Utah Native Landscapes

Salt Lake City, Utah

The default landscaping industry is making things worse.

Utah Native Landscapes exists to replace it. Functioning native habitat for residential properties on Salt Lake City’s east side. No synthetic chemicals. No landscape fabric. No compromise.

“Kentucky bluegrass requires 150,000 gallons per household per irrigation season. Utah is the second-driest state in the country. These facts are not compatible.”

Utah Native Landscapes was built on a single premise: a yard can function as habitat, or it can function as a water sink. Not both.

Every plant we install is native to the Intermountain West — evolved at this elevation, in this soil, in this rainfall. Not adapted. Not drought-tolerant. Native, with the soil biology and food webs to prove it.

We don’t use synthetic chemicals. We don’t install landscape fabric. We don’t build rock-only yards. These aren’t upsells — they’re the minimum standard for ecological integrity.

What we refuse to do, and why

01

No landscape fabric

Landscape fabric is polypropylene — petroleum-based sheeting that degrades into microplastics, destroys soil biology, and collapses the nesting habitat Utah's 900+ native bee species depend on. Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District spent three years removing it from their own Conservation Garden. We have never installed it.

02

No synthetic chemicals

No glyphosate. No synthetic fertilizers. No insecticides. Soil biology — mycorrhizal networks, nitrogen-fixing plants, native decomposers — is the foundation of every functioning ecosystem. Synthetic inputs destroy it. We don't use them because they undermine the thing we're building.

03

No rock-only installs

Utah's Division of Water Resources explicitly states that rock-only conversions create gaps in local ecosystems and amplify urban heat islands. Salt Lake City ranks in the top three urban heat island cities in the nation. Rock-only is not water conservation — it's dead ground with a good PR strategy.

How it works

01

Site visit

Soil type, sun exposure, drainage, existing plant community. What the site already supports — and what it could.

02

Design

Plant communities selected by species. Structural diversity across four seasons: groundcover, grasses, forbs, shrubs. Every element has a documented ecological function.

03

Install

Zero landscape fabric. Zero synthetic soil amendment. Zero compromise. Installation to the design, not to convenience.

04

Establish

First-season check-ins. Plant community establishment documented. Rebate qualification paperwork handled start to finish.

Ready to replace your lawn?

We serve The Avenues, Federal Heights, Yalecrest, 9th & 9th, Sugar House, Millcreek, East Bench, and Holladay.

Schedule a site visit