We all know how important it is to conserve water, but how can we have a beautiful yard at the same time?
Morgan Saxton talked with Sustainable Landscaping Infuencer Daryl Lindsey for some ideas of what to do and what NOT to do.
Daryl says traditional Xeriscaping, or Zeroscaping is not low-maintenance the way people hope it will be.
Debris loves to collect in rocked areas, which eventually becomes a substrate that makes it very easy for weeds to root and thrive, even with landscaping fabric underneath.
In addition, landscape fabric smothers the soil and depletes soil health and makes it difficult for plants to be healthy. Daryl says, "I recommend skipping it all together in lieu of a thick layer of mulch."
But, it's all about the mulch! Living mulch is the only way to have a truly low maintenance landscape.
This means selecting the plants you want to see growing in your yard, and allowing those plants to cover 100 percent of the soil.
Make sure to plant drought tolerant native plants because they need less than one-tenth the water of traditional lawns.
It might not be seen as "normal" to have a yard full of tall native meadow or drought-tolerant shrubs, but Daryl says we desperately need to redefine what "normal" looks like.
Living in the second-driest state in the country, yards that use hundreds of gallons of water every year should not be the norm.
Instead we need to collectively shift our mindset toward a new standard style of landscaping.
By replacing a lawn with drought-resistant plants, even in a small yard, can save more than 50,000 gallons of water a year.
That means only 20 small front yards would need to switch from grass to drought-tolerant landscaping to save a collective million gallons annually.
To get started, visit slowtheflow.org and utahwaterways.org.
