Denver Xeriscaping and Waterwise Gardens
Your Yard, Redesigned for the Local Climate
Denver xeriscaping isn’t a gravel lot with a few scraggly plants. A professionally designed xeriscape is a fully custom, layered, seasonally colorful outdoor space built specifically for Colorado’s semi-arid, high-altitude climate. Local homeowners face intense sun, dry air, variable precipitation, HOA limits on landscaping choices, and wind exposure. That makes traditional turf landscapes both costly and unsustainable. Phase One Landscapes has designed, built, and supported waterwise landscapes across the greater Denver Metro area and Colorado Front Range since 1994, serving those communities with one in-house team that manages every step from the first consultation through close-out, with one accountable partner from concept to completion.
What a Professionally Designed Denver Xeriscape Actually Looks Like
The rock-yard image stops a lot of homeowners from pursuing waterwise design, and it’s worth addressing directly. A professionally designed xeriscape looks nothing like a gravel parking lot.
What you actually see in a well-executed waterwise garden is movement, texture, and color across every season. Native penstemon blooms in red and purple through late spring. Hyssop carries lavender color into summer. Yarrow offers flat-topped gold or white clusters that hold well into fall. Clover and ornamental grasses fill in the middle and lower layers, catching light and providing year-round structure even after the flowering plants rest.
The design accounts for bloom sequencing so the garden doesn’t peak all at once and go quiet. Decomposed granite pathways and integrated patios give the space shape and function, extending your outdoor living space into the garden rather than reducing it. A Denver xeriscape designed through this lens is a destination, not a default.
Inspiration Gallery: Custom Xeriscapes Across Denver and the Front Range
Every xeriscape we build starts as a blank site and ends as something specific to that home, that yard, and that family. Browse the projects below to get a feel for the range of work we do across Denver and the Front Range. You’ll see layered perennial beds, decomposed granite pathways, integrated patio systems, native plant arrangements, and full garden environments where all of those elements come together as one space.
Some projects are straightforward: a clean xeric perennial bed with a defined pathway and a seating area for a family that wants a reliable place to spend time outside. Others are more involved, with outdoor kitchens, water features, custom lighting, and planting designed to frame the whole environment. What they share is that none of them came from a preset package. Each one was drawn from scratch around how the homeowner actually lives.
If something in the gallery catches your eye, contact us and we can talk through what a similar scope would look like on your property.
What We Design and Build
A complete Denver xeriscaping and waterwise garden project typically includes some mix of the following:
- Site-specific planting design using climate-adapted native and drought-tolerant species
- Hydrozoned drip irrigation systems and smart controllers
- Decomposed granite pathways, flagstone, and integrated hardscape
- Soil amendment and preparation for Denver’s clay-heavy native soils
- Mulching plans tailored to planting beds and sun exposure
- Patios and seating areas designed as part of the garden environment
- Fire features and low-voltage lighting integrated into the overall composition
- Turf reduction and practical lawn panel design where turf still serves a purpose
Every component is designed to work with the others, and every project starts with our in-house landscape design/build process.
Why Denver Homeowners Are Choosing Waterwise Landscapes
Your water bills reflect something real. Denver’s semi-arid, high-altitude climate puts constant pressure on traditional turf. Intense sun, dry air, and variable precipitation mean Kentucky bluegrass demands far more irrigation than the environment naturally provides, and those demands don’t let up through a Colorado summer.
Traditional lawns weren’t native to this region. Maintaining one here takes ongoing chemical inputs, consistent irrigation, and seasonal attention that many homeowners would rather spend elsewhere, especially when the result still looks stressed by August.
Denver Water coined the term “xeriscape” in 1981 to describe a smarter approach to landscape design, one where plant selection, soil preparation, and irrigation work together rather than fight the climate. For drought-tolerant landscaping in Denver, that foundation matters. Colorado law also protects homeowners’ right to install drought-tolerant landscaping within HOA communities, which has made waterwise design a practical option across a growing number of Front Range neighborhoods.
With the help of our Denver xeriscaping team, you can reimagine your yard as a space you actually want to spend time in. The right combination of features makes it work for how you actually live:
- A layered perennial garden that blooms in sequence from spring through fall
- A decomposed granite pathway or integrated patio that extends the usable outdoor area
- A fire feature or seating zone framed by planting that softens hard edges
- Low-voltage lighting threaded through the garden to carry the space into the evening
That’s the kind of waterwise yard Denver homeowners have been building with us for decades. Tell us about your project or contact us to start the conversation.
The Seven Principles of Xeriscape Design, Applied to Colorado
Denver Water’s seven xeriscape principles aren’t a checklist. They’re a framework, and how you apply them to a specific Denver property determines whether the result holds up through a July heat spike or a late-season freeze.
Here is How to Approach Each Principle on Your Site
- Planning and design: We begin with a site-specific plan that accounts for your property’s sun exposure, existing drainage patterns, soil conditions, and microclimate. A design that works in Highlands Ranch may need significant adjustment for a Greenwood Village property with a different sun angle and tree canopy.
- Soil improvement: Denver’s native soils are often clay-heavy and compacted. Before planting begins, we amend and prepare the soil to support root establishment and drainage, giving your plants the foundation they need to perform long-term.
- Practical turf areas: Turf isn’t eliminated; it’s used where it serves a purpose: play space, gathering areas, or defined lawn panels that complement the design. Removing unnecessary turf where it’s fighting the climate reduces water demand without sacrificing the usability of your yard.
- Appropriate plant selection: Plants matched to Colorado’s freeze-thaw cycles, high-altitude UV exposure, and dry air perform season after season. Plants brought in from other dry climates often don’t make the same adjustments. We select for your property’s specific conditions, not a generic Denver xeriscaping design template.
- Efficient irrigation: Hydrozoning groups plants by water need so each zone receives the right amount. Drip systems deliver water directly to root zones, reducing evaporation. The irrigation plan is built alongside the planting plan so the two work as one system.
- Mulching: Mulch reduces soil temperature, slows evaporation, and suppresses weeds. The right depth and material depends on your planting beds, sun exposure, and the specific plants installed, so this decision gets made during design, not as an afterthought.
- Appropriate maintenance: A well-designed waterwise landscape isn’t maintenance-free, but it’s manageable. We set honest expectations before installation and support you through the first season when establishment requires the most attention.
Climate-Adapted Plants That Thrive on the Colorado Front Range
Selecting drought-tolerant landscaping plants from a national catalog is one of the most common ways a xeriscape fails in Denver. A plant rated as drought-tolerant in the Pacific Northwest or the Southwest may not handle Colorado’s freeze-thaw cycles, its specific soil chemistry, or its intense high-altitude sun through summer.
The plants that perform here are the ones we have watched succeed on Front Range properties over many growing seasons. Fire-resistance is also a relevant consideration for many neighborhoods, particularly in areas with wildland-urban interface exposure, and plant selection plays a role in how a landscape responds to that risk.
We select for color, texture, seasonal structure, and climate resilience specific to your site. Because the same designer stays with your project through installation, plant placement decisions, spacing, and soil preparation remain connected to the original design intent rather than getting adjusted by someone who wasn’t in the original conversation.
Examples From Our Plant Palette
- Penstemon: A native Colorado wildflower, drought-tolerant, attracts hummingbirds and pollinators, blooms in red, purple, and pink tones.
- Hyssop: Aromatic perennial with lavender flower spikes, performs well in full Colorado sun, long bloom season.
- Yarrow: Flat-topped clusters in gold, white, and red, low water demand once established, spreads well in dry conditions.
- Yucca: Bold, architectural perennial with sword-like foliage and tall white flower stalks in summer. Handles Denver’s freeze-thaw cycles, intense UV, and dry soils without stress, and works well as a focal point.
- Ornamental grasses: Provide movement, winter structure, and texture; several species handle Denver’s temperature swings without stress.
Designing for Denver's Water Reality
Rethinking Turf: What to Keep, What to Replace
Not every lawn needs to go. The question is whether the turf you have is doing any real work. High-traffic play areas, defined gathering spaces, and visible front yard panels can still make sense as lawn. What typically doesn’t make sense is turf along fence lines, in narrow side yards, or in low-traffic areas where it’s irrigated out of habit rather than need.
When turf comes out, the replacement matters as much as the removal. Decomposed granite, native groundcovers, ornamental grasses, and low-growing perennials each fill different roles depending on sun exposure, foot traffic, and the overall design intent. We plan those replacements as part of the design rather than treating turf removal as a subtraction and calling it done.
Irrigation Design That Matches the Planting
Hydrozoning organizes irrigation zones around what each planting area actually needs. A xeric perennial bed, a small turf panel, and a row of newly installed shrubs each have different water requirements, especially during establishment. Running them on the same schedule wastes water on drought-tolerant plants and under-serves anything that needs more during its first season.
Drip systems deliver water directly to root zones rather than broadcasting across the surface, which matters in Denver’s dry air where surface evaporation is high. Smart controllers adjust schedules based on real conditions, including temperature and precipitation, so the system responds to what’s happening in your yard rather than running a fixed program regardless of the weather.
Designing Ahead of Changing Water Restrictions
Denver Water has tightened outdoor watering guidelines steadily over the past decade, and those restrictions are likely to continue as regional water supplies face ongoing pressure. A landscape designed around water-wise principles isn’t just efficient today, it’s positioned well if restrictions become more frequent or more strict.
That means selecting plants rated for low supplemental water once established, designing irrigation zones that can be scaled back without stressing the planting, and avoiding turf in areas where it would be the first thing to fail under a watering restriction. We design with that trajectory in mind so your landscape doesn’t require a redesign every time policy changes.
Soil and Drainage as the Foundation
Denver’s clay-heavy native soils compact easily and drain slowly, which creates problems for both plants and hardscape. Water that pools in a planting bed promotes root rot in drought-tolerant species that don’t expect standing moisture. Water that sits against a patio edge works into base material, freezes, and causes heaving over winter.
Soil amendment before planting and correctly engineered drainage are the fixes that don’t show in the finished photos but determine whether the landscape holds up after a few seasons. More than 30 years of building in this climate is what lets us get those details right the first time.
Our Denver Xeriscaping Design-Build Process
Working with a Denver xeriscaping company that separates design, installation, and irrigation means those three functions rarely coordinate the way they should. Our process keeps everything connected under one team.
Here is How a Project Moves from Conversation to Completed Garden
- Initial consultation: We visit your property, talk through your goals, and assess your site conditions: sun exposure, drainage, soil, existing features, and how you actually use the space. The conversation drives the design; we aren’t applying a template.
- Custom design: Our landscape architects create a site-specific plan that accounts for microclimates, drainage, soil quality, and the full arc of seasonal interest. This is custom landscape design grounded in decades of local Front Range experience.
- Detailed budget analysis: Before construction begins, we present a clear cost breakdown. You understand the full scope and investment before anyone breaks ground. Cost clarity at this stage means fewer surprises later.
- Construction by our in-house crews: Our field crews handle the landscape construction phase directly. We manage all subcontractors required for specialized work. You aren’t coordinating a chain of separate vendors.
- Irrigation installation and zoning: Drip systems, controllers, and zone configurations are installed during construction to match the planting plan exactly. Irrigation design isn’t added afterwards; it’s part of the build from the start.
- Plant installation with correct soil preparation: Plants go in the ground with the soil amendments, spacing, and placement the design is specified for.
- Post-installation follow-through: Our irrigation team monitors your new landscape during the establishment period, typically several weeks after installation. We schedule a 30-day check-in to confirm the project is performing as intended. Your plants are covered by a one-year warranty, and your irrigation system carries a one-year parts and labor warranty.
One Designer, One Team, One Accountable Partner
When design, plant installation, and irrigation are handled by different parties, the gaps between them cause problems. A planting plan designed by one firm and installed by another often loses the details that matter most: specific plant spacing, the micro-decisions about placement near a wall or under a tree, the irrigation zone assignments that were part of the designer’s original logic. Nobody owns the whole picture.
Our model keeps one designer with your project from the first site visit through the final walkthrough. That designer knows why each plant is where it’s and what the irrigation logic was built around. When a field question comes up during construction, the person who designed the solution is the person answering it.
Our construction teams, subcontractor coordination, permitting, and post-project care are all centrally managed. After the build wraps, we provide:
- 30-day satisfaction check-in: A scheduled follow-up after construction closes out.
- On-site irrigation monitoring: An irrigation specialist monitors plant establishment for three to four weeks post-installation.
- One-year plant warranty: All plant material is backed for one full year.
- One-year irrigation parts and labor warranty: Covers adjustments and repairs needed after installation.
This continuity is one reason our clients refer others. Our team has over 30 years of Denver landscaping experience on a structure that stays consistent because it produces better outcomes than handing off between phases. About 60 percent of our new business comes from referrals, with neighbors referring neighbors.
What to Expect After Installation: Plant Establishment and Ongoing Care
Drought-tolerant and native plants still need consistent moisture during the weeks immediately after installation. Their root systems are adapting to new soil, new sun exposure, and a new irrigation schedule, and that transition takes time regardless of how resilient a plant will eventually become.
Our irrigation team monitors and adjusts your system during the establishment period, approximately three to four weeks post-installation, to make sure plants are getting what they need without being overwatered. We schedule a 30-day check-in to walk through the property with you and address anything that needs attention. Your plants are backed by a one-year warranty, and the irrigation system carries a one-year parts and labor warranty.
For landscape care and maintenance guidance through the first season and beyond, our Care Guide walks you through watering schedules, mowing, feeding, and plant health. If you want ongoing professional support after the project closes, our Property Care division offers ongoing landscape care services to keep your investment in good shape year after year.
Why Phase One Landscapes for Your Denver Xeriscape Project
Choosing a Denver xeriscape company means evaluating who has the local knowledge, the team structure, and the track record to get it right on your specific property. Here is what backs our work.
We have been designing and building landscapes on the Colorado Front Range for more than 30 years. Our team includes licensed landscape architects certified by the State of Colorado, which means the designs your property is built from meet a professional standard, not a general contractor’s best guess at plant selection.
Phase One Landscapes has received 17 or more awards from the Association of Landscape Contractors of Colorado, and we maintain active membership in both ALCC and ASLA. Our construction manager has been with the company for 31 years. Our senior designer has been here for more than 20 years. That kind of tenure is unusual in this industry and it directly affects the quality of what gets built on your property.
We run nine active field crews and roughly 60 percent of our new work comes from referrals. That number reflects how clients feel about the finished product. View our project gallery to see the range of work we have completed across the Denver Metro area.
Understanding the Investment in a Custom Waterwise Landscape
The most common question we hear before a first consultation is some version of “what is this going to cost?” The honest answer is that it depends on scope, and we think that’s the right framework to bring into the conversation rather than a range that may not fit your property.
Our pricing reflects fair market value for fully custom design-build work done right the first time. Material and labor costs across the industry have increased significantly over the past decade, and we don’t hide that reality from clients. We present a detailed budget analysis early in the design process, before construction begins, so you’re making informed decisions throughout.
Scope is the biggest driver. The size of the garden, how many features you include, and the level of finish on materials all move the number. Site conditions matter too, since grading, drainage, and access can affect construction cost. During the design phase we walk through a detailed budget analysis before construction begins, so you have real numbers before committing.
A well-executed xeriscape also works in your favor over time. Reduced water demand and lower maintenance requirements mean your annual costs typically decrease compared to maintaining a traditional turf-heavy yard. When change orders are needed during construction, they’re documented clearly and handled fairly. Denver xeriscaping done right is an investment in your property that pays returns in livability, water use, and long-term durability. To get a project-specific estimate, request an appointment.
About Phase One Landscapes
Our Story
Founded on a passion for innovative design and quality construction, Phase One Landscapes has been shaping outdoor environments in Denver for over three decades. As local landscape architects and builders, we’ve built a reputation for creating high-end, fully custom spaces that stand the test of time. Our clients are more than projects. They are long-term partners, and we treat every engagement that way from the first meeting through the years that follow.
Our Team
Our award-winning team of landscape architects, designers, and construction professionals brings decades of combined experience to every project. With recognition from the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado and the American Society of Landscape Architects, our expertise is grounded in real work delivered at a high standard. Many of our team members have been with Phase One Landscapes for 20 years or more. That depth of continuity shows up in the quality of every project we deliver.
Our Design Philosophy
Great design starts with understanding how a client actually lives. Our approach is built on collaboration, because every project is as unique as the homeowner it serves. Whether we’re designing a resort-style pool environment or a quiet spa retreat, our goal is to create a space that feels like a natural extension of the home and performs beautifully in Colorado’s climate for years to come.
Client Testimonials: Transforming Dreams into Reality
Frequently Asked Questions
For a deeper walk through options, budgets, and design ideas, see our article on building a drought-tolerant Denver landscape.
What is xeriscaping and is it right for a Denver yard?
Xeriscaping is a design approach built around reducing supplemental irrigation while maintaining a functional outdoor space. Denver Water developed the concept in 1981 specifically for Colorado's semi-arid climate, and the method is well-suited to the Front Range. A professionally designed xeriscape is layered, colorful, and fully custom, not a gravel lot. If you want a lower-maintenance yard that performs in Denver's climate, it's worth a conversation.
How long does it take for xeriscape plants to establish?
What plants work best in a Denver xeriscape?
Does xeriscaping really save water?
Water savings from a well-designed xeriscape are real, and they grow as plants mature and root systems establish. Denver Water and Colorado State University Extension both document meaningful reductions in outdoor irrigation demand when waterwise principles are applied correctly. The specific savings on your property depend on how much turf you're replacing, your current irrigation system's efficiency, and your plant selection. We're happy to discuss what is realistic for your site.
How is Phase One different from other xeriscape contractors in Denver?
The core difference is our turnkey design-build model. Your designer and project manager stay with your project from the first consultation through construction and close-out, protecting design intent at every phase. We employ licensed landscape architects certified by the State of Colorado, maintain ALCC and ASLA memberships, and have earned 17 or more ALCC awards. Our post-install care, including irrigation monitoring, a 30-day check-in, and warranties, continues after the last crew leaves.
Have more questions about your Denver xeriscape project?
We would love to speak to you about your project!
We offer custom landscape design and build services in Denver with the mission to create unique outdoor living spaces tailored to your lifestyle.
Start Planning Your Waterwise Landscape with Phase One
Choosing a firm for a significant outdoor investment is an important decision, and we treat the first conversation as exactly that: a low-pressure discussion about your property, how you want to use it, and whether we’re the right fit. The process starts with a conversation about your property, your goals, and how you want to use your outdoor space. You’ll work with one team from that first site visit through the finished garden, with one designer who stays accountable for the design from concept to close-out.
We work with homeowners across Denver, Cherry Hills Village, Greenwood Village, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Rock, Boulder, and the broader Front Range.
