Comment thread for "Xeriscaping in Denver" photo tour (Boulder: houses, landscaping)

[vegaspilgrim]

Please leave your comments for my "Xeriscaping in Denver" photo tour here to save bandwith on the pictures.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Hmm, there appears to be a fine line between natural greenery and the overgrown weed look.

[livecontent]

These pictures are very informative.

The most invasive weed is Blue Grass. This leads to excessive watering, fertilizing, pesticides and herbicides. It really make me laugh when these green lawn fanatics advocate organic and natural food and then they go to their houses surrounded by the dangerous chemically polluted, unatural lawns which they need to showcase their vanities. In addition, they love to autospray their house with scent and deodorizers. Then, they wonder why, they and their children come down with cancers, asthmas, and mental deficiencies. Their first reaction is too blame Dow-Chemical but they are the cause of their own surburban eco-destruction.

I do not care if you kill yourself but you are killing the environment, destroying waterways and making an ecological mess. There is one good thing about pristine green lawns, it marks the occupants so when the revolutions comes, we know were to find them...

Madame Defarge

If you know the Tale--The Tale of Two Cities, you will know that we are watching and knitting the miscreants into our memories.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by livecontent

The most invasive weed is Blue Grass.

That's a good way to put it. But the thing here is most HOAs will not permit you to have anything other than bluegrass. I know a bunch of people who would love to not have to water and mow their lawn, however they don't have a choice if they don't want to be fined and lose their homes. And for most people, when they're deciding where to buy a house, the type of lawn required is nowhere near the top of their priorities. Also, some of the biggest turf lawn users are the public sector-- all those city parks. And golf courses-- including public courses. So it's a very complicated issue. I'm an advocate of xeriscaping, but I don't think you can condemn people who have turf lawns either. The way to bring change is to educate people about the benefits of dry landscaping, and show examples that work. That was the point of my photo tour.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by Katiana

The rocked-in yard look was popular in the early 80s as "water-saving". There are whole yards in Northglenn that are all rocked in as they had some sort of water crisis about that time. Concrete was popular then, too, for the same reason. It IS water-saving, but kind of ugly in my opinon. Our house was built in 1980, and it was landscaped with a lot of concrete.

Agreed. All-rock yards are what some people term ZERO-scape. Does your neighborhood look similar to Smoky Hill, I imagine?

Junipers can get smelly, and kill the grass.

They smell goooodddddd........ Seriously, I love them! They make me feel like I'm in the high desert of Utah.

We took a number of them out. Most articles I have read about xeriscaping talk about "zones", such as a zone for grass, which does have a cooling effect, a zone for this, a zone for that. There are lots of plants that are drought-tolerant, and/or can live with minimal watering. A good garden center can help a lot.

Definitely... there's a whole science behind it! Some time within the next ten years (and hopefully sooner than that) my goal is to buy my first "starter" home, in a neighborhood kind of like Smoky Hill where xeriscaping is permitted. You can bet I'll go wild with the concept!

[livecontent]

I do not have blue grass. My yard is a natural "zero-scape"; what grows--grows, and what does not grow---does not grow.

I use no water, no fertilizer, no herbicides, no pesiticides. I have a happy group of squirrels, chirping birds, crawling healthy insects, butterflies and bees. Roaring carpets of "teeth of the lion" that is "Dente de Lion" or Dandelion. A few weeks ago, I had a natural salad of my dandelion greens and also saute dandelion greens with garlic, olive oil over linguini (little tongues).

I have a lush green salad lawn with natural growth of different grasses and flowering "weeds" which are not invasive; heavy green foilage from my overhanging fruit trees, evergreens, blue spruce, assorted pines with many different flowering shrubs with assorted river rock. My yard is cool and green; my house is cool all summer; I use no air conditioning.

Among my friends are the squirrels, the birds, the insects; all living in harmony in my little natural forested grassland preserve. My house is disgustingly rustic and an anathema to my obsessive neighbors of turf fanatics. And of course, I gleefully
livecontent

[Katiana]

I don't know if I've ever been to Smoky Hill, the residential area anyway. I live in one of the few neighborhoods in Louisville outside of "Old Lousville" where the houses were built by various builders. We supposedly have an HOA, but we don't pay dues and it hasn't been active for at least the 19 yrs that we have lived there. Some of our neighbors have xeriscaped yards. Most have used some xeri priciples.There is a house in the 'hood that was built by the students at Boulder Valley Vo-Tech and it has a nice xeriscaped yard, w/o *too* much concrete. We haven't really xeriscaped (DH is from Nebraska, likes grass), but we have lots of potentillas, barberrys and other low-water plants, plus some bluegrass to relax in, plus a garden. Just planted the pumpkins yesterday!

[livecontent]

I will show no pictures of my yard--I prefer to remain anonymous and I do not want you to find out where I am building my guillotine for the coming "brown" revolution.

Livecontent

Liberty, Equality and No Bluegrass

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by livecontent

I will show no pictures of my yard--I prefer to remain anonymous and I do not want you to find out where I am building my guillotine for the coming "brown" revolution.

What is it that makes me think you are not joking?

[suzco]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

That's a good way to put it. But the thing here is most HOAs will not permit you to have anything other than bluegrass. I know a bunch of people who would love to not have to water and mow their lawn, however they don't have a choice if they don't want to be fined and lose their homes. . .

The situation has improved in the past few years. After the drought and watering restrictions of the early/mid 2000's, the Colorado legislature enacted Section 37-60-126(11)(a) of the Colorado Revised Statutes, which provides:

Any section of a restrictive covenant that prohibits or limits xeriscape, prohibits or limits the installation or use of drought-tolerant vegetative landscapes, or requires cultivated vegetation to consist exclusively or primarily of turf grass is hereby declared contrary to public policy and, on that basis, that section of the covenant shall be unenforceable.

HOAs can no longer completely prohibit xeriscaping or require bluegrass lawns; so far the statute's being interpreted as allowing some restrictions/requirements for bluegrass, but the amount is far less than used to be, and "legislative intent" is to encourage xeriscaping.