Remember, just say no to "zeroscapes." Take pride in your landscape while enjoying its many benefits. Make xeriscaping your gardening mantra.

Buchloe dactyloides 'Legacy®'Buffalo Grass
Item # 27050 		Buchloe dactyloides Legacy®
Legacy® Buffalo Grass

1 to 3 flats $44.95
4 to 12 flats $42.95
13 to 24 flats $40.95
25 or more $38.95
Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low'
Item # 82550 		Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low'
Gro-Low Sumac

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
The Inferno Strip Garden
Item # 99517 		Soft Colors Inferno Strip Garden
Perennials for Hot, Narrow Spaces, Designed by Lauren Springer

Garden $170.23
3 or more Gardens $160.22
Bouteloua gracilis 'Hachita'
Item # 27055 		Bouteloua gracilis 'Hachita' Plugs
'Hachita' Blue Grama Grass Plugs

1 to 3 flats $44.95
4 to 12 flats $42.95
13 or more $40.95
The Jumbo Waterwise Garden
Item # 99503 		The Jumbo Waterwise Garden

each $88.82
Xeriscape Handbook
Item # 99657 		Xeriscape Handbook: A How-to Guide to Natural, Resource-Wise Gardening

each $24.95

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Having designed, planted and maintained xeric landscapes in northern New Mexico’s high desert climate for the past two decades, I’ve developed an in-depth understanding and appreciation of xeriscaping. I’ve also come to see how the principles of xeriscaping, the importance of landscaping to the beauty and value of our properties and the need for landscaping to be an eco-friendly endeavor, fit together. This is High Country Garden’s Style of Xeriscaping, and it should be the guiding force behind how we all garden, whether it’s in an arid region or a region that gets ample rainfall.

It’s unfortunate that the word Xeriscaping is often mispronounced as “Zeroscaping.” For most people, this mispronunciation becomes their reality. To them, a xeriscape is no more than a parched, gravel filled yard with a few struggling yuccas or pampas grass clumps stuck into the rocks.

Here in the West, home of the xeriscaping movement, dry conditions and varying degrees of drought are the norm. To conserve water, many towns and cities impose summer watering restrictions, necessitating the need for our landscapes to live on a water budget. There is no “xeric rule” that only low water (xeric) or drought tolerant plants are allowed. You can grow any kind of plant you want in a xeriscape, just don’t plant a thirsty lawn or too many water intensive plants or you’ll exceed your monthly water budget in the first week.

With The High Country Gardens Style of Xeriscaping, you can enhance the beauty, comfort and monetary value of your property with well chosen plants. Thoughtful placement of deciduous trees will shade the south and west sides of our homes and offices to keep the buildings cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Combinations of other regionally suitable plants and water use focused on areas of your property where these plants have the most ornamental impact, will keep your water budget intact.

Use water harvesting to direct rain and melted snow run-off from roofs and hard surfaces into the soil around shade trees and planting areas. It’s free and it lets nature supplement your landscape’s water needs.

Resist the urge to replace thirsty lawn grasses with a hot patch of gravel. Instead, save water and gasoline by using low mow, low water dwarf fescue grass or native turf grasses like buffalo grass and blue grama. In parts of your yard that don’t have foot traffic, use herbaceous and woody groundcovers to carpet the area with their cooling foliage.

The greatest hazard of “zeroscaping” is that it adds to the heating of our urban environments. Better known as the “heat island effect,” loss of cooling plants has been documented to increase urban temperatures in excess of 20 deg F. Energy and water use actually increase while causing our cities to become drier without the cloud seeding effects of trees and plants.

Remember, just say no to “zeroscapes.” Take pride in your landscape while enjoying its many benefits. Make xeriscaping your gardening mantra.

David Salman is the President and Chief Horticulturist at High Country Gardens. In 2008, he was a distinguished recipient of the AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 2008 Great American Gardeners Award.