Low Water Use Plants Pushed For Parking Strips
The Utah Rivers Council recently launched its fourth annual Rip Your Strip campaign at an open house at Staker Parson Landscape Center in North Salt Lake.
The council is a community-based, grass-roots, nonprofit organization dedicated to the stewardship of Utah’s rivers; sustainable, clean water sources for its residents; and conservation of wildlife.
The Council’s campaign encourages homeowners and businesses to conserve water by tearing out the grass in their parking strips and replacing it with native, water-wise plants and decorative rock.
According to the council, nearly 70 percent of the water consumption in Utah is used outdoors and almost half of that is used to overwater lawns. By simply designing and managing yards more suited to our climate, billions of gallons of water can be conserved each year.
A parking strip is a great place to start saving water outdoors, the Council contends. It is difficult to water efficiently and most homeowners flood the sidewalk and street in the process.
“When you convert your parking strip, not only do you save gallons of precious water, you add a lot of interest to your landscape and cut down on maintenance,” said Mark Danenhauer, spokesman for the Utah Rivers Council.
Gardening expert, Larry Sagers, agreed. “If the only time you step on the grass is to mow it, you might
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want to rethink your landscaping plan,” he said.Sagers offered a simple water-saving tip: Learn to water by how much (amount) instead of how long (time). “If you don’t quite understand this concept, order 20 minutes of root beer the next time you go to McDonald’s,” he quipped.
For his part, Brian Heslop, landscape center manager for Staker Parson, says, “The average American family uses 60 percent of its total water on landscaping. Xeriscaping is a water-wise landscaping strategy that allows you to create and maintain a varied, colorful, even lush garden and yard while reducing water needs as much as 70 percent.”
The Rip Your Strip campaign has been successful, Danenhauer said. The council had hoped for 100 participants in the first year. Instead, they got 1,000. Nearly 4,000 people have signed on.
“The beauty of this campaign is that the Utah Rivers Council will provide free information to help the average person with no previous landscape experience to be able to successfully convert their thirsty parking strip from grass to a beautiful, low-water-usage landscape,” Danenhauer said.
Once you’ve got a parking strip project under your belt, you’ll be familiar with drought-tolerant plants and the principles of low water-use design. Then you’ll be able to tackle a bigger project in your yard and keep on rippin’, Danenhauer said.
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