The park strip is not the backyard
We convert a lot of Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock front yards from thirsty turf to rock and shrubs. The park strip between sidewalk and street is a different political and practical object. HOAs still want green at the curb. Street trees still need a root zone that is not 3 inches of cobble over fabric. Dogs still walk that strip.
A full xeric front that also kills the park strip can look unfinished from the road and can fight the HOA. Weston Landscape & Design will say which turf to keep before landscape design orders the rock.
Keep turf where the tree and the rules need it
If a street tree sits in that strip, a solid rock mulch cap is often a slow decline. The tree wants soil it can breathe. Turf or a planted well with a defined edge is more honest than a cobble desert against the trunk. Tree and plant healthcare belongs in that decision.
If the HOA letter is about "green parkways," write it into the scope. We can still drop the backyard and the side yard to xeric and hold a narrow, well-watered strip at the street. That strip needs its own irrigation zone. Sharing minutes with a new drip bed is how the strip browns in July and the HOA calls in August.
Call (303) 944-7495 with the HOA note and a photo of the tree in the strip. Do not assume the conversion is all or nothing.
Who waters the curb after the crew leaves
Park strip turf fails when nobody owns the hose. A drip conversion in the beds plus a forgotten rotor on the strip is a brown ribbon. Lawn mowing still has to reach that ribbon without climbing the new rock. Leave a mower width or we will tell you the strip will look ragged.
Lawn fertilization on a 4 foot strip is a different product pass than the old full lawn. We will not keep billing a whole-yard program for a ribbon unless you want it.
Snow storage on the strip in winter is another limit. If the town piles slush on that turf, say so. Xeric rock on the same strip then becomes a salt pan. Turf at least recovers in June. Snow removal on your drive should not add a private pile onto a strip you are trying to keep green.
Draw the keep line before the sod cutter shows up
Before we cut, we want the tree, the HOA language, and the irrigation zone that will serve the strip. If the strip should go xeric too, that is a written choice with a watering and weed plan, not an accident of the cutter path.