Landscape Design School
Course helps homeowners earn rebate for turf replacement
By Rachel Alexander
For more information regarding this subject, contact:
Daphne Richards
(915) 859-7725
d-richards@tamu.edu
A landscaping course offered by Texas Cooperative Extension and design experts in El Paso is helping homeowners earn a rebate for replacing turfgrass with native, water-smart plants.
The rebate program, coordinated by El Paso Water Utilities, offers $1 per square foot of turfgrass that is converted into a water-conserving landscape.
To receive the rebate, homeowners must complete a design plan that incorporates drought-tolerant trees for shade and low water-use plants as an alternative to grass. In addition, the redesigned landscape must include mulch to help prevent water loss through evaporation.
"What the Landscape School does is give homeowners the knowledge and background necessary to plan and implement a desert landscape for their home," said David Kania, water conservation technician with El Paso Water Utilities.
Daphne Richards, horticultural agent with Texas Cooperative Extension in El Paso County, leads the Landscape School for Homeowners, supported in part by the Rio Grande Basin Initiative.
"We wanted to give homeowners the information and knowledge to design a natural landscape for their yards and take advantage of the rebate program," she said. "Our involvement in the educational component is important, because affordable landscape professionals are lacking in our area."
El Paso Water Utilities Water Conservation Manager Anai Padilla also emphasized the importance of such a program in El Paso.
"The El Paso Water Utilities has been promoting landscapes that are sensitive to our Chihuahuan Desert environment." she said. "For us, it is really important that customers understand that landscapes in this area can be as beautiful and exciting as landscapes found in any other region of the United States. We are trying to increase appreciation of the desert."
Padilla said that El Paso Water Utilities assists the Landscape Design School by providing educational materials and staff support.
"We promote those classes via our back-of-the-bill information," she said. "The classes that we have attended are usually well received by the community and are a great resource to the citizens of El Paso. Comments from participants are always positive."
Topics covered during Landscape School include selection and maintenance of low water-use plants, use of fertilizers, irrigation, and landscape design principles. Additionally, homeowners are offered one-on-one consultations with design professionals regarding their landscape plans.
"The most important lesson we teach is that xeriscaping is not just rocks," Richards said. "We teach them how to deal with sandy soils, how to select plants that are ideal for the El Paso climate, how to safely use fertilizers and how to properly irrigate any remaining turf."
Tony and Eva Burdett attended the Landscape School to learn more about the rebate program and get help with their landscape design plan.
"This was a great class," Tony Burdett said. "Now we have the information that we need to relandscape our home and conserve water for the future."
Padilla said that since the rebate program has been established, more than 1,611 customers have replaced 3.4 million square feet of grass with water-efficient landscapes, saving 130 million gallons per year.
