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Flower-filled landscape showcases beauty of water-wise plants
Local gardener shares secrets to successful landscape transformation, attracting pollinators.
Ryan Harter’s yard looks more like something you’d see at a botanical garden, not a suburban backyard in Colorado’s dry climate.
He’s filled his landscape with more than 200 species of plants in various colors, sizes, shapes and — most noticeably — plenty of beautiful flowers.
The plants all have one thing in common: They don’t need a lot of water.
Harter wanted to create a backyard oasis to enjoy his love of plants, pollinators and sustainable practices. Over a period of several years, he transformed his old yard that featured Kentucky bluegrass and other water-needy plants, into a Xeric, or water-wise, ColoradoScaped yard.
His new plants use about 75% less water than a yard filled with Kentucky bluegrass. And now that the plants are established, he waters them about once every 10-14 days during the summer.
Denver Water visited Harter’s home in Douglas County to give examples of water-wise plant gardens can look like. We have three videos below filled with advice and ideas for your own landscape makeovers.
In the first video, Harter talks about how he went about changing his landscape and has advice about the importance of starting small.
In our second video, Harter gives us a tour of his yard and highlights some of his favorite plants.
In our third video, Harter talks about all the birds and bees that visit his landscape and some of the plants he added specifically to attract pollinators.
Learn more about Ryan Harter at xericgarden.com and also on his Instagram page The Xeric Garden.
Many of the plants in Ryan’s garden are from Plant Select. Check out this video that explores water-wise plants with Ross Shrigley, executive director at Plant Select.