Using the two phrases, “Xeriscape Principals” and “lush landscape” in the same sentence, much less on the same property, seems to be the height of contradiction.

But, when landscape architect, Ken Williams, ASLA, was called upon by a client to give her a “low maintenance landscape, but full and lush,” the principals of Xeriscape came into play immediately and the result was beautiful and exactly what I wanted,” the client admitted.

“When someone mentions Xeriscape, weedy native shrubs, lots of rock and gravel and miles of drip tubing is what usually comes to mind,” Williams said.

But, this award-winning landscape in San Antonio, Texas proves that this does not absolutely have to be the case. Xeriscape is the latest trend in landscape architecture. Its seven principals work together to conserve water through creative landscape design.

Given the size of the estate, the desires of the client and the area of Texas, Ken Williams’ knowledge of Xeriscape design, combined with the plant palette available and the Weather-matic irrigation equipment needed, came into play.

“In the plan,” Williams explained, “good use was made of indigenous plant material that is in wide-spread use in South Texas due to its tolerance of minimal rainfall.”

Another design innovation concerned the extensive original lawn area. Both the lawn and the existing shrubs and groundcovers were removed and replaced with a turf area one-third as large, planting beds and garden paths. Six inches of the existing soil was removed and replaced with new topsoil which was tilled into the subgrade and organic material was added to introduce nutrients back into the soil.

The irrigation system was the next step. (Williams is not only a registered landscape architect, but he is also an irrigation design consultant, frequently working with other landscape architects in irrigation system design.)

First, Williams had the city change the existing 5/8 inch meter to a 3/4 inch meter “in order to allow more flexibility in the design of the system.”

The irrigation system was zoned so that the turf and shrub beds were valved separately. Brass nozzles were used throughout the project due to their efficiency, and copper risers were chosen for the planting areas. ?EUR??,,????'??The combination of brass nozzles and copper risers are most desirable due to their ability to blend into the landscape,” Williams commented. Weather-matic Series 100 Low Angle Nozzles were used for the shrub and groundcover beds and Series 300 Nozzles on 35P Heads were used in the turf areas.

?EUR??,,????'??Not only were the lawn and shrub areas valved separately, but I also separated the sun and shade areas using a Weather-matic Mark 8 Controller because of its programming abilities and, of course, a Rain Stat was included. After all, we don’t want an efficient system running during a period of heavy rainfall,” Williams explained.

Certainly this landscape design has incorporated all the Xeriscape principals, but to look at the area today, no one would refer to it as a Xeriscape design. “Conserving water through the proper use of fine irrigation equipment, such as that designed by Weather-Matic, combined with the highly professional installation furnished by George Hall, of Hall Sprinkler Company, produced this full and lush landscape that totally adhered to the client’s desires,” Williams concluded.