Xeriscaping Outgrows its Desert Image

There was a time when the word sounded so alien: xeriscape.

Could be a science-fiction novel? Or a big-hair band from the ‘80s? Or was it that forgettable entry on the Periodic Table of Elements that cost you a B on your chemistry final?

That was more than 20 years ago, though, when Denver Water coined the term for programs aimed at educating the public in the ways of landscape water conservation.
Since then – and especially during the past two drought-ravaged years – the word has grown as familiar as Mile High City and that other X-factor, T-Rex.

So why do so many of us still think xeriscape is all about rocks and cactus – some plot to convert the Front Range into suburban Phoenix?

Experts show us otherwise. Two of them, design consultant Connie Lockhart Ellefson and water conservation specialist David Winger, are doing so with a new book, Xeriscape Colorado: The Complete Guide.

“I wanted to show people how beautiful it can be. It’s a way of saving water that has possibilities instead of privations,” says Lockhart Ellefson, who wrote a similar book aimed at a national audience a decade ago. This one’s loaded with Crayola-worthy color in garden photos, most shot by Winger, whose day job is with Denver Water, though the book is a separate venture.

Typically, more than half of residential water use goes to lawns and landscaping, so there are significant savings opportunities – from both conservation and financial standpoints. Xeriscaping can cut landscape water use by 70 percent or more, according to Colorado State University Cooperative Extension agents.

“A lot of (xeriscape) is nothing new,” says Jim Klett, a CSU professor and Cooperative Extension landscape horticulturist. “So many people here just don’t understand the Colorado environment. East Coast and Pacific Northwest transplants have to understand that gardening is different here.”

That understanding starts with research.

“It’s a lot of fun, and somewhat of a win-win,” Lockhart Ellefson says. “You’ll save yourself lots of water and, eventually, time. And it’s usually much more colorful and interesting than an average landscape.”

Source: Rocky Mountain News