01-08-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
How a ‘Hellstrip' Garden Can Transform Your Home's Curb Appeal
When Renee and Larry Hartsook moved to a Longmont, Colo., home with 9,000 square feet of Kentucky bluegrass that needed frequent irrigation, they only lasted one summer before they began yanking out turf. A $900 monthly water bill will do that.
The new plan for the yard, which local landscape designer Kristen Whitehead devised and the Hartsooks executed, would replace the thirsty stuff with a drought-tolerant xeriscape. First up: that patch of earth between the road and sidewalk known as the 'hellstrip.' The couple started there 'partly to ease our HOA into the realization that the grass was going away,' said Renee.
