The conventional approach to landscaping in Colorado Springs goes something like this: install a lawn, plant some shrubs, set up the irrigation system, and then spend the next decade paying for the water the climate does not provide. Colorado Springs averages 16 inches of rainfall per year. A typical bluegrass lawn needs 25 to 30 inches of supplemental irrigation on top of that to stay green through July and August. The math does not work. And the homeowners who keep running the numbers eventually arrive at the same conclusion: there has to be a better way to landscape this property.

Xeriscaping is that better way. It is a design approach that builds the landscape around the water the region actually provides rather than the water the homeowner imports through the sprinkler system. It does not mean gravel and cactus. It does not mean eliminating all irrigation. And it does not mean settling for a yard that looks sparse, barren, or unfinished. A well designed xeriscape is lush, textured, colorful, and alive. It just accomplishes all of that on a fraction of the water a conventional landscape demands.