One of the best ways to do this is to convert your high water-use landscaping into a Xeriscape (pronounced “zeer-escape”).  This can be done anywhere-  from a small home landscape, to a large commercial property.

Many people have an image of Xeriscape as a “sea of rocks, with a few cactus plants”.  But Xeriscape can also be a lush, green and colorful landscape that is interwoven with flowering plants, textures, and beauty throughout each season.  In my opinion it is much more beautiful and interesting than “traditional” landscaping.

The Top 10 Benefits Are:

10.  Less Maintenance
9.  Use Less Water & Better for the Environment
8.  Prevent Water Damage
7.  More Beautiful, Colorful & Unique
6.  Better Wildlife Habitat
5.  Less Fertilizers & Pesticides Needed
4.  Better Suited to Your Site’s Unique Conditions
3.  More Winter Beauty
2.  Better Prepared for Drought
1.  Saves You Money

Now I will discuss each benefit in greater detail and explain what each one can mean for you:

Less Maintenance
Xeriscape takes less maintenance than traditional landscaping- and here is why:  A traditional landscape usually has quite a bit of lawn (turf, sod, etc.).  In order to keep a lawn healthy it requires weekly mowing, trimming around edges, edging the lawn along sidewalks, fertilizing, aerating, treating any number of fungi or diseases, adjustment of sprinkler heads, etc., etc.

Think about all of the time and effort that goes into all of that maintenance and mowing every week.  A well designed Xeriscape on the other hand limits the amount of lawn to maintain.  The plants themselves need little care.  If you give the plants room to grow- they need little to ZERO amount of pruning.  The idea of Xeriscape is to let the plants grow just as they do in nature.  The biggest maintenance items for a Xeriscape are an annual ”spring cleanup” and occasional weeding.

Use Less Water & Better for the Environment
Obviously, a landscape that is more water efficient uses less water!  Why is this important?   Because fresh water is a very scarce resource throughout the world.  Population growth and droughts put a tremendous strain on our water supply, especially in the west and southwest United States. 

And watering landscaping uses a huge amount of water.  For example, here in Colorado the average household uses 50% of their water for landscaping!  And that is after years of conservation efforts.  A well designed Xeriscape with drip irrigation can use up to 60% less water than a traditional landscape.

Prevent Water Damage
This is probably the most unkown benefit on the list.  Water is the primary cause for damage of building foundations, paving, retaining walls, curbs, fencing, and just about anything else man-made.  So by limiting the amount of water you are applying to your landscape and around buildings, you greatly reduce the likelihood of damage and additional maintenance costs to these items.

More Beautiful, Colorful & Unique
The next time you are in a suburban area of the United States that was built in the 1980’s or early 1990’s- look around at the landscaping.  I am willing to bet that you would see the same basic design of the landscaping in just about any city in the US- despite the fact that the local climates in these places are completely different!  How boring is that?!

Low water-use landscapes utilize plants that are either native to the local area, or well adapted to the region.  The choices you have in plants and the design possibilities are almost limitless.  You can utilize beautiful plants that do well in your area and exhibit a variety of interesting colors, forms, and textures.

Better Wildlife Habitat
Low water-use landscapes and Xeriscapes utilize native plants that the local wildlife enjoy and are familiar with.  Flowers attract hummingbirds, songbirds, and insects including bees that are important to nature as pollinators.  Diverse plantings also offer cover and even food to a variety of birds and animals.

Less Fertilizers & Pesticides Needed
Landscapes that are better adapted to the local environmental and weather conditions are less likely to be under stress, and therefor less susceptible to pests and diseases.  Lawns often require large amounts of supplemental fertilizer to stay healthy- native plants thrive under natural soil nutrient and weather conditions.  Additionally, applying large amounts of water to a landscape can promote fungi, mold, and bacteria issues.

Better Suited to Your Site’s Unique Conditions
You know that big, dry, shady patch under the Oak tree where you can never get the grass to grow?  With low water-use landscaping you have many options for lovely plantings that enjoy dry shade.  The same goes for that southwest facing spot that gets baked by the sun all day- there are plants that thrive in those conditions!  Have clay or rocky soil?  You can select plants that prefer those soil types.  It makes more sense than planting lawn everywhere and artificially dousing it with water to keep it barely alive.

More Winter Beauty
Xeriscapes and low water-use landscapes can be stunning in the winter.  You can use a combination of evergreen shrubs, ornamental grasses that catch the winter light and move in the breeze, plants with fall and winter foliage color, and shrubs with colorful and interesting bark to create contrast and texture in a snowy winter landscape.

Better Prepared for Drought
Drought sounds like something that only third world countries should worry about.  But the fact is severe droughts and water shortages occur every year in all parts of the world.  Australia is currently in a prolonged drought that is having serious consequences on their water supply.  And in the early 2000’s Colorado experienced a major drought that caused rationing and restrictions on the amount of water one could use on their landscaping- causing lawns to turn brown all over Denver.  Low water-use plants are better suited to not only survive, but remain attractive during times of drought.

Saves You Money
Water is a precious resource that costs more money every year.  And water rates are projected to continue to rise.  Significant savings can be achieved through a well designed conversion to low water-use landscaping:  in most cases a savings of up to 60%!  Several of the other benefits listed here also save money:  requiring less maintenance, preventing water damage, and surviving drought to name a few.  Raise your hand if you like to save money!

Related Posts:

• How Much of my Water Goes Toward Irrigating my Landscaping?
• The 20 Best Xeriscape Plants for Colorado
• Up to $25,000 Rebates Available through 2010 Aurora Xeriscape Program
• Xeriscape Rebate Programs Provide a Great Opportunity for HOA’s and other Property Owners
• Save Money and Water by Converting Sod to Xeriscape

Delosperma (Red Mountain and Mesa Verde Iceplant) and Actostaphylos x coloradoensis (Panchito Manzanita)

Dry Xeriscape Garden

Erigonum umbellatum (Kannah Creek Buckwheat)

Delosperma (Red Mountain and Mesa Verde Iceplant)

Related Posts:

• The 20 Best Xeriscape Plants for Colorado
• The Top 10 Benefits of Making Landscaping More Water Efficient
• How Much of my Water Goes Toward Irrigating my Landscaping?
• Arvada Residential Landscape Makeover
• Up to $25,000 Rebates Available through 2010 Aurora Xeriscape Program

The breakdown of residential water use:

• 1%  Dishwashers
• 5%  Leaks
• 6%  Faucets
• 10%  Showers and Baths
• 11%  Laundry
• 13%  Toilets
• 54%  Landscaping

Source:  Denver Water

Why is this such a high number for landscaping? 
The simple answer is that over the last 150 years as people have settled in Colorado and built homes and commercial properties, they have installed high water-use landscapes to look like the landscapes of the east coast and Midwest.

Being from the Midwest myself, I understand the fondness for those landscapes.  The problem is that the Front Range area of Colorado only receives about 17 inches of rain per year.  In New York or Michigan these landscapes often thrive without any irrigation-  but in Denver these landscapes have to be heavily irrigated to “fake” that same look.

I like my fake landscape- what is the big deal?
Aside from the fact that you are paying for the water, and your tax dollars go toward maintaining the system, Colorado is running out of water.  Experts expect that we’ll have a 630,000 acre-feet shortage in 20 years.  1 acre-foot is 325,851 gallons!

Xeriscape can reduce landscape water-use by up to 60%
Since the largest percentage of residential water use goes toward landscaping, the best way to reduce water use is to use less for landscaping.   And the most effective way to use less water for landscaping is to convert high water-use landscapes to Xeriscape.  This can easily be done for homes and large commercial properties.  There are several articles on this blog and our website that describe the process.   Studies have shown that a good Xeriscape will increase your property value by as much as 15%.

Xeriscape was a term coined by Denver Water in the early 1980’s.   It is not a specific look or group of plants, but rather a combination of seven common-sense gardening principles that save water while creating a lush and colorful landscape.

Related Posts:

• The Top 10 Benefits of Making Landscaping More Water Efficient
• Up to $25,000 Rebates Available through 2010 Aurora Xeriscape Program
• Xeriscape Rebate Programs Provide a Great Opportunity for HOA’s and other Property Owners
• Save Money and Water by Converting Sod to Xeriscape
• Scenes from a Colorado Garden – June 2010

That being said, I do think a small list can be helpful to people who are new to the area, or are not familiar with the available plant choices and may be overwhelmed by a catalog of thousands of plants.   Although this is a Colorado list, most of these plants can be used in many places throughout the world depending on the local climate.

• Fernbush – Chamaebatiaria millefolium    Fernbush is a medium sized shrub with interesting fern-like leaves that persist throughout the winter.  This shrub requires little water or maintenance, and produces clusters of small white flowers in the late spring through early summer.
• Agastache - Agastache ssp.    Agastache, or hummingbird mint, is a fragrant group of colorful perennial herbs that is available in many colors mostly ranging from orange to pink.  The plants are covered with beautiful tubular flowers from mid-summer to fall.  Hummingbirds absolutely love these plants.
• Panchito Manzanita - Arctostaphylos x coloradoensis ‘Panchito’    Panchito Manzanita is a low growing woody shrub with shiny, oval, dark green leaves that persist throughout the winter.  It gets small, pale pink flowers followed by small red berries- but it’s best characteristics are the evergreen foliage and the fact that it requires little care or water.  For more info read my previous post dedicated to this plant.
• Yarrow - Achillea ssp.    Yarrow is a group of Rocky Mountain native perennials that are available in many colors, ranging from yellow, to white, to red.  The plants are very drought tolerant, requiring almost no watering once established.  Fern-like, finely dissected leaves form clumps at the base of the plant, often naturalizing and spreading.  Flowers are produced on stiff, tall stalks throughout the summer.
• Spanish Gold Broom - Cytisus purgans ‘Spanish Gold’    Spanish Gold Broom is a medium sized deciduous shrub that is native to the Mediterranean.  In late spring it is covered with small yellow pea-like blossoms.  This shrub grows in a mounding, cascading form of bright green stems that remain green throughout the winter.  The small leaves drop by mid-summer.
• Catmint - Nepeta ssp.    Catmint is a widely used mint that produces an abundance of blue flowers.  The reasons that I like this plant are first, that it is one of the earlier Xeriscape perennials to emerge in the spring to form an attractive clump of blue-green foliage, and second, that it flowers all summer long and requires zero maintenance.
• Iceplant - Delosperma ssp.    The Iceplant that we use in Colorado is a perennial that is native to the higher elevations of South Africa.  Note that this is not the invasive Iceplant that is a problem in Southern California.  Delospermas form a ground-hugging mat of succulent leaves that range from grey to green.  The plants are coated with shiny, delicate flowers in colors from red, to purple, to pink, often with different colored centers.  One of my favorite plants.
• Blue Avena Grass - Helictotrichon sempervirens    Blue Avena Grass is a striking addition to any landscape.  Large clumps of blue-gray leaves give this grass a unique texture and contrast among other plants.  In mid-summer a large group of tan seedheads gracefully arch from the plant and stand out from the blue foliage.  Like most grasses, Blue Avena requires little maintenance or supplemental watering.
• Penstemon - Penstemon ssp.    Penstemon is another group of Rocky Mountain native perennials that requires little watering once established, preferring well drained soils. Penstemons are available in just about every color.  These plants are small in size which makes them ideal for filling in between other Xeriscape plants.  They provide an abundance of colorful blooms that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
• Mojave Sage - Salvia pachyphylla    Mojave Sage is a large shrubby perennial that produces an abundance of striking purplish-blue flowers throughout the summer.  The silver-green foliage really stands out too, growing up to 3 feet tall, and persisting as a semi-evergreen throughout the winter.
• Prairie Winecups - Callirhoe involucrata    Prairie Winecups is a Colorado native perennial that grows in a low mound of trailing stems covered in round dark-green leaves.  The plant produces a large number of cup shaped wine-red colored flowers from late spring through summer.  Because this is a native plant it is well adapted to our local climate and requires little maintenance.
• Mexican Feather Grass - Nassella tenuissima    Mexican Feather Grass has a fine, hair-like form that gives this grass a texture like none other.  Early in the summer the fine tufts of grass are bright green, then they fade to a striking golden yellow in the mid summer through the fall and winter.  The way that this grass moves in the breeze brings a graceful movement to the landscape.
• Torch Lilly - Kniphofia ssp.    Torch Lillies are interesting because of their unique foliage and flowers.  The foliage is grass-like, and grows in thick clumps ranging in color from blue-green to dark green.  The flowers are produced in a tight bunch on tall spikes, and the flowers open from the bottom of the spike upwards.
• Crimson Pygmy Barberry - Berberis thunbergii ‘Crimson Pygmy’    Crimson Pygmy Barberry is a compact deciduous shrub with small red leaves and stems.  The red color makes an excellent contrast with the tan and blue hues of the late summer Xeriscape.  This shrub is easy to care for, and maintains a very compact and dense form.
• Agave - Agave ssp.    Agave is native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico, and it thrives in hot, dry locations.  Most of the Agave’s have beautiful thick blue foliagewith spines on the tips of the leaves.  A very low maintenance plant for dry southern and western exposures.
• Prairie Coneflower - Ratibida ssp.    Prairie Coneflower is a tall, vigorously growing perennial that requires little maintenance and produces flowers throughout the summer.  The foliage is bright green, and available flower colors include yellow with dark brown centers, and burgundy red with dark brown centers.  The seeds are easy to harvest and sow the following spring.
• Creeping Western Sand Cherry - Prunus besseyi ‘Pawnee Buttes’    Creeping Western Sand Cherry is the low growing form of Western Sand Cherry that is native to the Rocky Mountains.  The plant has bright green leaves, and produces fragrant white flowers in the spring, followed by small black fruit that attract birds and wildlife.  In the fall, the leaves turn to beautiful shades of burgundy and red.
• Coral Bells – Heuchera ssp.    Coral Bells are a widely used favorite because they are easy to grow and care for. The large leaves are available in a variety of hues from light green, to burgundy, to silvery green. Coral Bells does very well in shade to partial sun.  Available flower colors range from white to red, and are produced on slender stalks in late spring to early summer.
• Yucca - Yucca ssp.    Yuccas are native to the Southwestern United States and Mexico.  There are many different varieties to choose from with various forms of stiff sword-like leaves ranging from dark green to blue-green.  Yuccas are a true evergreen that brings form and structure to the landscape year-round.  Most Yuccas produce large showy spikes of white bell shaped flowers in mid summer.
• Apache Plume - Fallugia paradoxa    Apache Plume is large native deciduous shrub with whitish stems and branches covered with small light green leaves.  Some of the leaves persist throughout the winter.  The shrub produces single white flowers in mid summer, followed by the very unique and attractive rose and pink colored plumes that give this plant it’s name.  A very unique and versatile shrub that grows vigorously in it’s native habitat of Colorado. 

The Criteria for this List:
- This list is for the Front Range of Colorado.  We are somewhere in the middle of zone 4 to 5 on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.  I will plan to follow up with a separate post for the mountain areas located above about 7,000 feet in elevation.

- I have only included plants that are very easy to care for, and have excluded plants that require a lot of water since that is a key component of Xeriscape.  The “best” plants, in my opinion, are those that are well adapted to the local climate and do not require much additional water and maintenance.  Of course there are occasions where the use of higher water-use plants is desirable, such as in drainage areas, however I have left them off of this particular list.  And if this were a list of my personal “favorite” plants then I would probably include some that require a little extra care.

- I am not a botanist- I am a landscape architect.  This means that I am far from an expert on the science and anatomy of plants.  Instead, I am influenced by characteristics such as:  how the plant works in an overall design, its adaptability to a variety of sites, the colors and form of the foliage, the availability and cost of the plants, etc.

- This list includes a good mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs, perennials, and ornamental grasses that will provide a variety of color, texture, and interest throughout each of the seasons.  I have excluded trees, bulbs, and annuals for the purpose of this list.  There are so many of each to chose from that I will provide future lists for each category.

Related Posts:

• The Top 10 Benefits of Making Landscaping More Water Efficient
• Scenes from a Colorado Garden – June 2010
• How Much of my Water Goes Toward Irrigating my Landscaping?
• Up to $25,000 Rebates Available through 2010 Aurora Xeriscape Program
• Simple Landscape Maintenance Tips for Winter

photo of a converted xeriscape that was previously a lawn area

The City of Aurora, Colorado and Aurora Water have been pioneers in water conservation through supporting regionally appropriate landscape design.  Outdoor Design Group has been actively involved with the program for the last couple of years.  For 2010, the Xeriscape Rebate program has been allocated $250,000 dollars for rebates to convert high water use landscapes (sod, turf, or lawn) to Xeriscape. 

In past posts on this blog, I have documented the money and water savings and given examples of the beauty of these landscapes.  Each site is different, but in general you can expect a reduction in irrigation water use of 30-70%, and a 20-40% reduction of landscape maintenance costs.  This is a great opportunity for HOA’s, commercial properties, and homeowners to achieve long-term savings, in addition to acquiring the rebates.

Here are some key aspects of the 2010 program, from Aurora Water’s website:

• Xeriscape is a great landscape option for our climate because of its reduced watering needs and ability to tolerate periods of drought.
• In addition to decreased water consumption and resilience to drought, Xeriscape has the potential to significantly decrease time and resources expended on maintenance.
• Aurora Water customers interested in Xeriscape as a landscape alternative may be eligible for a rebate of up to $1 per square foot for turf grass that is replaced with low water use plant material.
• $250,000 has been allocated for the 2010 season. The maximum square footage (rebate) is $10,000 for residential and $25,000 for commercial and large properties such as Homeowner’s Associations and multi-family dwellings.

For commercial and large properties such as home owners associations- the program requires that you haver a plan prepared by a licensed landscape architect.  This is a good idea anyway, as a landscape architect can help you prepare a budget and phasing for the project before you commit to a contractor to do the installation.  Landscape architects are also good at communicating what the new landscape will look like- through the use of plans, photos, drawings, and presentations.

Aurora is an ideal community for a rebate program like this, because there are many older landscapes were built in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, and are ready for a renovation simply to update the look of outdated properties.  Although most new landscape codes mandate low water use landscaping, that was not the case in the past-  many older landscapes were designed in a way that requires large amounts of water and maintenance.

But Aurora is far from alone in offering this type of program.  Water supplies are stretched extremely thin throughout most of the Western United States.  A simple Google search for “Xeriscape rebate” brings up 26,400 results.  Similar programs exist throughout Colorado, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and elsewhere.

Related Posts:

• Xeriscape Rebate Programs Provide a Great Opportunity for HOA’s and other Property Owners
• Save Money and Water by Converting Sod to Xeriscape
• The Top 10 Benefits of Making Landscaping More Water Efficient
• How Much of my Water Goes Toward Irrigating my Landscaping?
• Collecting Rainwater Still Illegal in Much of Colorado

This $400,000 project entailed correcting some serious drainage problems and replacing outdated high water-use landscaping with new low water-use landscaping as part of Aurora’s Xeriscape Rebate Program.  Outdoor Design Group worked with the HOA to design the improvements, submit plans to the City for approval, and apply for the Xeriscape rebate.  We then worked with the general contractor in the field on the re-grading of large areas, piping of downspouts, and the creation of drainage swales.  Finally, we provided bid procurement services for installation of the approved landscape and irrigation design, and worked closely in the field with the selected landscape contractor to complete the project.

Through careful planning, design, and coordination, we were able to obtain the maximum possible Xeriscape rebate for the HOA while reducing the water-use and associated costs by over 60%.  The maintenance costs for the landscaping are expected to be reduced by 20-40% with the new low-maintenance approach.

Related Posts:

• Up to $25,000 Rebates Available through 2010 Aurora Xeriscape Program
• Save Money and Water by Converting Sod to Xeriscape
• The Top 10 Benefits of Making Landscaping More Water Efficient
• How Much of my Water Goes Toward Irrigating my Landscaping?
• Going from “builder bushes” to an Attractive and Unique Landscape

The plain old high-maintenance traditional landscape is on the left, and the same property is shown on the right after one of our renovations using a Xeriscape approach.  The finished product has numerous beautiful flowering shrubs and perennials, ornamental grasses, and trees that will continue to grow over the next couple of seasons into an attractive and lush landscape.

What are the other advantages, you ask, and how does this save money?

* As an example, we have estimated the first phase of the project above will save over 380,000 gallons of water per year, at a savings of   over $6,000 per year.  Thats a lot of water.
* For the entire property, we estimate a potential savings of  4,500,000 gallons of water a year, at a savings of over $31,000 per year!  ~Now, that is a LOT of water!
* We have found that Xeriscape vs. sod has a 20-40% reduction in maintenance costs (aside from the water savings).  It turns out that all of that weekly mowing, trimming, aerating, thatching, fertilizing, etc. and all the gas required for the equipment to maintain large areas of sod can really add up.  The Xeriscape, by comparison requires little maintenance (more on that in a future blog post).
* Ask any engineer and they will tell you putting water around the foundations of buildings, onto parking lots, retaining walls (almost anything) will lead to structural failures in freeze/thaw climates.  Eliminating the need for all that watering is a good idea.
* Drought-  Colorado had a big one from 2000-2003.  California is experiencing one now.  There will be more, and when they hit do you really want to pay twice as much for extra irrigation water, or watch sod go brown due to watering restrictions?  Xeriscape can handle drought much better, and is more adapted overall to our arid climate.
* Many water districts, cities, and municipalities are offering sizable rebates to convert to lower water-use landscapes.

Don’t get me wrong-  some areas of bluegrass sod are fine.  Everyone loves to step barefoot onto some freshly mowed grass!  And you can’t beat the green color-  That’s why in our designs we locate appropriate areas for sod where they will have the most impact, where people can enjoy them, and where they can be easily maintained.  But sod on a south-facing slope in full sun that bakes to a crisp is no good-  and have you ever stepped barefoot onto a sodded parking lot island?  Me neither.

With the right planning and design guidance, these same principles can be applied to properties of any size- from small residences to large office parks.  For some great examples of how this can be applied to different types of properties, see our case studies for commercial, multi-family HOA, single-family HOA, metro districts, and office properties.

Related Posts:

• Up to $25,000 Rebates Available through 2010 Aurora Xeriscape Program
• Xeriscape Rebate Programs Provide a Great Opportunity for HOA’s and other Property Owners
• The Top 10 Benefits of Making Landscaping More Water Efficient
• How Much of my Water Goes Toward Irrigating my Landscaping?
• What Not to Do – Turfgrass in Parking Lot Islands