Las Cruces has a major case of spring fever. Trees and flowers are budding everywhere. Even our mesquite trees, which hold tight until the last risk of a freeze is over, are finally letting go and are showing signs of green.
Now is a perfect time to highlight some of the easiest and most rewarding ways to “green” up our homes through landscaping. Landscaping adds beauty, color and life to our homes. With just a little forethought and planning, your home’s landscaping can also help you save energy, water and money.
Around our town, it is common to see yards that are mainly comprised of rocks or gravel with minimal or no plants. That type of landscaping is sometimes referred to as “xeroscaping” (presumably on the assumption it means “zeroscape”), but the correct term is “xeriscaping.” Xeriscaping refers to the conservation of water through creative landscaping using native, drought-resistant plants to create beautiful, low maintenance, natural-looking landscapes that enhance the home. Unfortunately, many homeowners have misunderstood the concept, and have covered their yards with gravel and plastic. This type of landscaping is not only unappealing, but it is self-defeating as far as water conservation is concerned, and it also can have very counter-productive effects on cooling bills in the summer.
Thoughtfully designed xeriscaping can beautify the home, enhance your enjoyment of outdoor living, conserve water and save money on heating and cooling bills. Here are some of the things you can do:
1. Design landscaping for shading and cooling. Heat from the sun is absorbed through windows, walls and rooves, making our homes difficult to cool in the summer. Well-placed trees and shrubs provide shade to help keep your home cool. Trees also release water vapor that cools the surrounding air temperatures. Because cool air settles near the ground, air temperatures directly under trees can be as much as 25 degrees cooler than air temperatures above nearby pavement. Trees planted to the west of the home are great for shading western-facing windows, doors and patios from the intense afternoon sun. Shrubs and ground cover shade the ground and pavement, reducing heat radiation and cooling the air around your home. A study in Arizona found that well-designed landscapes reduced air-conditioning costs in homes by as much as 25 percent.
2. Add trees or shrubs for blocking or deflecting wind. Properly selected, placed and maintained landscaping can provide excellent wind protection, or windbreaks, which can actually reduce heating and cooling costs, and make your outdoor living much more pleasant.
3. Use regionally appropriate, low water-use and native plants. Plants that are native to our area are typically very drought-tolerant, and are well adapted to our soil and climatic conditions, in turn requiring minimal fertilizer. Native plants are more resistant to pests and diseases than are other species.
4. Group plants according to their water needs. Plants with similar watering needs should be placed into specific “hydrozones” to reduce water use and protects the plants from either underwatering or overwatering. Areas of grass should be kept to a minimum, and should always be separated into different hydrozones because grass has higher water needs.
5. Maintain or upgrade automated timed irrigation systems. Homes with automatically timed irrigation systems use about 50 percent more water outdoors than those without. Your system can waste even more if it’s programmed incorrectly, or if you have a leak. Make sure to check for clogged, missing, or broker sprinkler heads or drippers. A leak about as small as the tip of a ballpoint pen can waste about 6,300 gallons of water per month. Replacing a standard clock timer with a WaterSense labeled irrigation controller can save an average home nearly 8,800 gallons of water annually.
If you want to get some great ideas for beautifying and greening up your home with landscaping, you will want to catch the Las Cruces Tour of Gardens on May 3 this year. If you do, you will see some great examples of fabulous gardens and landscaping, like the home of my neighbors, Steve and Mary Lacy, who inspired me to write about how landscaping can enhance a home’s beauty, enjoyment, comfort and sustainability. They have put all these principles to work and have achieved amazing results. If a picture is worth a thousand words, seeing these homes on the Tour of Gardens is worth much, much more. I’ll see you on the tour!
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