Landscaping across Colorado Springs
S&C Landscaping designs, installs and xeriscapes yards across Colorado Springs. Two things decide how a yard here performs: expansive clay soil and a watering schedule capped at three days a week. Both are design problems, and both are solvable. Free on-site quotes.
What Colorado Springs yards have to deal with
Clay soil decides more than the plant list
Much of Colorado Springs sits on heavy, alkaline clay — pH commonly 7.5 to 8.5 — and parts of the city have bentonite clay that swells when it takes on water and shrinks back as it dries. That movement is what lifts patio pavers, cracks slabs and pushes retaining walls out of true. It is also why a landscape here is won or lost below the surface: excavation depth, a properly compacted base and somewhere for water to go matter more than which paver you pick. In planting beds the same soil locks up iron, which is why maples and some shrubs yellow between the veins. Beds get amended before anything goes in the ground.
Water Wise rules shape what stays green
Colorado Springs Utilities limits outdoor watering to no more than three days a week, and not at all between 10am and 6pm from May 1 through October 15. Drip irrigation, a handheld hose with a shut-off nozzle and watering cans are exempt and can run any time. The practical effect is that a wide cool-season lawn is the first thing to look tired in July, while drip-fed beds and xeriscaped areas hold up. Most yards we design keep turf where it gets used — a play area, a dog run — and switch the rest to planting, rock and hardscape.
Sun, altitude and a late spring
At roughly 6,035 feet the UV is harsh, daytime and overnight temperatures swing hard, and frost can still arrive in May. Plants that shrug this off tend to be locally grown and genuinely hardy rather than whatever is flowering at the big-box store in April. Mulch is not decoration here — it is what keeps soil moisture from leaving in the afternoon wind.
What we do in Colorado Springs
Every project starts with a free on-site visit, so the quote reflects your actual property rather than a guess over the phone. You work directly with owners Chris and Simeon, who bring 15 years of combined experience across the Front Range.
Colorado Springs landscaping questions
When is the best time to landscape in Colorado Springs?
Planting runs best in spring and early fall, when roots establish without peak summer heat. Hardscape — patios, walkways, retaining walls — can be built later into the year, since it does not depend on the growing season. The schedule fills up from spring onward, so a plan drawn in winter usually means an earlier install date.
Will clay soil crack my new patio?
It can, if the base is wrong. Expansive clay moves as it wets and dries, so the fix is depth and drainage — excavating to the right depth, compacting a proper road-base layer and getting water away from the surface rather than under it. Materials that flex as a system, like pavers and flagstone, also handle that movement better than one large poured slab.
Do watering restrictions mean I cannot have a lawn?
No. The three-day-a-week rule allows a lawn; it just punishes an oversized one. Keeping turf to the area you actually use and putting the rest into drip-irrigated beds, native plantings or rock usually lowers the water bill and looks better through August than a full yard of struggling bluegrass.
Local rules change — check the current terms: Colorado Springs Utilities Water Wise Rules.