As summer’s leaves drop to the ground, the six months of Colorado’s brown season begins. Rather than framing your house with bare branches and empty flower beds, bring your landscape to life with evergreen trees and shrubs. Pines, spruces, and junipers are key elements of beautiful, water-wise landscapes in the Pikes Peak Region.
Here’s how to integrate evergreens into your landscape:
- Use them for winter interest. Because evergreens don’t lose their needles in winter, they add green to your landscape year-round when most other plants are brown. Evergreens look great when combined with ornamental grasses, perennial flowers, and boulders in areas where you need more visual interest. They rarely require pruning, so adding more evergreens to your yard means less work. Visit our Water Wise Demonstration Garden for inspiring plant combinations that include evergreens.
- Think beyond junipers. Forget the junipers of the 1970’s that took over your front door. While newer cultivars of junipers can be wonderful low-water, low-maintenance groundcovers in areas with low wildfire risk, nurseries carry many other types of attractive evergreens. Some of our favorite trees include pinyon pine, Vanderwolf’s pyramid pine, and Tannenbaum mugo pine. High-performing evergreen shrubs include Hillside Creeper pine, Valley Cushion dwarf mugo pine, and various types of dwarf blue spruces. While few broadleaf evergreens can withstand our dry winters, Panchito manzanita is one that thrives in Colorado Springs. Plant different types of evergreens in an area of your yard to take advantage of the many shades of blues and greens of their needles.
- Choose the right size for your yard. Evergreens have dramatically different growth rates. Just because a plant is small in its nursery pot doesn’t mean it will stay small forever. While a full-sized blue spruce can look great in a large yard, it can overshadow a smaller house. Plant dwarf cultivars in smaller yards and spaces. Before you buy, check the plant tag to determine its size and growth rate to make sure it won’t outgrow the space in 10 years.
- Plant them in the right spot. Evergreens cast shade year-round, so site them in areas where they won’t block desired winter sunlight. Instead, plant them on the north-west side of your yard to block winter wind or use them as a year-round visual screen for unsightly views. They also make a perfect backdrop for flowering shrubs or plants with light-colored leaves.
- Reduce wildfire risk. If you live in an area at risk for wildfire, keep large evergreen trees and shrubs away from your house. Plant them away from ladder fuels like tall grasses and shrubs and prune off lower limbs that could easily catch on fire. Visit Colorado Springs Wildfire Ready for more information.
To learn more about our water wise landscape resources and irrigation rebates, visit csu.org.