Image

Every year, more people are remodeling their lawns and landscapes to include a diverse array of water-wise plants and cooling shade trees. These ColoradoScapes provide interest in summer and winter, fit naturally into our state’s semi-arid climate and provide food and refuge for our urban pollinators and wildlife.

This fall, think about how you used your lawn and landscape last summer — and what changes you can make next spring and summer to create your ColoradoScape.

To get started, identify a sprinkler zone or section of your lawn that you only stepped on to mow or water. Think about making meaningful upgrades to that area.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Sign up for the Garden In A Box spring and fall plant sales, which provide professionally designed, water-wise garden kits tailor-made for Colorado yards. Denver Water offers a limited number of discounts to its customers.
• Visit PlantSelect, developed by Colorado State University, Denver Botanic Gardens and professional horticulturists, to find water-wise landscape designs and lists of beautiful, low-water plants, shrubs and trees that thrive in the high plains and Rocky Mountain region.
• Consider planting a tree to provide shade to your yard, adding native flowers or shrubs that use less water than grass, or a vegetable garden to grow food for the table.
• Think about expanding your patio space with pea gravel and stones that allow water to flow through and reach the soil below.
• Don’t simply rip out the grass and replace it with rock. Living plants are important. They provide shade, help hold the soil in place and cool the environment.