Xeriscaping in Denver: Smoky Hill PHOTO TOUR (Colorado Springs, Aurora: house, landscaping)

[vegaspilgrim]

One of my passions is searching for local authenticity in the man made landscape. I dislike Kentucky Bluegrass lawns. Not only are they a total waste of water in a semi-arid climate, but they look utterly out of place with the native landscape. If I wanted to see Kentucky Bluegrass everywhere I would move to Kentucky. Unfortunately, most neighborhoods with HOAs force you to plant Kentucky Bluegrass or similar turf lawns, or else... One neighborhood I found where this isn't the case is called Smoky Hill, a 1980s era neighborhood of ranch homes and modest 2 stories in east Centennial. It's bounded by Smoky Hill Rd, Buckley, Orchard, and Tower. I found dozens of homes there that utilize the principle of xeriscape-- using drought tolerant plants, grasses, and trees, mulch and rocks instead of filling in the yard with turf lawns. Some of these are better examples of how to do it right than others. Some homes simply had an all-rock or all-mulch yard with no vegetation. Some homes had so much xeriscaping it looked practically like a jungle. A lot of homes integrated yucca (one of my favorite plants), and one home even had a cholla cactus in their front yard! Then I took some pictures of the nearby Piney Creek showing a little piece of what the native high plains landscape and plains creek looks like. When xeriscaping is done right, it can look absolutely gorgeous.

Here's the link to the Flickr set with the thumbnails.

Please post your comments on the comment thread, as the moderators prefer.

Entrance to the subdivision across the street. BTW, what is this low-lying evergreen bush with tiny blue berries called that I see all over the place?

A beautiful, mountain-esque front yard:

Never doubt the power of yucca.



Join the revolution... the revolution of xeriscape!





I'm not sure if this counts as xeriscaping or if this is just not ever watering your front lawn?

This is how not to do it. This reminds me of Tucson, where practically every car parks over rocks, rather than a driveway.



A non- blue grass lawn:

More beautiful yucca:

Ughh:

What is this pine-bush thingy called?

This guy has some kind of rock garden thing going:

Another example of a rugged look with boulders:

Mulch garden:

This is a trail leading to a little neighborhood park:

Mulch hill:

I love this tree! Nice winter-green color. I believe these are Russian Olives (correct me if I'm wrong). Apparently these are an invasive species not originally native to Colorado, but they grow very well here.

Welcome to the Jungle:



Notice the cholla in the top right corner. I'm not sure if these are native to the Denver area per se, but I've seen cholla cactus just like that grow by Pueblo.

More LUSH xeriscaping. Incredibly green, but no turf lawns!



Very simple, just mulch and a bush:

Another example of lush xeriscaping:




Here's a picture of xeriscaping in the medians of Orchard Rd. Not only does this look good, but there's simply no reason to waste water on something you drive by at 40mph. I've been noticing over the last year or two in both Aurora and Centennial a lot of conversion from grass on the side of the roads to pink colored rocks.

Does anybody know what this shrub is called? I love this one, I don't see any reason why it couldn't be used in a front or backyard.

These photos show the Piney Creek greenbelt and a new McMansion development (not Smoky Hill, of course) on the other side:























Who's in there?

Prickly pear cactuses are native to the high plains too. These aren't as big as the ones found in Arizona, but it's unmistakeably a prickly pear.



Ugly, yet kind of "rustic looking" strip mall:

And finally, the obligatory shot of the mountains, as viewed from the prairie:

[esya]

1. The low growing evergreen shrub with blue berries is a type of juniper. There are many different types: spreading, small, tall, huge,narrow, and wide, and they all do pretty well. Make sure you know the FINAL size as they are mostly prickly and have very hard stiff limbs that when overgrown will be unpleasant and scratch the heck out of your car.

2. The medium sized "bushy" thing is a mugo pine, a slow growing dwarf that also does well but is about the size of a exercise ball when most of them are put in.

3. I don't like yucca out here as they tend to be invasive and prickly, not like they are in the midwest.

4. The blue stuff in the wilderness type shots is a type of sage. Two types of more native plants that are lovely if not planted on a south slope, and do well together, are pin or shrub oak---just lovely large bushes with dark green oak shaped leaves, they require a rich acid soil (like the one that grew over my leaking septic tank for years) and plant that interspersed with pinyon pines. They grow naturally together on the shadier slopes of Colorado Springs.

5. Go to the perennial shrub section of your landscaping or nursury grower, or to the xeroscape section. I prefer the perennial shrubs as most of the ones sold out here--potentilla, etc, are pretty drought tolerant. The traditional old fashioned flowering shrubs and trees well always require winter mulch watered heavily about 3 times each winter, and definitely watering at least twice a month in july august and other drought periods of a month.

[Katarina Witt]

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. Junipers can get smelly, and kill the grass. 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.