Looks Great!
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An interesting and fun article. I love green and soft lawns. Love the cool of the grass under my feet. In my next build however, I think we’re gonna go Xeriscape front and lawn back – (if I can convince Justaute to quit his job and become my landscaper.) 
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in Salt Lake County there are a considerable amount of homes that are xeriscaped, especially in Sugar House and surrounding areas. Its an expensive upfront option to convert to, but its something most of us will have to eventually to do. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that this trend has caught on in the rest of Utah. In Davis county where I live, I suspect only 1 in 50 homes has a significant amount of xeriscaping.
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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::
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I downloaded this 60 page PDF. Terrific resource.
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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.
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Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes!
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you should put down a GOOD weed barrier, and be prepared to replace eventually- even the best of them don’t last forever
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weeds will still come up, and you have to actually pull them
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a good drip system will further limit the use of water and reduce (but not eliminate) the weeds
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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.
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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.
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This is definitely true, which is why I still think I want to cover as much of my land as possible with either grass or deck, sport court, patio, etc. Grass, stone and concrete - the secret to low maintenance landscaping.
That said, I’ve considered xeriscaping my front lawn. I only sit on that lawn twice a year for fireworks. The rest of the time, I’ll be in the back yard.
All of this makes sense.
It’s still a yard and it’s outside in nature. So it still needs regular care, unless you pave it over like Sancho does.
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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.
There are ground covers it looking awful lot like grass, but consume much less water. You might want to research those. I don’t know much about them
Some people think xeriscape means “no rnaintainence.” That’s not the point, though.
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…
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Well at least the golf courses are staying green!
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Any chance you have the source on that?
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