Xeriscaping

Shannon Tyman

Xeriscaping means landscaping designed to require little to no supplemental water above and beyond natural precipitation in the location being landscaped. The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water predicts that 36 states will experience water shortages by 2013. The Colorado Water Wise Council estimates that more than 50 percent of residential water use is applied to landscape and lawns and that 40 to 50 percent of total urban water use is for landscaping. Encouraging urban residents to use water more efficiently, then, is extremely important to ensure that water supplies are available for the indefinite future. These concerns are especially important in the water-scarce cities of the western and southwestern United States where the term xeriscape was first coined. The 1977 drought in the western United States created a scare that led to the creation of a task force of water, horticultural, and landscaping experts from the Denver Water Department, ...

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