Xeriscaping in Colorado Springs

Xeriscaping is not rock and nothing else

The word gets used as a synonym for gravel, and that is how people end up with a hot, blank yard they stop enjoying. A xeriscape is a planted landscape — it just uses species that want 16 inches of water a year instead of species that need to be watered into surviving here. Done properly it is the most colourful thing on the street in June, and it does that on a fraction of the water.

How we cut the water and the upkeep

The savings come from a handful of decisions made at the design stage, not from a product:

• Reducing turf you do not actually use — grass is by far the most demanding thing in a Colorado yard, on mowing, water, fertiliser, aeration and overseeding alike.
• Grouping plants by water need so irrigation zones make sense.
• Drip irrigation on a weather-based controller: water goes to the roots instead of into the wind, and the controller adjusts itself.
• Natives and adapted species chosen for our sun, wind and alkaline soil.
• Rock in the sunny, low-traffic, low-water zones, and mulch where the plantings actually want it.

Two honest cautions, and a rebate worth checking

Rock radiates heat, so a rock bed on a south or west wall will stress anything not adapted to it. And landscape fabric under rock buys you a few good years before it degrades and roots grow through it — it is not the permanent weed solution it is sold as. On the other side, Colorado Springs Utilities has run turf-replacement rebate programmes, and those can offset a real share of the cost, so it is worth checking what is currently available before you start.