Water-wise landscaping tour highlights xeriscape design

DALLAS – Dallas landscape and irrigation designer Jason Lackey has not installed a sprinkler system with pop-up heads that spray water in the almost four years he has operated his business.

His clients might go into the planning stage expecting to come out on the other side with sprinklers, but, to date, Lackey has succeeded in dissuading them."The population of the Dallas-Fort Worth area is growing exponentially," Lackey says, and water use is shooting up right along with it. "We are starting down this path of water conservation now, and it's better to be ahead of the curve than behind the curve."

Lackey recommends a combination of automatic drip systems to his clients. They use less water, water more efficiently by delivering water directly to roots, lower utility costs and can be customized plant by plant.

"I'm a water-wise nut," says Lackey, who established Picture Perfect Landscape & Irrigation after a stint in the Army. He even spent last summer as an intern with the water conservation office for Dallas County's Texas AgriLife Extension. During his tenure, he taught consumers how to lower water usage, including using rain barrels.

It's only fitting that one of his landscape clients is included on Saturday's Water-Wise Landscape Tour, one of five winners in the 2010 competition sponsored by Dallas Water Utilities.

Read the entire article at The Dallas Morning News.