Why Xeriscape

  You may wonder why I am xeriscaping my parents yard. Its not just to save money on their water bill. The most important reason has to do with the fact that Utah is a desert; water is a very important resource here. Most of Utah's population lives along the Wasatch Front which is very green and vibrant looking for a desert. The Wasatch Front gets anywhere from 10 to 30 inches of water in a year http://www.water.utah.gov/brochures/uws_broc.htm . Utah's average precipitation is 13 inches a year making us the state with the second lowest precipitation level.

   Anyone that has lived in Utah for any amount of time will probably have noticed that water is an important issue here. The local weather report is a key example of this as we have the reports during the winter on the snow pack and during the rest of the year on how our water use is progressing. The "slow the flow" commercials and water wise websites are geared to educate and make the local populous a ware of water issues.
  
   Our water keeps getting spread thinner and thinner because of population growth requiring restrictions. Last year after a lower than average snow pack and spring rainfall both Lehi http://www.ksl.com/?sid=25664781&nid=148 and American Fork http://www.ksl.com/?sid=25679863 had severe water restrictions. Both of these areas have had population explosions over the last decade combine that with a low water year and you have problems. This is just a sample of what is to come with Utah's population projected to grow by over 1 million by 2030; over 50% of the population lives in Salt Lake and Utah counties http://le.utah.gov/lrgc/briefings/PopulationBriefing2014.pdf  (p.5). With this projected growth where is the water going to come from? Recently we were asked by the state on a survey about important political issues what we think should be done to help meet present and future water demands.
    
    Most of my mother's family is local (Mormon pioneers) so water usage and availability is a big issue. I hear about it regularly. My uncle lives in Lake Shore (west of Spanish Fork) so I hear about the wells that run dry and all of the issues that the farmers are having because of the golf course and development upstream. I also see the people that never get in trouble for watering at the wrong time during restrictions and wonder how are we going to have the water for everyone. This has led me to take a proactive approach to this issue and landscape a water wise yard.