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Congress Park's 10,000 sq ft Native Garden: From Weekly Mowing to Once-a-Year

July 24, 2026
Congress Park's 10,000 sq ft Native Garden: From Weekly Mowing to Once-a-Year

When city crews came to replace the sidewalks at Congress Park, the plan was simple: rip out the old grass and drop in fresh bluegrass. But two members of the Congress Park Neighbors Green Team had a different idea — and the 10,000-square-foot native garden they built instead is a blueprint for what Denver landscapes can become.

"We were like, no, wait," one of the organizers recalls. "We want to try something different. We're gonna do a new process and make a beautiful native garden." A year later, the results speak for themselves.

The Native Garden by the Numbers

  • Size: 10,000 square feet
  • Species: 22 different native Colorado plants
  • Maintenance: cut from once a week to once a year
  • Water: dropped from 3x per week to once every 6 weeks (supplemental only)

That's not a rounding error. That's the difference between fighting a landscape and working with one. As one of the organizers put it: "Not only is this beautiful. This has actually helped us cut down on maintenance a lot."

How They Built It

The team didn't rely on luck — they relied on process:

  1. Scraped out 4 inches of existing grass to remove the sod layer and its irrigation demands.
  2. Filled back with a rocky, well-draining substrate — the lean soil native plants actually prefer.
  3. Ran irrigation to carry the plants through establishment.
  4. Planted 22 native seedlings in mixed combinations for a woven, tapestry-like effect.
  5. Waited a year — and let the plants settle their roots and take over.

The payoff is a self-sustaining garden that runs on Colorado's own rainfall and soil, not against them.

Why This Matters for Your Yard

Denver declared its first Stage 1 Drought in 13 years in March 2026. Traditional lawns burn through water to stay green in a semi-arid climate at 5,280 feet. A native garden like Congress Park's proves there's a better way — one that's lower maintenance, not just lower water.

"I think you should conserve water. I think you should build wildlife habitat. I think you should use native plants." — Congress Park Neighbors Green Team

The Plant Palette: 8 of the 22 Natives

Here are eight standouts from the planting — a spread of color, bloom time, and pollinator value. Click any plant for a full growing guide.

Eight native Colorado plants from the Congress Park garden — Blazing Star, Purple Coneflower, Bearded Penstemon, Blanket Flower, Lemon Mint, Scarlet Globemallow, Winecups, and Prairie Zinnia

Perennials & Wildflowers

  • Purple Blazing Star — Liatris punctata · slender purple spikes, butterfly magnet, blooms July–September
  • Purple Coneflower — Echinacea purpurea · purple daisy with a seed cone the finches love
  • Bearded Penstemon — Penstemon secundiflorus · magenta tubular flowers for hummingbirds
  • Blanket Flower — Gaillardia aristata · red-and-yellow, blooms June through frost
  • Lemon Mint — Monarda citriodora · fragrant tiered whorls, bees and hummingbirds
  • Scarlet Globemallow — Sphaeralcea coccinea · orange-red mallow flowers, silvery foliage
  • Winecups — Callirhoe involucrata · magenta groundcover, spreads and suppresses weeds
  • Prairie Zinnia — Zinnia grandiflora · cheerful yellow, a true Colorado perennial

The full planting also includes Nodding Onion, Missouri Evening Primrose, James Buckwheat, Scarlet Globemallow, Showy Milkweed (a monarch host plant), Purple Prairie Clover, Stiff Goldenrod, Big Sagebrush, Blue Grama, and Arizona Fescue — 22 species in all, each chosen to thrive in Denver's climate instead of fighting it.

Build Your Own Native Garden

Congress Park's project proves a 10,000 sq ft transformation isn't just possible — it's practical. The process scales down to any yard:

  1. Choose plants matched to your soil, sun, and water.
  2. Prepare the soil for lean, well-draining conditions — natives don't want rich beds.
  3. Install smart irrigation for establishment only.
  4. Be patient — give the garden a year to root in.

Xeris designs and installs native plant xeriscapes across Denver and the Front Range. We'll walk your site, assess your soil and sun, and show you exactly what would thrive.

Ready to Design Your Native Garden?

Request a free consultation and we'll build a plan for your yard — or browse our Denver native plant guide to start choosing your palette.