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Water-smart gardens often feature plants with exotic-sounding names that reflect their Western heritage, such as Mesa Verde Ice Plant, Colorado Gold Gazania, Apache Plume, Crystal Rivers Veronica, Purple Winter Savory and Prairie Jewel Penstemon. Each Community Conservation Garden offers markers to help you identify plant species that you might like to use for your own unique garden. Credit: Liz Biesiot.
Community Conservation Gardens
In 2005, Denver launched a program to heighten public awareness of and interest in landscape water conservation by planting water-wise Community Conservation Gardens at public buildings around the city.
Combining community outreach with youth employment and environmental education, the program provided a structured learning environment where participants developed basic job readiness skills while receiving mentoring in green industry best practices.
During a 10-week period, 10 youth workers between the ages of 16 and 21 replaced 2,850 square feet of blue grass turf at four public garden locations with eight new flowerbeds containing a total of nearly 1,200 drought resistant shrubs and plants.
Participating youth also provided educational presentations to neighborhood residents about water-conserving landscape practices. Each worker logged approximately 100 educational session hours and, in addition to hourly pay, six received $1,000 AmeriCorps Education Awards for their participation in the program.
Locations and Descriptions
The project resulted in four uniquely beautiful water efficient gardens with different design themes that showcase Xeriscape landscaping, which features plants adapted to Colorado's semi-arid climate. The gardens require supplemental watering only once every 10-14 days, and water use is monitored via automatic irrigation systems equipped with rain sensors.
They can be enjoyed year-round, and below are locations and descriptions:
Watersmart Parterre
Civic Center City & County Building
1437 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80202
(The garden faces Bannock Street between 14th Avenue and Colfax Avenue)
Complementing the curved, classic lines of the Civic Center, this garden features a traditional Victorian knot pattern of colorful red, orange, yellow and blue blossoms. Water-smart perennials from the Plant Select® program of the Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University can be found here. These plants have a protracted bloom period, and most are decorative through winter and the whole gardening year.
Prairie Swale
Harvey Park Recreation Center
2120 South Tennyson Street, Denver, CO 80219
(Southwest side of the building)
On the Great Plains, there are low spots called swales that collect water during periodic rains, but dry out thoroughly in between. In this manmade swale, water from the roof of the Recreation Center is directed into the garden during cloudbursts and after snowmelt. Tall prairie grasses like little bluestem and panic grass are found here, along with a rich palette of perennials and bulbs that provide color and interest through the gardening year. These plants can tolerate long dry periods and are ideal in the home garden setting.
Chaparral
Montbello Recreation Center
15555 East 53rd Avenue, Denver, CO 80239
(South side of building)
Massed colonies of shrubs along the Front Range piedmont and Western Slope plateaus form islands called chaparrals among the dominant grasses and flowering plants. In this Southwestern-inspired garden, evergreens provide a year-round backdrop to a diverse palette of showy perennials and annuals. In the spring, massed tulips emerge through the groundcover, and the shrubs form islands and archipelagos among the mats and mounds of wildflowers.
Spanish Courtyard
Highlands Senior Recreation Center
2880 Osceola Street, Denver, CO 80212
(South side of the building)
Honoring the influence of Spain and Mexico on our Western culture, this garden showcases herbal plants such as thyme, lavender and santolina, a native of the Mediterranean region that has bright yellow capitulae, or clusters of flowers on a stem like a pom-pom. Colorful wildflowers such as orange zinnias and marigolds festoon the trim beds through the entire growing season. Designed for winter beauty as well, this garden is charming when the evergreen mounds of herbs are mantled with snow.
Brochures and Maps
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View a map of the garden locations. (68K PDF)
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Download the gardens brochure. (1,417K PDF)
Program Sponsors
The Community Conservation Gardens program was made possible through a joint effort between the Denver Mayor's Office, Greenprint Denver, Denver Parks and Recreation, Mile High Youth Corps, The Park People, Denver Botanic Gardens, the CSU Denver Extension Office, Denver Water, Gates Family Foundation, Green Industries of Colorado, Applied Design Services, Plant Select, Little Valley Wholesale Nursery, and CPS Distributors.
