DENVER — Colorado's heat wave and drought situation have homeowners rethinking their lawns, not only how to care for them, but how to better use the space. A Denver business wants to make it quick and easy to design. You're in good company with Tilly.
We would all love our lawns to be a great oasis when we open the door, but too often it's a thorn in our side.
"We did a lot of research right off the bat and found that we weren't alone," said Tilly co-founder and CEO Alexis Sutton. "Homeowners are overwhelmed, they don't know where to start with their yard."
Tilly is an online landscape design company that will layout the possibilities for you.
"Every square inch of your yard matters, so we've seen a lot of interest in, almost this concept of designing outdoor rooms," said Sutton. "So, entertaining spaces, vegetable gardens."
She showed us zucchini, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and herbs grown in a Denver backyard Tilly helped design.
Their experts use pictures and virtual visits to build a plan in a fraction of the time and cost of a traditional landscaping service.
"One is that, local landscapers are really backed up," said Sutton. "So, unless you have a very lucrative or large project, a lot of times they don't even have times for you, or to come do a site visit."
In turn, you get the flexibility of hiring help for the work, or building out the plan at your own pace.
"[Clients] will do their fire pit this year. They'll do a garden bed next year, their patio," said Sutton. "And, just kind of piece it together over time as budget and time allow them."
And, Tilly educates homeowners about best practices depending on the particular region's climate and terrain.
In Colorado, it means being smart about our limited water resources.
"That looks like drought tolerant yards," said Sutton. "People reducing the size of their lawn, looking for native species that really support pollinators like bees and butterflies that are really threatened right now."
In many respects, the COVID-19 pandemic made us rethink our lawns. They became a brief escape from all the time indoors.
Tilly wants you to extend the comforts of home. They also do work on wedding and lodging venues. And, they just started working with victims of the Marshall Fire who want to rebuild.