Xeriscaping? What’s That?

One of our newer and growing Spokane area landscaping services is called xeriscaping: an unusual, newfangled word for an old idea. Xeriscaping is a form of low impact environmentally conscious landscaping centered on water conservation. This is ideal for the climate around Spokane, which can be dryer than one might think given that it’s in the Pacific Northwest. Xeriscaping is also ideal for land that’d been depleted by overuse, or which is recovering from recent changes in the surrounding landscape, such as water diversion or the recent alteration of a nearby hardscape.

Xeriscaping has many different aspects – there’s no one “trick” to conserving water effectively. These include:

Low Water Plants: Cacti, warm-season grass and other water-saving plants such as agave and juniper require far less hydration than many traditional garden favorites, and wisely arranged they can look even better, because their colors blend with the environment – they’re adapted to the land. Low water plants also help maintain the shape of your xeriscape as their root systems help fend off erosion.

Runoff Conservation: In traditional landscaping you pay attention to runoff to avoid unwanted flooding, pooling and soil erosion. Xeriscaping controls runoff paths to ensure that every drop helps support the total landscape. That means we plan landscapes accordingly so that runoff will flow down to the plants that need it.

Wise Turf: Grass is one of the biggest water sinks around. A Xeriscape uses runoff and proper plant selection to minimize this, but it also looks at designing the overall space to require as little turf as possible by incorporating hardscaping for high traffic areas and eliminating wasted, inaccessible patches of turf, such as those in the corners of many gardens.

More: Xeriscaping is about using creative methods to minimize water consumption, and is constantly evolving as people develop new ideas about how to do that. One of the pleasures of doing this kind of work isn’t just in being environmentally conscious either. Xeriscapes are beautiful, and we take pride in designing examples that look as good as any traditional landscaping job.