Colorado State landscapers urge drought homeowners to "embrace the biege"
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Original Reporting<br>Subject Specialist
The Trust Project
Original Reporting<br>This article contains firsthand information gathered by reporters. This includes directly interviewing sources and analyzing primary source documents.
Subject Specialist<br>The journalist and/or newsroom have/has a deep knowledge of the topic, location or community group covered in this article.
Thornton Water is one of the Front Range agencies that points aspiring waterwise gardeners to Resource Central for irrigation help and “gardens in a box.” This box is called “biodiversity nursery.” (Thornton Water and Resource Central)<br>" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.37.06-PM.png?fit=780%2C563&ssl=1" /> Thornton Water is one of the Front Range agencies that points aspiring waterwise gardeners to Resource Central for irrigation help and "gardens in a box." This box is called "biodiversity nursery." (Thornton Water and Resource Central)
It may be a hard sell to get Colorado homeowners to “embrace the beige” during this extreme drought season, but Colorado State University’s gardening and water experts are up for the challenge.
Scott Curry and Lori Catalano threw out the eye-opening phrase during a campus podcast, alongside a bunch of tips for homeowners to accept their watering limitations this year, and then think long term about altering their landscape. We caught up with Curry, an assistant professor of landscape design, and added in other suggestions from their podcast, which can be found here.
What’s their message with “embrace the beige”?
Basically, they want people to tweak their water use this summer, not sweat a few patches of less-than-emerald home turf during an historic drought, and for the long term, change their mindset about what can be a beautiful homescape.
If we have grass lawns and can’t change them this year, what should we do?
Grass is not evil, Curry reminds people. Cool green turf helps cities fight off the “heat island” effect where excessive pavement actually changes the local climate to hotter. Like Phoenix. “We aren’t trying to blacklist the lawn here. The lawn has a lot of great benefits,” Curry told us.
But saving even a little water on 1,000 square feet of grass, multiplied times a million homes, can produce real water savings for Colorado, Curry adds.
Start with an electronic irrigation controller, if you don’t already have one, for about $150. Reliable brands include Rachio, Hunter and Rainbird, Curry said. Look for controllers with an “EPA WaterSense” seal of approval, and with a Wi-Fi connection option. Modern controllers can adjust your lawn’s watering needs according to recent weather, based on known “evapotranspiration” rates that tell the controller what the grass actually needs to survive. They can also be easily adjusted “at midnight sitting on your couch with your phone,” Curry noted.
Colorado State University has waterwise demonstration gardens in Jefferson County and other counties at its extension offices. Some of the gardens are also designed as “low flammability” in wildfire interface areas. (Colorado State University)<br>" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.40.10-PM.png?fit=780%2C515&ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.40.10-PM-1200x792.png?resize=1200%2C792&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-489888" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.40.10-PM.png?resize=1200%2C792&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.40.10-PM.png?resize=300%2C198&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.40.10-PM.png?resize=768%2C507&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/newspack-coloradosun.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-07-at-1.40.10-PM.png?resize=1024%2C676&ssl=1 1024w,...