Gardening in Utah
Earlier this month I was lucky enough to get an early taste of summer visiting Tucson Arizona. The city showcased thousands of beautifully landscaped yards bursting with colorful native plants and rugged rock formations; only two or three lawns were spotted during the entire trip.
Compare Tucson to Salt Lake City: Tucson is in one of the four big deserts of North America, the Sonoran Desert. Salt Lake is in another of the four, the Great Basin Desert. Both receive between 11 and 15 inches of rainfall every year. And both make the top ten list for the driest cities of their size. But while Tucson has strict zoning laws and a local culture that encourages desert landscaping, Salt Lake is just starting to come around to the idea.
So, for current homeowners, future homeowners, renters with control of your yard, or even just people to have friends or family with yards, here are some suggestions from the Jordan Valley Water Conservation District to make gardening more suitable for the desert climate.
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