Modern Xeriscaping Ideas For Your Front Yard
While switching over to a sustainable landscape for your home sounds like a dream, figuring out where to begin can quickly turn into a nightmare. Many plants seem to quickly waste away in the hot desert sun. A drought resistant yard doesn’t mean trading in your grass for a desert wasteland, with these simple tips, you will have a thriving, beautiful front yard in no time.
Highlight Your Strengths
Before diving into making plans for your yard, we recommend taking a step back and really evaluating what you have to work with. Each home has a different feel, each yard has unique features. Taking a moment to really look at your space will help provide clarity and a vision for grand transformation.
The first criteria is to consider what areas of your house and yard are your favorites. Do you have a great view? Do you love your windows? Is there a unique walkway to your door? By asking these questions you are able to determine where you want your eye to be drawn.
Conversely, think through the parts of your yard and home that are not your favorites. Are there parts of your yard where nothing seems to grow? Do you have a water output you wish wasn’t so obnoxious? By strategically placing Desert Steel pieces, we can hide the parts of your yard that you don’t love. Whether that means placing a large Prickly Pear in front of a water output, or adding visual weight to the areas you love, making your yard beautiful doesn’t have to be hard.
Keep it Low Maintenance
Xeriscaping your yard is a great option because not only is it environmentally friendly, it keeps yard maintenance at a minimum. One of the first steps of xeriscaping is removing the parts of your lawn that are fighting against nature–primarily your grass lawn. Very few climates make growing grass easy. Rather than fighting your lawn all season long, ditch the traditional turf for something more fitting of your natural landscape, whether that be a clover lawn or rock and succulents.
Finding native plants to your area is one of the best ways to keep your yard low maintenance. Native plants have already adjusted to the different hardships of your climate so you will spend less time trying to keep them looking good and more time enjoying your beautiful yard. Just about every climate has both flowering and nonflowering plant options, so search your local database for the best options for your location.
The last tip for desert climate xeriscaping is to use rocks in your landscaping. Rock, rather than astroturf, helps keep the temperature of the soil underneath it cooler. This in turn will keep your yard from burning up with heat and won’t ruin the ground below for future planting. Rocks also create a visual interest as you can vary the sizing and colors of your rocks to create paths and designs.
