Native Texas Plants; Xeriscape

Landscape Design in Fort Worth Tx can be tricky due to cold winters and very hot summers.  Right now North Texas (including Arlignton, Mansfield, Keller, Aledo Trophy Club Southlake,  are suffering from drought.  As a result water restrictions are crippling landscape.  This is why when doing landscape design it is so important to plant native.  This is called xeriscape.

The goal of a xeriscape is to create a visually attractive landscape design that uses plants selected for their water efficiency as well as stone and flowers. A xeriscape can easily use less than one-half the water of a traditional landscape. Xeriscaping will also reduce maintenance costs and increase the beauty and value of your property. With xeriscape you might choose to create a distinctly western landscape with rock formations or stone work.  You could create a mountain meadow, complete with an ever-changing medley of wildflowers.

Nevada found a 33 percent reduction in average monthly water use and a 39 percent reduction in average summer monthly water use resulting from the Xeriscapes (Sovocool and Rosales, 2001). This study also found that conversion to Xeriscape reduced annual maintenance costs by one third on top of the water savings

Examples of Xeriscape plants for North Texas are Mountain Sage, Desert Willow, Skull Cap, Rock Rose, 4-Nerve Daisy, Agave, Butterfly Weed, Cross Vine, Salvia, Turks Cap, Blackfoot Daisy, Black Eyed Susan, Purple Coneflower and many more.  All of these plants provide nice color that will come back year after year regardless of weather.  Please keep in mind that when first planted they will need to be watered deeply and frequently so they will establish a nice root system.  Once they are established they can endure through extreme weather conditions.

GroundScape just completed a xeriscape project for the City of Arllington Water Department.  This project was requested by the City of Arlington to show their residents how they can have a beautiful landscape with color without using large amounts of water.  Water Conservation is a high priority for Arlington, Tx.

Native Plantings are not the only thing that sets off a xeriscape.  Beautiful rock and stone work also set the landscape off.  Many clients incorporate boulders with green moss or path ways with flagstone.  You can also create berms that provide depth and height to a traditionally flat landscape. Colorful eye catching pots can also provide curb appeal.  That can be placed upright or on there side.  The possibilities are endless.

We encourage you to visit and look at the various drought tolerant native texas plants.  Each plant is labeled and is available locally. If you need help incorporating these native texas plants just check out Groundscape on the web and give us a call.