Sustainable landscapes and pollinator friendly gardens are a popular topic these days. But for Colorado Vista Landscape Design (an ALCC Sustainable Landscape Partner), it is a way of life that has also become a marketing strategy.

Tanya Fisher, owner of Colorado Vista, has incorporated her passion for water-wise, sustainable habitats into every aspect of her business. By promoting the importance—and the benefits—of wildscaping, xeriscaping, and other sustainable practices, she is helping improve the local ecosystem while gaining new clients.

She does this through several methods: community involvement, teaching, and consulting.

Community involvement
Fisher helped the City of Fort Collins redevelop land use codes to include water conservation and hydrozoning. The work included a Xeriscape design assistance rebate program, which encouraged consumers to remodel their landscape to be water-friendly and sustainable.

As a participating designer in the program, she offers her consulting services to those pursuing the rebate. The consultation charge is minimal—about a 1/3 the cost of her usual work. Once consumers see the potential in their small changes, they often choose to take the project further and become clients of Colorado Vista.

Fisher also donates her time to community efforts. She was asked by Little Thompson Water District to offer a presentation about Xeriscape and water conservation. She participates each year in the ALCC Northern Chapter Day of Service project, volunteering her design services and lending a hand with the physical work of installation. In 2015, the latter effort allowed her not only to incorporate sustainable principles into the projects, but it also gave her an opportunity to educate students at Roosevelt High School where the project took place.

Each spring, Fisher serves in a resource booth at the Conservation Gardens Fair hosted by Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. The public can meet with her after a garden tour and learn how to incorporate what they learned in the garden into their own landscapes.

Teaching
By offering classes and workshops, Fisher can educate the public while reaching potential customers. She offers presentations at a local greenhouse about PlantSelect® plants and about the benefits of wildscaping.

She has also taught two horticulture classes at Front Range Community College, on Xeriscaping and “how to start a green industry business.”

Consulting
Fisher says that about half of her customers initiate a conversation about sustainable landscapes, while the other half approach her about landscape work without any thoughts on sustainability. During her initial, free consultation, education is key. She helps consumers understand what to consider and why.

When discussing her design principles, Fisher educates the customer about sustainability and why it is her priority. By demonstrating that a sustainable landscape will attract wildlife and create a habitat, customers—even those who may not have cared about it going in—buy into the concept and become supporters.

Additionally, Fisher was approached about 8 years ago by a property management company that needed help with an HOA. As an independent consultant, she helped the HOA update their rules regarding landscaping. Since then, she has helped at least 8 HOAs in Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland review their guidelines and establish new rules that allow residents to create water-wise landscapes and sustainable wildlife habitats in common areas.

What guides her work at Colorado Vista Landscape Design, says Fisher, "is the belief that the work of the landscape industry has a much bigger impact than we realize. By designing and installing a landscape, you are creating an ecosystem, a habitat that you share with nature." By reaching out to consumers and helping them understand the value and the responsibility of sustainable landscapes, the sales pitch can turn into relationship-building. 

Read more in this issue of Colorado Green NOW:
Top 10 landscape trends for this season
Businesses can enforce drug-free workplace policy, judges rule
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge launched
Stingless wasps released in Boulder to target EAB