LANDSCAPING APPROACH

Low water, low input, low maintenance landscapes brimming with plants and wildlife

When planted close together, the plants form a natural weed barrier as they fill in and reach maturity by preventing weeds from obtaining the light needed to germinate. This “living mulch” means that no annual replenishment of bark or gravel mulch is required.
Plant cover improves soil health over time which results in greater resiliency to drought (the soil can hold more water from irrigation and hold it for longer).
Our recommended plants thrive without fertilizer and require very little pruning.
Most of our plants do best with bark mulch, resulting in cheaper install costs for you. High plant cover helps prevent the loss of wood mulch due to wind and heavy rain.

Most of our recommended plants need water just 1 or 2 times a month (yes, month!) after reaching establishment (usually 1-2 years). Compare that to grass, which needs water 3-4 times per week in the hottest parts of summer!
Our installs become “living landscapes.” Yards full of lawn usually house a selection of ants, pillbugs, and worms that get stranded on the sidewalk after rainstorms. Our plants support and attract all types of birds, butterflies, bees, and wildlife by providing food and shelter. When plants arrive on site for install, pollinators arrive within hours!
We delight in designing landscapes reflecting the Wasatch’s natural beauty, creating outdoor experiences in your backyard. Backyard birdwatching, fragrant and colorful blossoms, flitting butterflies, restful nooks, perhaps the soothing sound of water… all these are options we can support and provide.
Plant cover will cool the area around your home! Installing large amounts of decorative rock results in higher temperatures around your home because the rock collects and radiates heat throughout the day. Often the few plants installed in these “rockscapes” fry from the heat (my husband has dubbed these rock installations “thermal heat capacitors”). Our water-efficient plants combined with wood mulch cool rather than heat your home.

When sod is purchased and installed, it already looks like it is mature. However, perennials (flowers that come back each year) reach their full size usually in 3 years, and shrubs reach their full size in 5-7 years. Trees can take decades!
This means that you are responsible for feeding your “baby landscape” the food it needs to grow (like appropriate amounts of water) and preventing the things that could kill it (like bullying weeds) while your baby matures into a mostly self-sufficient “adult landscape.”
Usually after 2 years, installed plants have developed a strong enough root system that they can survive more limited irrigation and are more resilient against weeds.
We support our clients by providing a maintenance guide with instructions for each type of installed plant, seasonal landscape instructions (e.g., winterizing sprinklers), and additional resources specific to our area (e.g., how to locate subject matter experts, such as Utah State University Extension specialists).
We offer landscape maintenance services for those wishing for professional nurturing.

We advocate for an integrated pest management approach that works to prevent weeds over the long-term by using all the tools in our toolbox, such as mulch, dense plant cover, and targeted irrigation. We also understand that it is unrealistic to expect that clients will be able to control weed populations in major landscape projects just by hand-pulling or other mechanical means. We provide guidance in how to use the appropriate chemical weed controls, in the correct amounts, at the right times to prevent and control weeds so that landscape plants can establish and prevent future weed growth themselves.