Copyright © 2011 Express Publishing Inc. 
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is strictly prohibited. Contact Us The Sun Valley Guide magazine is distributed free four times a year to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area communities. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper will receive the Sun Valley Guide with their subscription.
Grow Habitat
A Water Wonder
New technologies enable a Hailey couple to create a landscape that is both beautiful and water-wise.
By Dana DuGan
Photos by David N. Seelig

Water is at a premium in the West, and Idaho homeowners are being challenged to live within nature's means. Blaine County is in the dubious position of being one of the thirstiest in the nation. Households here consume 762 gallons a day, six times the national average. Half that water goes toward irrigation.

Clearly residents of the Wood River Valley have a duty to act, but they need not forgo attractiveness to achieve the goal of conservation.

Tom and Molly Page built their charming, LEED-certified Hailey home in 2009. They mandated landscaping that was low maintenance, conserved water and was aesthetically pleasing. They succeeded.

Slightly hidden from its neighbors by an array of lush, natural landscaping, the Pages' home consumes an average of 369 gallons of water a day, a figure less than half the amount of a standard Blaine County household. But theirs is not the barren, dry landscape that the term xeriscaping (the art of water-wise landscaping) often implies. The Pages have not sacrificed a lawn for their two children to play soccer on, nor thrown the idea of a vegetable garden or fruit trees on the compost heap. Colorful plants and vibrant shrubs, such as chokeberry, mountain mahogany and Western sand cherry, are abundant in Molly's garden.

Through thoughtful design, careful soil selection and specific zoning for specific plants, the Pages have achieved a functional, beautiful landscape that minimizes water use and allows a wider variety of plant life than traditional xeriscaping. So successful have they been that the Pages' yard is one of the first LEED-certified landscapes in the Wood River Valley.

"Our philosophy is to find a strategy for every client that will use as little water as possible to maintain it,” said Mark Spencer, project manager for Hailey-based Native Landscapes, who designed the Pages' garden. A sophisticated irrigation-control system (called an Evapotranspiration-based central control) allows constant monitoring and easy adjustment to ensure that the garden never takes more water than it needs. It's also tied into a weather system so it won't over water.

"It's worked really well. We can look out onto a really nice native environment,” Molly said. "We made a conscious decision to have less sod, and what we do have is Idaho fescue. And with all the native berry shrubs, we feel like we're in an oasis.” Indeed, an abundant berry patch borders a low fence, surrounding flowing grasses and the native berry-producing shrubs and trees, which are a conspicuous departure from the standard neighborhood pines, aspens and cottonwoods.

After clearing much of the lot, the Pages opted to keep the mature elms in front, lilacs on the north and south sides, a box elder and some chokecherry trees. They created one conventional turf area for the children to play in (9 percent of the total 18,000 square feet of landscaping). Native groundcover, such as cranesbill geranium, rosy pussytoes, basin wildrye and Rocky Mountain penstemon cover another 14 percent. "Most Old Hailey lots have more traditional landscaping with bluegrass,” Spencer said. "They went a different direction." In addition to native plantings, plans called for raised beds for a vegetable garden on the southwest side of the house. "Our strawberries, some of them, are ever-bearing. So we're still eating them now,” Molly said in October. The south side, which was designed for low water use, is very colorful throughout the summer. Apricot and pear trees were also added. Molly makes jam from their fruit.

The high-efficiency evapotranspiration watering system, the first to be installed in the Wood River Valley, is run by a computer in the Native Landscape office in Hailey. At first more water was needed to establish the plants (but still half as much as a conventional sprinkler system would use, Spencer said). By the second season, water use dropped, and this year it was cut in half. Spencer projects even lower water needs as the plants continue to mature.

Most plantings are watered once a week (the vegetables a little more frequently). Initially, the goal is to water once a week for shrubs and then, as they become more mature, every few weeks. At that point the "spring water should be sufficient until maybe mid-June,” Spencer said.

When all factors are considered—the irrigation system combined with careful planning—the Pages' garden consumes about 60 percent less water than one with a conventional system.

Saving money is one of the pros of landscaping this way, but there are other reasons to invest in reducing water use, including ease of maintenance, health (from the lack of toxic fertilizers and pesticides), conservation, survivability of plants and habitat creation. While the cost of installing Native Landscape's system (about $2,000, 30 percent more than a conventional system) puts it out of reach of some valley homeowners, there are ways to get closer to the long-term savings that the system imparts. One is exchanging a lawn for more varied landscape, or simply choosing a different grass than the popular-but-thirsty bluegrass and buffalo grass (tall fescue and sheep fescue are good alternatives). An attractive, low-maintenance option is to replace some or all of a lawn with pavers. And, when in the planning stages, be sure to integrate plants such as shade trees to take advantage of natural water conservation.

Implementing some or all of these methods can result in saving money and helping the environment—not to mention enjoying an attractive landscape.

Save Water Save $$

Think about irrigation. Don't turn the sprinkler system on in May and forget about it until October. If it's raining, turn it off. Check to see if the grass looks green without soaking it. Live with grass that might be a little drier. A short watering is really all that is needed. "People seriously abuse it—an hour a day is too long. Twenty minutes every other day is about what it takes for a zone to be kept relatively green, maybe a bit longer in August,” said Mark Spencer of Hailey-based Native Landscapes. Make sure the system works properly and is not watering the road, driveway or just one area. Consider drip watering, it's more efficient than oscillating overhead sprinklers. A lot of new systems are more efficient, with wind-resistant nozzles, streams rather than misting, for instance.

h