How thirsty is your yard or garden?

According to the City of Steamboat Springs, about 30% of the community’s treated water supply is applied outdoors to lawns and gardens.

Watering requirements are in effect for the season and outdoor watering is only permitted on your designated days. Those days are based on the last number (even or odd) of your address with no watering on Wednesday within the city limits. Water only before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. on your watering days. Please remember this: Water is not an unlimited resource.

“We are fortunate to live in the Yampa Valley, a semi-arid climate where water is a precious resource. How we use water matters and maintaining and creating gardens and landscapes that are climate-appropriate is a great way to conserve water,” said Madison Muxworthy, soil moisture, water and snow program manager at Yampa Valley Sustainability Council.

Learn more about conserving water outdoors and climate-appropriate gardening landscaping practices with a free copy of YVSC’s Yampascaping Guidebook which will be available when you attend the Botanic Park benefit Friday, June 3, and Saturday, June 4.

“Yampascaping is a process of transforming a yard or other piece of land into one that is more appropriate to the Yampa Valley region,” Muxworthy said. “It brings the floral communities we find on our trails and along our rivers to the land around our homes and businesses, which in turn conserves water, stabilizes soil, reduces weeds and provides food for birds and pollinators,”

YVSC’s Sustaining Water program encourages water conservation actions like planting native and drought-tolerant species, using a rain barrel, mulching, improving irrigation efficiency, reducing non-native grasses and letting grass go dormant. Visit yvsc.org/water-conservation to learn more.

While there are many resource websites to peruse, you might just want to get outside and take a field trip to the Botanic Park’s Waterwise and Plant Select Gardens to see some stunning plant selections which were tested and trialed for two-to-five years before being introduced to consumers. These plants check all the boxes for sustainability when they are the right plant for the right place.

Learn more at the Yampa River Botanic Park’s Annual Spring Plant Benefit held on the green from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday for members only, and 2-4 p.m. for the public, as well as from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. The Botanic Park will be offering attractive high-altitude, hard-to-find perennials to beautify your garden and attract pollinators.

There will be a demonstration on trough planting at 3 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Saturday. Routt County Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer your gardening questions, and the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council will be there to provide information for incorporating more resilient landscaping and gardening practices into your space. Mark your calendar for this exciting event.

Georgianne Nelson has been a Routt County Master Gardener since 2000 and a supporter of the Yampa River Botanic Park for nearly as long, where she currently serves as a board member.