(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

Xeriscaping

More Kamloopsians embrace xeriscaping, move away from traditional lawns

Aug 3, 2023 | 5:06 PM

KAMLOOPS – While a green piece of manicured lawn used to be the norm, more and more properties in Kamloops are opting out of lawn maintenance.

According to Colin Lyons, owner of Lyons Landscaping, he’s seen an increase in requests for xeriscaping in the last few years.

“As the years seem to get dryer in the summertime, xeriscaping becomes more and more popular all the time,” Lyons said, adding there are pros to a xeriscaped yard. “Our goal is to promote less weed growth, stronger plant growth and then be very conscientious of the climate that we are in.”

For some, xeriscaping has aways been preferred to a front lawn. Kevin Buxton for example, has been ahead of the trend for years.

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“Our yard started as a piece of grass, about 15 years ago, and we decided to take out the grass because we find interesting plants more interesting to look at,” Buxton explained. “We would like to use less water and the water we use we would like it to be more effectively going to plants that we enjoy and they require way less maintenance.”

According to the City of Kamloops, the average Kamloops resident uses about 800-to-850 litres of water per day. In the summer, that number rises to 1800 litres of water per person per day, with 80 per cent of the water being used outdoors to water grass, hose driveways and wash vehicles.

The municipal government believes a xeriscape requires 50 per cent or less water than a regular lawn.

“Already we are probably well ahead of the curve of where people would need to be if they were cutting back on their lawn. And if we needed to at this point, turn the irrigation completely off, on this year, everything would most likely survive for the rest of the summer just fine. It wouldn’t look as good but it would survive,” Buxton told CFJC News. “Whereas if we had a turf lawn, it would turn brown, become a fire hazard, possibly die back.”

Many new developments have also opted for xeriscaping. The new gated community of Sienna Ridge was developed without any front turf lawns.

And as more people are becoming conscious of their effects on the environment, Lyons expects xeriscapes and synthetic turf to become common practice.

“Water resources are becoming a very high conversation in people’s landscapes,” Lyons said, “so we are actually changing some of their landscapes to remove some of the sod and actually putting in a synthetic turf instead which requires no water and it’s green all the time. There is going to be a lot of that go on in the future and there’s gonna be a lot more need for it all the time.”