Las Vegas has always been the place to move to when you want to begin the more leisurely portion of your life. Either as a retiree or a person seeking better opportunities in a place where the weather is almost always pleasant, the decision to move to Las Vegas probably had something to do with taking it easy. Because so much of the population is seeking a more easygoing pace for their life, it is no surprise that as watering restrictions began to be imposed due to drought conditions, so many residents found it to be the opportunity to make their life even more carefree. In Las Vegas, the future of landscaping is water conscious.
Xeriscaping is also known as “desert landscaping,” and it involves the creation of an appealing yard space using elements that are more commonly found in desert settings instead of lush and tropical ones. In many areas, the idea of landscaping is to create an artificial environment that appears like an oasis, using elements that need large amounts of water in order to survive. Naturally, this type of environment does not exist in the desert, so the use of traditional elements in our hot climate is especially problematic. Traditional landscaping involved the installation of extensive watering systems designed to spread water across a wide area involving plants that would not survive without it. This artificial environment may be beautiful, but it involves continual care and maintenance, as well as high watering bills. As the drought situation became more and more of an issue, cities like Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson all imposed restrictions on the amounts and times that you were allowed to water your yard before fines were imposed. Watering outside of these restrictions would come with heavy fines and potentially the complete shutoff of your services, so the fact that you were helping to conserve was only one reason to water less. Many people began watching their yards begin to get brown and die, as the watering amounts allowed were not enough to sustain the plants in the hot summers. When the cities began offering incentives to take out traditional landscaping elements like grass and trees in favor of desert landscaping elements like artificial turf, rock, pavers, lighting and putting greens, many residents saw this as not only a way to conserve but also to ease the amount of yard maintenance that was necessary to keep their space looking good. This provided a way to save money every month on landscaping services as well as water, all the while doing your part to conserve.
Once desert landscaping is installed, there is little to no maintenance involved in it on a monthly basis. There is almost no use of living, growing plants that will need to be trimmed, and instead the landscape architect uses elements that do not need water in order to look good. While these types of landscape may be foreign to many people transplanting to Las Vegas from other areas of the country, they will soon realize that spending time enjoying your yard s far better than spending time mowing it.