Xeriscaping Landscaping Facts and Why It’s the Way to Landscape in 2025
Xeriscape landscaping is a methodology of landscape design that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. Xeriscape landscape typically would use little to no water apart from what naturally comes from the environment.
How It All Started
Xeriscaping has made its way into the hearts of homeowners and commercial property owners alike in the low precipitation areas of the United States for the last 30 or so years.
The bottom two-thirds of this country, the western part, has been since the 1950’s barely getting by with drought, with water a scarce and expensive natural resource.
Albuquerque, NM was one of the first metro areas in the country to both actively encourage and begin to practice xeriscaping on a wide scale. The Albuquerque Water Utility Authority is a fierce advocate of property owners using significantly less water for gardens and lawns.
Why Xeriscape?
Xeriscaping became a top landscaping choice here – because it’s environmentally friendly and saves both water and money. Xeriscaping is environmentally friendly because it uses plants suited to the arid southwest climate.
It is described as planting vegetation that thrives with little to no water at all like cactus, yucca and buffalo grass.
When xeriscaping at an existing property, the existing plants such as lawns and water thirsty flower beds must be removed and replaced with decorative gravel and native plants that consume little to no water.
Examples of such plants that look great are xeriscape plants too!
Why It’s Good for Albuquerque
Because Albuquerque and NM have desert areas, landscaping companies have the option of filling new landscape installations with a wide range of climate-appropriate plants for the dry landscape in the Duke City.
Xeriscaping can reduce the use of water 75 to 90 percent. Some cities in the country even incentivize homeowners financially to switch their landscaping from high-water-use grass lawns to xeriscaping and reduce bill.
Today’s technology like water use monitoring devices enable the big water use savings to be visible to cities on newly xeriscaped properties, and those users get to see the associated lower water bills that come with their efforts.
What It Takes To Xeriscape
Having a xeriscape does not just include the plants and trees but also involves the installation of highly efficient water irrigation systems.
Water was installed through drippers and soaker hoses that direct water directly on each of those plants. This reduces the amount of wasted water from over spraying and from the watering of plants with hoses and sprinkler systems evaporating.
Xeriscaping also includes putting in highly efficient water irrigation systems. Plants are set up with drippers and soaker hoses which target water straight to each plant. This lowers the amount of wasted water due to over spraying and evaporation of watering plants with hoses and sprinkler systems. In the experiment landscaping plants are installed in set groups to improve irrigation water use. It’s a fact that xeriscape landscaping requires far less work and costs far less than landscaping with grass and plants that need a lot of water.
plants.
Low Water Plants
Cactus is by far the most widely used and drought tolerant plant in xeriscaping. Cactus are another component you have lots of options on for xeriscaping. Needles, big round shaped thick stems and the waxy skin of the plant are the features of cactus that make it one of the most drought tolerant plants on the planet
There are plenty of other xeriscape plants, including sedums (Sedum spp.), hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum tectorum), hardy ice plant (Delos Perma cooperi) and the self-sowing annual moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora). Corsican stonecrop (Sedum dasyphyllous), candytuft (Iberis sempervirens), moss phlox (Phlox subulate) and mossy saxifrage (Saxifraga x Arendse).
If you are looking for xeriscape landscaping in Albuquerque, NM call the experts at R & S Landscaping for a free estimate today at 505-271-8419.