Advice from the Owner

The thought of using water to water grass that we mow every week just didn’t seem like a good idea anymore. We love the beauty our new yard brings. Also, the action it brings! So many birds/hummingbirds, butterflies, bees/bumblebees. We added solar powered lights for night and a solar powered fountain in the bird bath. We enlarged our existing entertainment space. Everything we planted last year (our first year) came back with the exception of a couple plants that the rabbits probably got to. So we now look for rabbit resistant plants. Our neighbors/neighborhood love it and people stop by and admire and talk with us about how much they enjoy walking by. It’s fun to share ideas with other people and now we have inspired other neighbors to go water wise. We designed and did all the work. It is a work in progress. We love getting new plants and ideas. We need to eventually work on the backyard. We mainly have a vegetable garden there but still some grass.

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Advice from the Owner

Lower maintenance than I thought it would be. Grew so fast. We didn't put cardboard down for a week or so before we planted and wish we would have tried since we are getting weeds. Would have matched the color of our drip system to the brown mulch.

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Advice from the Owner

We absolutely love our now xeriscaped small yard, that was difficult to mow under the tree! It’s so easy to change the spray irrigation nozzles to drip manifolds and close off the ones that are not needed. Can’t wait until spring to see how the plants fill out the space. Love the flagstone walkway to the bench, which allows us to sit and enjoy our yard.

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Advice from the Owner

The happy pollinators and beneficial insects make me happy. I love that the garden changes through the seasons. Fall planting works! The garden doesn't need as much water as the grass that it replaced. Once the plants got established, most of them could survive on rain water. For the ones that looked thirsty, I would water them every three to five days depending on how hot the weather was.

The clay in the "soil" really slowed down progress. The online videos made planting look so easy when the soil was perfect. I spent a lot of time removing clay and rocks from the dirt piles. A trick I learned was to put the clay chunks into the super strong plastic bags from a grocery store as I was sorting through the dirt, instead of picking them up later. I used big rocks that I found to border the garden.

I learned that mulch won't suffocate weeds; I needed to pull them out before I put down the mulch. It's worth removing spent blooms to get more flowers.

My neighbors have been great. They were supportive while I was working on the garden, and are appreciative of how the garden has turned out.

I’ve been a fan of live plants for decades. At one point, I wanted to grow my own food. I just wasn’t good at keeping plants alive. When I moved to Colorado, I discovered that the plants that can survive Colorado’s environment, could survive me. It’s been really encouraging to see the plants not just survive, but thrive. I have some plants that didn't make it, so I'm going to propagate some plants to fill in the empty spots.

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Advice from the Owner

We absolutely love our new front yard oasis! Not only are we conserving water, but it's absolutely gorgeous. It's so great not to have to take care of a lawn, and I love watching the dozens of bees that are constantly zooming between the flowering plants. Such an amazing difference!

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Advice from the Owner

We got rid of all the lawn. Now our waterwise plants are on a drip system. When the neighbors walk by, they said it reminds them of being in the mountains.

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Advice from the Owner

Love how easy it is to maintain and looks better every year as we let certain plants spread. We have year round interest - it looks great every season. Garden in a Box took all the guesswork out of choosing things that would work well in our climate. We’ve also been dividing plants and putting them in our backyard, saving us money on buying additional plants. We cut everything back early spring and have to prune a few plants back midsummer to keep them neat. We were a little worried about attracting bees to our front walkway but all the bees that hang out are just happy chilling on all the flowers as you walk by. We ended up adding some additional large grasses and had 3 plants (same kind) die after the second season. Other than that, there’s been no issues and would highly recommend Garden in a Box!

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Advice from the Owner

We had the lawn removed but did the rest of the work ourselves. This included choosing the landscaping rock, mulch, and plants. We were completely exhausted and it took about 40 hours during a regular work week. However, it was completely worth it! We planted low-water plants like ice plants, tricolor stonecrop for ground cover, Ruby Flame perennial phlox, blue balloon flowers, coneflower, and baby’s breath. We are thrilled with the results!

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Advice from the Owner

It’s a great conversation piece with neighbors. We have kids come into the yard to look for butterflies and bees. Our garden is 3 years old and we continue to add new xeric plants and learn about gardening. We loved not having to install a sprinkler system or try to keep grass alive in a full sun spot. The garden requires some upkeep throughout the year but we enjoy cracking open a cold beverage and spending time in the garden deadheading or watering in the evenings after a long workday.

Watch the interview with Heather & Daniel 

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