Xeriscaping Design

Xeriscaping is a landscaping technique that uses slow-growing, drought-resistant plant species for ground cover and gardening. Indigenous vegetation can also be used either as a supplement to imported species or a deliberate reintroduction of specific native species that grow very slowly and maintain their color and vibrancy year round. They are already adapted to the cycles of annual rainfall and do not need additional watering or fertilizer to thrive. Furthermore, they need far less cultivation and trimming due to fact that they are slow-growth plants.

Xeriscaping with indigenous plant life offers benefits beyond water conservation. In cities like Houston where rainwater can wash pesticides and fertilizers into a system of bayous and pollute park and wildlife areas, carefully chosen indigenous plants can end this type of pollution on several levels. For one thing, native plants already have a resistance to native pests and do not need our help in repelling most insects. Secondly, it is possible to create new lawns and gardens that do not need to waste city water or use artificial fertilizer to maintain healthy growth.

Many Houstonians may not realize the potential for Xeriscaping our Gulf Coast region has to offer. The city grew so quickly that much of the native beauty of the region has been covered up. The bayous of Houston are home to a tremendous diversity of plants and animals life that can play major contributing roles in our landscaping projects while they benefit in turn from Xeriscaping techniques that are adapted to our unique corner of the world.

While many people may hesitate to consider such a shift in landscaping design, it makes sense for a city already moving in many new progressive directions to consider taking a very aggressive environmental stance. There are countless drought-resistant species native to Texas that can grow hardily in our environment almost no human pampering. Houstonians do not have to give up their French Landscapes, Italian Gardens, parterre gardens, or knot garden designs. In fact, all of these traditional landscaping forms can take on an entirely new aesthetic when Xeriscaped with native plants that directly correlate with those of our immediate surroundings, but are also placed deliberately in accordance with our sensibilities.

Such a change would no doubt help the local wildlife greatly by removing toxins from the food chain that kill not only insects, but the fish, birds, amphibians, small reptiles, and small mammals that eat them. Since it has probably been years since you saw a living box turtle or bullfrog in your back yard, would it not be wise to consider Xeriscaping as a means of creating not only a new look on your property, but also inviting back some old neighbors who belong here just as surely as we do?