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ColoradoScaping

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Bring home the beauty of plants that thrive naturally in Colorado’s climate, like the Fire Spinner Ice plant. Photo credit: Plant Select.

ColoradoScaping around your home reduces water use, frees up your time and ensures water is available for the fun COLORADO stuff. Plus, it makes Colorado more Colorado (and less Kentucky).

Less Water Use, Naturally

ColoradoScaping is about living within the semi-arid climate around us. It's about being efficient, not excessive. It’s about being in harmony with the natural environment in a way that doesn’t consume your time and does enhance our communities. It’s a landscape that doesn’t impose itself on Colorado but reflects it.

Reducing water use respects the beauty of our great state and ensures a safe water supply for generations to come. It’s simply the right thing to do. It’s a Colorado thing.

What is ColoradoScaping?

It’s not about swaths of thirsty Kentucky bluegrass. But it’s not fields of gravel, cactus and desert.

It’s an inspired landscape that’s vibrant through all of Colorado’s seasons, with a natural palette of color, texture and dimension that always pleases the eye.

It takes design cues from Colorado ecosystems — with elevation changes punctuated by boulders; drought and climate resilient plants that help maintain vibrant urban landscapes; and tree canopies that benefit our communities, wildlife and the environment.

Get Inspired

It’s not easy to maintain thirsty Kentucky bluegrass in the Denver area, where landscape enthusiasts face weather that constantly fluctuates — when it’s not just plain dry.

Your yard could be a lot more interesting than grass alone. Even better, it could use less water. Check out these resources to help you reimagine your landscape:

Visit a water-wise public demonstration garden

There are many public Xeriscape gardens in the Denver metro area. Most are free to the public.

  • Arvada Demonstration Garden
    Location: 7030 Garrison St.
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Year-round classes
    Hours: Check website
  • Aurora Xeriscape Demonstration Garden
    Location: Northwest corner of Alameda Parkway and Chambers Road
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Year-round classes
    Hours: Sunrise to sunset, seven days a week
  • Carson Nature Center
    Location: 3000 W. Carson Drive (north of Mineral, west of Santa Fe)
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Year-round classes
    Hours: Park open sunrise to sunset, seven days a week for self-guided tours; check website for nature center hours
  • Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street
    Location: 1007 York St.
    Admission: Free if member; non-member adults $15 — see website for more info
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Year-round classes; contact directly for guided tours
    Hours: Check website
  • Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield
    Location: 8500 W. Deer Creek Canyon Road
    Admission: Free if member; non-members $5 per passenger vehicle
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: May – September classes
    Hours: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., seven days a week
  • Gallop Gardens
    Location: 6015 S. Gallop St.
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: None
    Hours: Sunrise to sunset, seven days a week
  • Gove Community Garden
    Location: 13th Street and Colorado Boulevard
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: No
    Classes and guided tours: April – October free compost classes
    Hours: Open during compost classes
  • Harper Humanities Garden and Chester M. Alter Arboretum
    Location: Near South University Boulevard and Evans Avenue
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Guided tours May – September at arboretum. Check website for specifics.
  • Harvard Gulch Park/Colorado State University Extension
    Location: 888 E. Iliff Ave.
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Yes, check website for contact info
    Hours: Accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week
  • Highland Gardens Village
    Location: 3755 Tennyson
    Admission: Free/open to public
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Yes
  • Hudson Gardens
    Location: 6115 S. Santa Fe Drive
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: Yes
    Classes and guided tours: Year-round classes; call 303-797-8565 for guided tours
    Hours: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., seven days a week
  • Kendrick Park Gardens
    Location: 9351 W. Jewell Ave.
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: No
    Self-guided tours: No
    Classes and guided tours: No
    Hours: 5 a.m. – 10 p.m., seven days a week
  • Mount Goliath
    Location: Mount Evans Scenic Byway
    Admission: Amenity fee to access Mount Evans
    Wheelchair accessible: No
    Self-guided tours: No
    Classes and guided tours: June – August for guided tours
    Hours: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes Saturday
  • Stern Park Xeric Garden
    Location: 5800 S Spotswood Street Littleton, CO 80120
  • Tagawa Gardens
    Location: 7711 S. Parker Road
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: No
    Classes and guided tours: Year-round topics
    Hours: Check website for hours
  • The GrowHaus
    Location: 4751 York St.
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: No
    Classes and guided tours:
    Hours: Public tours Saturday and Sunday, check website
  • War Memorial Rose Garden
    Location: 5804 S. Bemis St.
    Admission: Free
    Wheelchair accessible: Yes
    Self-guided tours: No
    Classes and guided tours: No
    Hours: Accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week

Last updated Nov. 3, 2022

Get Going

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Bring home the beauty of plants that thrive naturally in Colorado’s climate, like the Denver Daisy. Photo credit: Plant Select.

Does your yard have some decorative, thirsty turf that you want to switch out with ColoradoScaping?

A diverse, water-smart landscape of trees and plants brings cooling summer shade and year-round beauty to our neighborhoods. It also offers rich habitat for the wildlife, birds and pollinators that live among us.

Start with a plant or two, or a patch of lawn.

And you don’t have to go it alone.

Need help removing turf grass?

  • Resource Central — Discover affordable, quick and easy lawn removal services for those who don’t want to do it themselves. And they offer a handy fact sheet for those who want to do it themselves.
  • Colorado State University Extension — Get information and facts about what to consider for DIY turf removal projects.

Need help selecting plants?

  • Colorado State University Extension — Find resources to help you be successful with flowers, vegetable plants, trees, shrubs and more.
  • Plant Select — Look for the Plant Select label at your local garden store when buying plants that thrive in the high plains and Rocky Mountain regions. Developed from a nonprofit collaboration of CSU, Denver Botanic Gardens and professional horticulturists, this resource can help you pick the right plant for the right place.
  • Resource Central — Check out the spring and fall garden sales from this nonprofit. Home to the popular Garden In A Box program with plant-by-number designs, its experts have helped people save water for more than 40 years. Sign up for sale notifications.


Xeriscape Plans

Thinking about adding Xeriscape to your landscape? We've got a plan for that.