We are building a new house in Central Utah where water is scarce (hardiness zone 6a), so we have the advantage of not having to convert our existing landscaping. We’re going to do everything: hardy, drought-resistant (but still beautiful, IMO) vegetation, drip system. the whole 9 yards. We will have a smallish piece of grass, drip-watered by well water.
Good ideas and information here:
We plan to have stuff growing like this feather reed grass. Takes a little hand-watering in the early going, but then very drought-resistant::
That’s my one hesitation. I mean no offense to those that have xeriscape but most look horrible, like overgrown weed gardens. I think we can overcome that with upfront work and staying on top of maintenance. That’s my hope anyway.
You have to put down weed barrier. It’s expensive but worth it. Weeds will still grow thru the gravel or rocks in time, however. I am out there at least once a week pulling weeds. I had a neighbor stop and ask how I kept the weeds down. I told her “I pull them”. She kind of shook her head like “that’s too much work”. The other thing that helps is drip system irrigation. Just watering the plants that you want to grow. I’ve seen people put in xeriscape and then try to water with spray heads, which goes everywhere (and wastes water). Of course weeds are gonna grow in that situation.
you should put down a GOOD weed barrier, and be prepared to replace eventually- even the best of them don’t last forever
weeds will still come up, and you have to actually pull them
a good drip system will further limit the use of water and reduce (but not eliminate) the weeds
most importantly - you do need to regularly perform some required maintenance - if you don’t, the whole investment and it’s appearance will deteriorate.
I’m constantly surprised at the number of people who think xeriscaping is permanent or that it requires no maintenance.
Our place is on 5 acres of high desert, juniper trees, a few ponderosa pine. Lots of sage, bitterbrush and rabbit brush. I’ve planted some 30 pinyon pine. I follow the 5 gallon rule. Okay, a retired guy activity. I orbit the place in the AM, fill the bucket with weeds. Then I quit. Repeat the next day. After 7 years, it’s now quite hard to fill a 5-gal bucket. Keeping after it year after year has dramatically lowered the weeds on our place. So be patient.
My father was a little guilty of this, and his whole neighborhood in Sandy was very guilty of it. I hated it, and the thing I noticed most was how much hotter the area was - all that concrete really holds the heat.
I don’t blame you for removing it all - I’d rather have weeds as well.
I have a very small yard with only a small patch of lawn in the front yard. We use a fair number of low water plants, with a good drip system, and a lot of natural bark, which I refresh every couple of years. We have a large wrought iron cover over our patio supporting grape plants, which actually do not require a huge amount of water (we’re not actually growing the plants for fruit, but for the shade and cooling qualities - the small grape harvest is a bonus).
I weed every garden for a few minutes once each week, and spend a few minutes trimming trees, grapes, etc.
I know it is a personal preference thing, but I don’t much care for gravel or stone as it tends to hold the heat, and with our summers usually too hot for my liking, I much prefer low water consumption plants.
I accidentally left my programming to water like 15 minutes every five days most of June, and got plenty of dead spots that are reluctant to come back. Normally during a heat wave I’d end up doing 45 minutes every other day. You’re welcome.
I can attest to the fertilizer solution. We have brown spots all along the asphalt line same as many other houses in the neighborhood and fertilizing brought much of it back. I think we have rampant insect damage though…
I would like to go xeriscape at our new place, but man, I just don’t like the looks of 99 percent of those I’ve seen. Just ugly and disheveled to my eyes – even the ones that most find nice. I might go partial.
