I first heard the term Xeriscape when we were living in Boise, Idaho. The city sits in a lovely irrigated valley, but water is scarce. Boise gets only 11 to 12 inches of rain a year. That means that we actually moved to a more moist climate when we moved to Rapid City where the average is a whopping 16 to 17 inches per year. It snows more here in Rapid City. Both places are very dry. In Boise, water rights are carefully guarded and fiercely protected. We had an irrigation canal in our back yard, just behind our fence, but we had no rights to take water from that canal. The ditch rider came along on a regular basis to make sure that no one was cheating. I was once told by a friend who was working as a clerk in a courthouse handling water rights cases, that there was no end in sight to the cases – job security for the next century at least. At any rate, as the price of municipal water rose in Boise, people began to choose plants for their landscaping that were better suited to the desert climate and more hardy in the face of dry conditions. Little by little, home by home, our neighborhood was turning away from manicured green lawns to more imaginative landscaping with grasses that were allowed to go dormant in the middle of the summer, a variety of cacti, more gravel and sand, and other plants suited to life in the desert.

Once we moved here to South Dakota, we took up residence in a subdivision called countryside. In those days country living was part of the appeal of our neighborhood. We didn’t seem to have too many folks who were into competitive lawn care. We mowed the native grasses and plants around our houses and used hoses and sprinklers to provide enough water to keep things green next to the house. We planted a few trees, usually pine or spruce, transplanted from the nearby national forest, and let it go at that.

Then, one year a neighbor down the street installed an underground sprinkler system. That August, when the rest of us let most of the grass at the edges of our property go dormant, the lawn with the sprinkler system remained green and lush. It wasn’t long before other neighbors wanted the same. Soon there were more and more sprinkler systems being installed. Along with the sprinkler systems, the demand for water was high enough that our neighborhood association had to start offering water meters that were designed for installation on pipes with bigger diameters as homeowners began to connect to the water mains with larger pipes to get more water. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what came next – there were problems with water pressure in the water system.

That was followed by neighborhood arguments. Now we have meetings to discuss our water system on a fairly regular basis. The bottom line is that many of our neighbors simply want more water. The aging water system is in need of repairs, so we have on several occasions approved increases in water rates. Susan and I use a small amount of water compared to our neighbors, but our 500 cubic feet per month now costs us about what we were paying for water when we lived in Idaho. The neighbors with the big pipes and sprinkler systems are using a lot more than we. I guess they are willing to pay the price for the water they need. There is no discount for volume purchases. In fact our new water rates punish those who use excessive amounts of water.

Xeriscape, sometimes called zeroscape, is now a topic of conversation in our neighborhood. I’ve been looking at plants that are more drought resistant simply because we have had a couple of really dry years. Over the winter we lost some of the spruce trees that we transplanted and some of the landscape plants next to the house need to be replaced as well. I am not positive that the reason is drought, but I suspect that I simply didn’t water the plants enough. A few hardy specimens seem to be surviving, but I’m probably going to go with plants that are less thirsty next time around. Assuming that sagebrush won’t go over well with my neighbors that means that we’ll probably replace the lost trees with ponderosa pine. Even though the trees are susceptible to the pine bark beetles, the small number of trees that we have make it practical to spray the trees to protect them. We have no plans to plant an orchard any time soon.

So yesterday it fell to me to remove the dead plants that needed to be replaced. It wasn’t all that much fun. It is sad to have to remove trees in which we have invested time and energy. Digging out dead and dry evergreen trees is a scratchy proposition and my arms were itching by the time I got done. They’ll be run through the chipper and become mulch. I much prefer planting new trees to digging out old ones. We’ll get to do that later this week. And then we’ll get to spend the summer dragging hoses around our yard to make sure that the new trees get the moisture they need.

Mind you, I’m not complaining, really. We have it pretty good where we live. It is a lovely neighborhood and we have great neighbors even if there are different standards for the amount of water that is allowed for landscaping. Like most things in life, balance is what is required. We’ll use a little water for our lawn, but try to find ways to keep from using more than our fair share. And we’ll live with neighbors who come up with different ways of planning their property. Meanwhile, I’ll keep things mowed so that if a quick moving fire spreads through the neighborhood, there won’t be excess fuel in my yard.

The price of water won’t be going down in my neighborhood anytime soon. And, of course, there is a water system meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

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