Owner
Carol
City
Englewood
Skill Set
Beginner
Project Size
250 - 500 sq ft
Project Location
Front yard
Sun Exposure
Full sun
Year Completed
2024
Time Commitment
31 - 40 hours of labor
Project Cost
less than $500
Other Project Elements
Native or drought-tolerant plants, Pathways
Resource Central Programs
Advice from the Owner
We were able to replace about a third of our front lawn with plants, thus saving water (hope to install drip irrigation next) and adding interest to the yard along with habitat for pollinators. I wish we had tried harder to remove bindweed before we put in the plants. While notoriously difficult to eradicate without chemicals, it would have been nice to start with less residual bindweed, as reducing bindweed takeover in parts of the garden has been a real battle!
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Owner
Marty
City
Englewood
Skill Set
Beginner
Project Size
1,000+ sq ft
Project Location
Backyard
Sun Exposure
Full sun
Year Completed
2021
Time Commitment
More than 40 hours of labor
Project Cost
less than $500
Other Project Elements
Native or drought-tolerant plants, Drip irrigation system, Raised/tiered beds, Veggie gardens, Patio/sitting areas, Shrubs
Resource Central Programs
Advice from the Owner
By far the most labor-intensive step was grass removal. Hire that out if possible. It can also be done with a shovel like I did it. Decide what hardscape features you want. We opted for a pergola, a bocce court and some gravel walkways along with flagstone. The only contractors I used were to install the concrete pergola base and the electrical to the pergola itself. We have kept some grass in the center of the yard and have new rotary sprinklers for that. I may eventually replace that with Buffalo Grass. All the xeriscaping has drip irrigation. Familiarize yourself with how that works, it's quite simple and can be done on an ongoing basis. We got our trees and shrubs from the Tree Farm, smaller plants from Nick's in Aurora, or online ordering from High Country Gardens. High Country also has preplanned gardens you can buy to take the guesswork out of it. We've had good success with all these. We currently have over 60 different varieties of xeric plants and counting. Our outdoor water use reports show that we are consistently using 5,000 to 10,000 gallons per month under the Denver Water goals for efficient watering in the summer. We have cut our outdoor water use by 40%.
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