Trends come and go, but the semi-arid climate of the Front Range and Eastern Plains is here to stay.
That’s why — low-water landscaping that uses native plants to conserve resources and restore natural ecosystems — is more important than ever.
Just don’t call it that anymore.
“People came to equate xeriscaping with places like Arizona and lots of rocks and heat islands,” said Bea Stratton, Denver Water’s landscape transformation program manager. “We wanted to shift that mentality.”
Denver Water may have coined the term xeriscaping in the 1980s, but employees stopped using it in 2024 in favor of ColoradoScaping. That state-specific branding makes room for plants that are mostly (but not 100%) drought-tolerant, and for yards that sport colorful flowers, shrubs and adapted to Colorado’s climate — as opposed to the decidedly scrubby, gravelly aesthetic associated with the term xeriscaping.
“You can still do pocket lawns with mixtures of native and low-water items,” said Abby Rupsa, principle designer and owner of , a Federal Heights landscaping company. “But you can do it a very beautiful way versus it being this harsh, barren landscape. And truth be told, we absolutely need that vegetative coverage in Colorado as opposed to just having hardscaping.”
How-to guides for ColoradoScaping have evolved with the terminology, Stratton said, in order to embrace recommendations, for example, that low-water vegetation should cover about half of your yard. That helps cut down on the heat islands that form when there’s no plant life, she said — and the need is greater than it once was.
Prolonged bouts of warm weather across the Colorado River basin are projected to reduce the amount of water delivered during the spring 2026 runoff to just a third of normal, according to federal forecasters. And half of the supply used by Denver Water’s 1.5 million customers comes from the Colorado River.
“Denver is essentially a high plains desert,” said Ian Schillinger-Brokaw, urban ecology project manager for Denver Parks & Recreation. He oversees the restoration of city-owned plots that were planted with thirsty Kentucky bluegrass into native ecosystems that require far less water and maintenance while enhancing natural beauty.
“For people moving here from the East Coast, it might be really comforting to see turf grass,” he said. “But from an ecological standpoint, it’s a missed opportunity to bring wildness and variety into the city.”
Nancy Leavitt, an environmental planner with Denver Water, to describe this type of water-wise landscaping. She combined “landscape” and the Greek word “xeros,” which means dry, to create the term, according to Denver Water. (It’s not “zero-scaping,” as some have called it.)
ColoradoScaping is meant to combat the image of a beige, gravel-cacti expanse. But whatever it’s called, some people still don’t even know it’s an option, Stratton said. Like Denver Parks & Recreation, Denver Water partners with diverse cities, residents and homebuilders. Its staff educates and provides resources to homeowners who could cut their water bills in half by swapping Kentucky bluegrass with prairie meadow grasses (see more ideas at ). That includes a one-time, for lawn replacement.
Last year alone, Denver Water transformed 1 million square feet of landscape, Stratton said. In one instance, Denver Water and Denver Parks & Recreation partnered in a 2023 program that began replanting a quartet of wide, grassy medians along Quebec Street, just south of Interstate 70 near Denver’s Central Park neighborhood, with .
That has led to water savings of more than 8.5 million gallons annually, and looks even prettier while benefiting local wildlife and insects, said Schillinger-Brokaw, who led the project. Similar projects are taking place in Cherry Creek and Montbello.
The vegetation includes bursts of purple and yellow that bloom May through September. Schillinger-Brokaw has been visiting the Quebec site for three years, but it was only this spring that he saw a kestrel (or small hawk) there for the first time.
“If you look at a lot of Denver’s public parks, there’s this monoculture with only two or three different species being represented in grass and trees,” he said. “We want to turn that into 20 species.”
The same can apply to your home yard and garden, he said, considering that the smaller scale will yield faster results. Plants often need two to three years to get fully established, so they’ll still require some water. That also means being careful if you’re designing everything around gravel, rocks or boulders, as those can absorb heat and create urban heat islands — or pockets of high temperatures where vegetation won’t grow.
What else to keep mind? The experts have some ideas.
You’ll save money
ColoradoScaping is about conservation, but also your wallet. that customers who ColoradoScape use 60% less water, which is particularly helpful when drought restrictions come into play, as they will again this summer in the metro area. Denver Water’s current definition of “efficient” is using 12 gallons of water per square foot of landscape, which itself can often be cut in half with drought-resistant plants.
They also estimate that ColoradoScaping can increase property values by 10% to 15% by adding resilience and subtracting maintenance. (Turf grass, for example, usually requires not just lots of water, but mowing, herbicides and fertilizers.) Getting started isn’t free, as there are always upfront costs. But it’s still cheaper than a Midwest or East Coast-style yard.
You’ll help nature
ColoradoScaping with native plants gives insects, birds and other animals cooler, layered environments as compared with short, exposed, single-species turf grass (go ahead, call it biodiversity).
“These plants aren’t meant to be hyper-controlled,” Rupsa said. ” If you’ve got hyssop (a flowering, herbaceous sub-shrub), it might need to lay over on rock if it gets too big. But thatap OK because it might shade something else that needs a little shelter or coverage.”
It’s Colorado-adapted
Get the best of the plains and high desert vegetation by mixing fetching varieties that play well together. Trade bluegrass for the much better-adapted Karl Foerster grasses. Mix yucca or lavender into your succulents, or sprinkle wildflowers and sunflowers into the mix for later-season blooms. If something dies, it won’t immediately stand out in your yard — as opposed to a brown hedgerow or crispy patch of grass.
Yards can be treated like a green roof, or a naturally planted rooftop that collects runoff and reduces heat reflection while cutting down on heating and cooling costs. It’s particularly helpful for slopes prone to erosion. Sedum groundcover and/or succulents can turn it into a green, mat-like surface that better retains water and soil, and that can better attract vital pollinators.
It’s highly flexible
As noted, new plantings can take a little time to get established, so they will need upfront care. But it’s still less resource-intensive than moist-climate plantings. You can do as much or as little as you want in terms of square footage, and at the smaller scale, results will appear faster, according to . You can keep your existing trees, but be careful not to damage the root zone around them when removing turf.
“It won’t look like the Amazon jungle right off the bat,” Schillinger-Brokaw said. “It’s OK to allow plants a year or two to grow in. Just like angsty teenagers, they can be temperamental.”
It’s not just for exposed residential yards. Denver Water offers tips and guides for narrow strips of land, extra-dry and shady areas and truly low-water environments that require heavy duty plantings.
Attitudes are changing
Many new home developments and HOAs that once required a certain percentage of a yard to include turf grass are now relaxing and looking at alternatives. Denver Water signed a memo of understanding with various municipalities and utilities throughout the Colorado River Basin to reduce its “non-functional turf grass” areas by 30%, or about 75 million square feet.
They also apply for grants to (currently working in Lafayette) but also field requests and fund an increasing number of projects in all corners of the city, both residential and commercial.
“It’s definitely become more common since the pandemic, which really revamped people’s ideas of how to develop their homes outside,” Rupsa said. “So if you’re going to change, you might as well do it the right way.”
