Popmama,

Fantastic opportunity. Maybe look at the water wise Colorado garden in a box plans. They usually have plants and layouts. Denver Water usually advertised them for sale. You could also look at their plant selection and create your own since most of the spring ones are sold out. It looks like they have a fall sale coming up.

https://resourcecentral.org/gardens-2/shop/

One plant we've been very pleased with that is very drought tolerant is Apache Plume. So pretty all year and needs no maintenance. No cutting back in the fall or spring. We have two 30 yr old ones and one planted a couple of years ago. The 30 yr old ones have pink tuffs of fluff and white flowers. The new one has white tuffs of fluff and white flowers. I don't yet know how big the white one will get but we planted it when it was about 1.5" tall. It was such a tiny thing that I didn't think it would take but it is beautiful now and only a couple of years old.

Thanks, mmm. I will look at Apache plume. Yes, it is a fantastic opportunity to get rid of that ugly grass!

I have looked at Resource Central. They are mostly sold out even for the Fall boxes. I also don't love all the plants they have in the box so didn't want to go with one. But I did take inspiration from them!

In this picture a 2 yr old Apache Plume is in the center. Something that looks like Karl Forester Grass is on the far right. Blue Mist Spirea are the 3 plants to the left.

Both the grass and the blue mist spirea have to be cut down in the early spring. Then they don't look good for a while. Plus they (especially the grass) are a pain to cut year after year. However the Apache Plume never needs cut on a yearly basis. All it needs is anything dead taken out which is a branch or two every 3 or 4 years. So far this one hasn't had one thing snipped off it.

Here are two 30 year old ones. They had a bunch of dead taken out at 20 yrs old but look like this now.

This one had less cut out.

This one had more cut out.

Besides being no maintenance they look good all year round and will anchor a bed where other things need to be cut down to grow again.

This is a close up of the tuffs and flowers. The older ones are more pink and this newer one is more white.

Popmama, when I read agastache and nepeta - it made me smile and think of my agastache (anise hyssop).

The nepeta (catnip) that was sneaking under the fence from the neighbors yard was pulled, roots cut off, and the stems hung to dry. Why? Because I like catnip tea from dry leaves and not from fresh.

The anise hyssop is even a better fit to my tastes for an herbal tea. I am enjoying it most every day now with some lemon verbena leaves from a plant that will need to be protected from severe freezing through the winter. No problem, it will be in my unheated greenhouse and covered during the coldest weather.

Have you given some thought to herbs useful at the table, perhaps even if they have to sit a little below grade in pots so as to be moved to a different environment during winter months?

Steve

Hi Steve! I have tons of garden space in the backyard for herbs. But since this is front-facing and regulated by HOA rules, I have to be a bit more organized about what I plant. Herbs are sort of fickle here. I don't think they look very good long term. But I appreciate the vote for hyssop and nepeta! I definitely want to incorporate those.

I believe HOAs in Colorado must allow homeowners to xeriscape, Though I'm sure it ruffles their feathers.

Drip systems tend to be high maintenance. Emitters get clogged, lines get broken.

When we xeriscaped a few sections here we killed the grass by smothering it. My thinking was there's so little topsoil might as well keep it. The first year we ran the spray sprinklers somewhat less than when the turf was there. Now we hardly water those zones at all. We have a fairly thick mulch of wood chips and add to it now and then.

If you're going to use wood chips you'll need an edging between the properties unless you can get the neighbor to join in. Along the concrete is where you will need to remove the sod to a depth of about 3" so the mulch isn't always sliding, washing or blowing out.

You shouldn't need a pro to setup such a small area. Just pick the plants you want and then start setting them out in their pots on the ground. Figure what their future growth will be and how it will look from the street and your driveway. Move them around until your satisfied. It's not rocket science. Good luck and have fun.

As far as grouping rule of thumb is to plant in groups of 3s 5s or 7s

I'd love to see some pictures of your area if you have any before/after shots!

You are right about the Colorado state law that says HOAs must allow xeriscape. For me, it was a matter of good timing too. I've wanted to do this for years but wasn't sure the HOA would approve without a lot of pushback on style, etc.. Also, I have a new nextdoor neighbor who is totally "in". The previous homeowners in that home had no interest in doing anything of the sort. So I got lucky this year! The stars aligned so to speak.

This part of your post is exactly what I wanted to hear : " The first year we ran the spray sprinklers somewhat less than when the turf was there. Now we hardly water those zones at all." That is my hope that for the first couple years, I would need to water then not so much. Unfortunately this area of my yard is on the same sprinkler zone as another "turf" area. So I need to be able to do something with the sprinklers that would allow me to adjust them down and then cap them at some point. This is above my capability.

I am getting a professional to help because I want the sod removed completely, some decent dirt tilled in, then apply the mulch. I also just could use some advice on a couple of questions/ideas I had about the edge. Plus I'm just one person here, there is no "we" and I'm physically not capable of a lot of that work. So I will get some help.

I can plant and I can replant if some plants don't work or look quite right. I can also reapply/add mulch later by myself. So there is that.

We have a number of homes that have done something similar. One mistake I think alot of them make is to not pick at least a couple of things that look good in the winter or outside of the main summer growing season. If it all has to get cut back then for most of the year it doesn't look very good. It is also nice when they add some hardscape; a raised box, a stone or statue focal point. Something like that. In our yard the brooms (I think we have lydia broom and purple broom) look nice in the winter, as does the hardy yellow ice plant which turns red and is super pretty. All three are no maintenance and are not cut back yearly (or ever really). The yellow broom probably gets too big but it is an ever green so looks good all year long. It will be a good size for a number of years before getting too big. Ours are probably over 15 yrs old.

The purple broom doesn't need any trimming but I think looses it's leaves in the winter.

I already mentioned my fondness for the apache plume.

I would look for plants like these to be anchors and then put in the others around them so it doesn't look like our perennial bed in the winter which looks awful as it is just a bunch of dead plants or stubs of dead plants.

Good points, mmm. I've been thinking about structural plants as well. I didn't have any of those on my request to HOA. But I do agree that winter interest would be nice especially since we have a lot of it!

I'd love to do a little globe blue spruce lollipop tree. My mom has one and it's SO cute! Like this:

Globe blue spruces trees are cute! We had two on either side of our stairs out of the courtyard. They were cute when we bought the house but they kept getting bigger and bigger. We kept trimming them back but eventually had to take them out.

If you plant one put it in the middle of the area so you can trim it back in a balanced way. The above pictures show how unbalanced ours got trying to keep the stairway open.

Thanks! Yes, I only want one and I won't have it in a spot where it blocks the walkway so I can retain the lollipop shape. Plus it will take years before mine every gets as big as those two that you had! I figure I'll be long gone from this house by then.

In light of this revelation, has anyone seen any of these up for sale recently? If you do, please let me know!

Popmama,

Excellent! I always thought if they had only put those two globe spruces over a couple of feet we could have kept them looking good much longer.

Regarding the sprinklers it's generally not a good idea to mix two different types on the same zone. Drip systems typically need to run for a long periods of time whereas spray heads it might be 15 minutes twice per week.

Possible solutions are leave the spray heads in the xeric area or converting the rest of the zone to xeric as well and make that zone all drip.

If you decide to leave the spray heads it might be possible to install a manual shutoff valve in the main line for that area. Then you can shutoff that section occasionally. Another option would be to install lower flow spray heads and adjust to a minimum flow. Depending on the heads it might be possible to shut the heads off entirely with the adjusting screws and then go old school with a garden hose and sprinkler or even a watering can until the plants get settled.

Thanks, gjcore. See! I don't know what I am doing.

My neighbor suggested possibly converting the popup heads to those micro heads that you can adjust. I will try to remember the reasoning is not to mix types of sprinklers.

I can't convert the rest of my lawn to xeriscape at this point. So that's out.

Thanks again to all my Gardenweb friends for tips/advice. I found a landscaper to work with. Now my concern is that they can't schedule my job until October 6-8. I usually turn my sprinklers off around October 10. So I know this is getting very close to the end of season. I'm sort of not sure what to do now. I know they can prep the area and do the hardscaping then. What do you all think about planting this late?

I have already purchased a few of the plants at some great year-end sales. I was going to order the others but now I think I will pause on that idea and maybe consider adding those in Spring instead.

I think your instinct is telling you to wait to plant and mine would be also. But do get the hardscape and prep done. It will be much harder (and probably more expensive) to get it done in the spring.

Thanks, mmm. I definitely question myself a lot. You all can help remind me that my instincts are not foolish. :-) I know I probably have thrown plants in the ground that late. But not a whole garden. You're right, we can do the sod removal/prep now and then they can come back in Spring to help me complete the planting.

Project is complete. Well, as any gardener knows, it's complete until revisions have to be made! I was able to add the little piece of grass area near the street into the plan. So that is also gone now!

I was unable to locate a lollipop blue spruce so we planted a mugo pine which I adore. And I think it's probably a better choice anyway as the lollipop may be too formal for this area. We substituted a bunch of plants based on availability. I'm sure I will want to add some more next year when choices are more abundant. But I'm happy with what we did for now. Some of the plants are very small so it's sort of hard to see. But I can't wait to see how they transform. And either way, I got rid of ugly dead grass!

Very nice. What plants are in there?

Looks good. Another year or two and it will fill in nicely.

Thanks, gjcore! I look forward to that. Next year, I may have to replace some plants or add some. But that's something I can deal with. I'm glad I hired out to do the heavy lifting! I could not have done that part.

Looks very nice! i love the larger rocks for accent. Show us more pics in late Spring to show how things are doing.

Thanks, tomatoz1! I will post update in the spring.

The one large rock in the first picture I collected from Grand Junction. It has been in my backyard for several years. I repurposed it. The others were given to me by the landscapers. I also just collected some more bowling-ball size but craggy rocks from a neighbor that I will probably incorporate.

I'd really like to grow some hens n chicks around them too.

I also kind of want another mugo pine in the smaller bed near the street. But the nursery only had one available this time of year. So we put the spirea there for now.

I like this look with the rocks and hens 'n chicks. It's so cute!

https://www.landscape-design-in-a-day.com/dwarf-mugo-pine-get-the-right-plant/

It looks really good, Popmama! With everything you have in there I think it's gonna be really "filling up" by the second year.

If you want to arrange to stop by here sometime (120th & Colorado Blvd) I can give you starts for a few different varieties of semps/hen & chicks to get you going! If you're interested and you decide to PM me post here that you did and I'll sign in to check the account that's associated with my RMG/GW account--I seldom check that email account unless I know somebody's sending me something there!

And just a heads up on the mugo pine. They're always really "cute" in the pots when you buy them, but after a few years "the cute" tends to go away and they get considerably bigger than most people ever expect them to. Some grow faster than others but I believe they all eventually get "big."

It'll be interesting to see updated pics when everything starts growing in spring!

Skybird

F 10.14.22 @ 2300 MDT

Oh hi there Skybird! Yes, I will send you a note to come collect some sedums.

I read a lot about mugo pine before I bought this one and how most are grown from seed which causes them to vary a lot especially in growth. I chose this specific variety of mugo pine for the exact reason you mention. This one is grown by Iseli nursery.

https://www.iselinursery.com/colorful-conifers/trudwarf-mugo-pine-collection/pinus-mugo-slowmound/

There were a couple others that fit my needs but none that I could find locally. I just got lucky on this one. I would have liked two but there was only one left at the wholesale nursery. I will look for another matching one next year.