Since Denver began to grow in the 1940's, people moved here largely from places in the Midwest. They brought with them their plants and ideas about landscaping from places which often had much higher rainfalls. Most predominate in these tastes was the taste for emerald green grass. Their choice was Kentucky Bluegrass and so the turf industry developed around this preference. That is one of the primary reasons that over half of the water used in the Denver metro area goes to keep our grass lawns and golf courses green.

Today we realize that there are other shades besides emerald green which are also beautiful. Lawns don't have to guzzle thousands of gallons of water each week to be beautiful and lawns don't have to account for 90% of our exterior land usage. There are other styles which are just as beautiful and much more water efficient.

"Zero-scaping" is a term heard frequently around Colorado. This is in reference to the term coined and used by the Denver Water Department "Xeriscaping" derived from the Greek word "xeric" meaning "dry." Xeriscaping too often looks like "zeroscaping." Our sand and gravel companies have sold hundreds of thousands of tons of gravel and river rock to people "zeroscaping" their yard. Unfortunately, after ten years the plastic is often sticking up through the rock and the weeds are so thick that the rock has to be hauled away to the dump and another solution tried. This hauling of rock and gravel to our landfills is a terrible waste of our natural resources.

Denver enjoys over 300 days of sunshine every year ranking it above San Diego and Miami. People move to Colorado because they love our geography and the many opportunities to live an active life, and we have some of the best weather in the country! Consequently, people want to have the time to enjoy the outdoors. Coloradoans love to cook and eat outdoors. They love to socialize and entertain outdoors. They want to have and enjoy outdoor "living spaces." They would rather be enjoying the outdoors rather than staying home weeding, trimming, mowing and watering their lawns.

The people of Colorado love color. We have incredible sunsets here not to mention the spring Crabapples and fall Aspens and Maples. We have four seasons and Coloradoans want to celebrate and enjoy each and every one of them.

The style of landscape design which incorporates our wonderful weather, our love of the outdoors, a celebration of every season with their unique colors, our dry climate, our desire for outdoor living spaces, and our desire for a low water, low maintenance landscape is what we have called a "Colorado-style" of landscape design for almost 30 years. It's not gravel and cactus with a cow's skull or wagon wheel thrown in for flavor. It's a style found in area with similar climate and "life style." It's a style found around the Mediterranean and often referred to as a "Mediterranean Style." With an adaptation to the plant materials because of our colder than the Mediterranean winters, we can create the same kind of outdoor living spaces including patios, fountains, waterfalls, night lighting, that one finds around the Mediterranean or in southern California.

Landshapers strives to create, through a comprehensive design approach, a customized landscape design which takes the client's wishes and considers all of our environmental factors to achieve a colorful, low maintenance, highly enjoyable outdoor living area which is an extension of the client's interior lifestyle.