Denver Water Invented Xeriscaping. Now It Wants People to Adopt "ColoradoScaping."

Denver Water wants to get Kentucky greenery out of Colorado, so it’s rebranding the water-conscious landscaping method known as xeriscaping.

"Xeriscaping," a term Denver Water invented in 1981, is a landscaping philosophy that decreases the need for irrigation by using plants suited to the climate. However, it's now being axed in favor of "ColoradoScaping," which refers to the same ideas, but with a name that Denver Water thinks will have a more positive connotation and impact.

“It makes Colorado more Colorado (and less Kentucky),” Denver Water describes on its website. “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.”

But that vibrant landscape is often misconstrued, because people hear "xeriscaping" and think "zero-scaping" while picturing swaths of rocks with no plants or joy, according to Bea Stratton, landscape transformation program manager for Denver Water.

“That's not what we meant by 'xeriscape,' so what we have done is started to shift our language to 'ColoradoScape,' because we think it can more fully encompass what we mean by those landscapes,” Stratton says. “ColoradoScaping is diverse. It creates biodiversity. It increases soil health. It attracts pollinators. It creates wildlife habitat and food. It's a textural, colorful environment.”

In fact, 50 percent or more plant cover is recommended in ColoradoScaping.

The need for a rebrand was anticipated by Denver Water back in the ’80s, when an employee at the time, Nancy Leavitt, first coined the term "xeriscaping." Leavitt pulled xeros from the Greek word meaning "dry," and combined it with "scape" to make "xeriscaping."

As former Denver Water conservation officer Liz Gardner told Westword in 2021, some people “immediately said, 'People are going to hate that word,'” because of how close "xeri" and "zero" sound.

But Denver Water went ahead with the term, which took off and is used across the country today. However, the agency is now taking its own advice and calling the method ColoradoScaping.

“Denver is one of the hottest cities in the country, so if you're truly zero-scaping and just throwing in rocks and removing landscapes, you're increasing that urban heat island effect,” Stratton says. “We don't really want to be contributing to that. We want to focus on protecting our trees, expanding the tree canopy, and cooling off the environment.”

Additionally, in 2022 Denver Water signed a memorandum of understanding with other Colorado River Basin users with a goal of replacing 30 percent of non-functional turf grass in the Denver Water Service area. The utility hopes that using "ColoradoScaping" as a term can further that goal.

“Because ColoradoScaping is state-focused, I don't think it's going to catch on in the same way, but we were trying to pick out language that was more applicable to our specific environment and state,” Stratton says. “Xeriscape still definitely has its place and is understood by people broadly, but we just wanted to provide a more specific, direct definition of what we’re talking about here.”

The term "DenverScaping" was suggested during the rebranding effort, but each municipality having its own term wasn’t ideal, either, so "ColoradoScaping" seemed to be an appropriate answer, Stratton says. ColoradoScaping has many benefits for the environment, the biggest of which is water savings from not having to keep Kentucky Bluegrass lawns alive in the hot Colorado summers.

Swapping from Kentucky Bluegrass to ColoradoScaping can save people 50 percent or more on their water bills, Stratton says. Kentucky Bluegrass takes eighteen to twenty gallons of water per square foot, while native grass takes six gallons of water per square foot and native perennials take about seven and a half gallons per square foot.

Denver Water has resources to help people who want to transition from lawns to ColoradoScaping, including offering $25 discounts on a “garden in a box” of plants that are good fits for the climate, offered in partnership with Boulder nonprofit Resource Central. Those discounts will be available in the spring and fall of 2025.

In 2024, Denver Water started helping people with turf removal, also through Resource Central. Denver Water will pay up to $750 for a turf removal project if the result will be ColoradoScaping.

Money and water savings aren’t the only benefits: ColoradoScaping helps native pollinator species have more food sources, prevents soil erosion and cools the environment, according to Denver Water.

“If you put plants that belong here in the landscape, they provide much more benefit,” Stratton adds. “They require less water. They have deeper root systems and they're adapted to our climate.”

According to Denver Water spokesperson Todd Hartman, he was intimidated by the idea of tearing out and replacing his entire yard, so he did it in two parts. He encourages others to do the same if they feel similarly. Plus, Denver Water offers free irrigation system audits through Resource Central for those who aren’t quite ready to take the ColoradoScaping leap, but want to make sure they’re using as little water as possible on their yards.

For those making the leap, Denver Water recommends using Plant Select. Housed in the Colorado State University Horticulture Center, Plant Select tests which plants are resilient enough for Colorado. Any plant tagged with the Plant Select stamp of approval is a good option, Stratton says. In her yard, she has yarrow and rabbitbrush, which are both suited to Colorado's environment.

Soon, new developments may have to include ColoradoScaping in their projects, as Denver City Councilman Paul Kashmann is working with Denver’s Department of Community Planning & Development to update the city’s landscape requirements to require climate-resilient landscaping.

“I grew up loving a bright-green, well-trimmed lawn,” Kashmann said in a December 10 announcement about the updates. “Unfortunately, as climate change has sharpened our focus, we have learned maintaining that lovely appearance leads to devastating costs that our watershed can no longer support. I couldn’t be more pleased that Denver is now poised to develop critical policies that will make Denver a leader in yet another urgent area of environmental sustainability.”

Although the announcement didn’t include the word "ColoradoScaping," it’s safe to say that’s what Kashmann is talking about. Public engagement on the proposal will begin in 2025.