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The salmon flower opening in the Engleman prickly pear and the stalk of crimson firecracker blooms on a red yucca invalidate misconceptions about water-smart gardens.
A water-conserving landscape doesn’t have to be a sun-bleached and solitary cactus poking up through a blanket of sterile rocks, and the garden at the Virgin Valley Water District’s (VVWD’s) administration building proves that with beauty and function.
Instead of forbidding spiky plants, the water district’s water-smart landscape features the soft gray-green of a fruitless olive, the green bark and yellow blooms of a Desert Museum palo verde and the tangerine flowers of globe mallows.
William “Pete” Peterson, VVWD water conservation expert, has been working on the garden for more than a year, from the planning stages to the final stages.
“We started with the idea, got bids (for the landscape installation) and then got (VVWD) board permission,” Peterson said. “I think it’s turning out nicely. It should be completed in another week or two.”
Peterson still has some plant identification signs to place and some solar lighting to include, but the bulk of his work is done and the garden is open for business.
“We decided, when we were talking about conservation, to give some examples of plants that save water but still have an attractive landscape,” Peterson said. “We asked for ideas from landscapers and they gave us plenty. We wanted to keep the front side (of the property) Sonoran style, but we went with a Mediterranean look along the side.”
There are plants, such as cacti, that literally need no water, and the entire garden “uses very little water,” Peterson said.
When the project is complete, all plants will have signs identifying them and will be assigned a number that will correspond to specific cultural information included on sheets located inside the water district office.
“We’ll also have complete landscaping layouts that will be available,” Peterson said. “We have pool-friendly layouts, for example. People can ask me questions and I’ll be glad to answer them.”
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