M Focus on: Maintenance & Operations
Xeriscape Demonstration Garden designed to open minds to desert landscaping
By DANI MESSICK | The Municipal
A central Arizona city is fitting its focus onto the acceptance of the natural landscape it was gifted. As part of that focus, it is teaching its residents to appreciate it, too. Surprise, Ariz., broke ground on a community Xeriscape Demonstration Garden at the end of October. The word prefix of the concept of a Xeriscape comes from the Greek “xero,” meaning dry. “The intention behind a Xeriscape Demonstration Garden is really to showcase what an appropriate desert-adapted landscape looks like,” explained water resource analyst for the city of Surprise Amy Peterson. Peterson said the city has a large transplant population, many from the Midwest, who may not know or understand the natural climate of the desert region.
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“The soil conditions have large implications on the types of plants you can grow here in your landscape,” she said. Water is a precious commodity in the city with a population of nearly 150,000 residents. The city has seen a 10% annual water usage growth for the last 10 years, with landscape irrigation composing a large portion of the demand. “We’ve planned our infrastructure and resources accordingly, but our options are to build infrastructure or use our system more wisely,” said the city’s water resource management Assistant Director Michael Boule. “We’re seeing a continual rise in use.
ABOVE: The Xeriscape in Surprise, Ariz., is expected to be finished in February 2022. (Photo provided)
The time to do this is now based on where we are in this drought.” There are already 11 water providers within the city, and the city government of Surprise is only the second largest provider for their residents. Most of the companies actually predate the city’s own system. “I think what triggered the city to finally go ahead and go forth with serious plans to develop a garden was just the understanding that we’re in a long-term drought in Arizona,” Peterson said. “We’re actively growing our conservation program, and we need something very visible for the community so that we can use it as a tool for our
