools Ltd., Ogdensburg, N.Y., makes a weed torch for $37.50 that fries foliage at the touch of a button. Measures 34 inches and needs a standard propane tank that must be purchased separately. (800-871-8158)

Shade Cloth. Sometimes a respite from the sun can be all a wilting plant needs to perk up again. This woven poly material blocks out 50% of the sun's rays and is a pleasant shade of green. It can be draped directly over plants or held in place by hoops. A piece 6 feet by 13 feet costs $10 from Lee Valley Tools. (800-871-8158)

Rose Umbrellas. Here's a gardening secret that's sure to distract your guests from your drooping beds: Roses actually grow faster than weeds and can be trained to become taller than a person. That's the purpose of this umbrella-shaped rose "tuteur," a wire frame based on an 18th-century French design that stands 6 1/2 feet high and costs $129. From Smith & Hawken Ltd., Mill Valley, Calif. (800-776-3336)

Artistic Sprinklers. Several cuts above hardware-store sprinklers, these sprayers come in a variety of shapes including globes and spirals, at prices ranging from $80 to $250. You can even have a sprinkler custom-made to your own design. Made with a solid-brass bushing and a steel base, the sprinklers stand 47 inches tall and throw out a 30-foot-wide arc of water. Manufactured by Dream Sprayer, Oneida, Wis.

Lawns to Dye For. When the grass in sports stadiums starts to look shabby, groundskeepers sometimes spray on a bright-green vegetable dye popularly known as turf paint. "Things have to look perfect for the Super Bowl," says Tim Davey, assistant director of general operations for the National Football League. Some teams use a dye made by Lesco Inc., Rocky River, Ohio. It costs $180 for two-and-a-half gallons, enough to green a football field for a season or a typical drought-stricken suburban lawn for about two years. The product is available through the company's stores. For more information, call 800-321-5325.

Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.