Xeriscaping costs $5–$20 per square foot professionally installed, or a fraction of that DIY. Here's the full breakdown — plus the rebates and water savings that pay you back.
Cheap xeriscaping ideas that don't look cheap: free lawn removal, free wood chips, $2 plants that fill in fast, scavenged rock, and the design tricks that make a small budget read as intentional instead of unfinished.
Does xeriscaping increase home value? Honest answer: the evidence is mixed and regional. Good landscaping helps any home; low water bills are a real selling point in the West; bad xeriscaping hurts. What actually moves the number.
A lawn removal rebate pays you per square foot to replace turf with low-water landscaping. Here's where programs exist — CO, NV, CA, UT, AZ, TX — how much they typically pay, and the one rule that disqualifies more people than any other.
Xeriscaping cost per square foot, itemized: $5–$20/sq ft professionally installed, $1–$6 DIY materials. Where each number comes from, what pushes you to either end, and the line items where DIY saves the most.
Colorado now funds turf replacement at the state level, and dozens of Front Range utilities pay per square foot on top of it. Here's how the programs fit together, the rules they all share, and how to actually get paid to lose your lawn.
California pays for lawn removal through a patchwork of water districts — Metropolitan's SoCal program, city add-ons, and valley agencies. How to find your rebate, the requirements nearly all of them share, and the mistakes that forfeit the money.