Artificial turf in Lone Tree, CO, for a detached yard, townhome patio or terrace.

Start with a useful putting line.

For a detached yard in the Fairways or Heritage Hills, compare where a green would sit beside the patio and planting. Decide on putt lengths, walking space and any chipping before selecting its size. A lawn or pet area can remain separate.

Confirm the boundary before choosing the footprint.

For a condo or townhome, identify who can authorize the work and any restrictions on delivery or access. On a terrace, have the responsible building professional confirm loading, waterproofing and drainage before ordering turf.

Lone Tree properties have different water providers and property requirements. Use the exact address when checking City requirements or incentives, and bring applicable association conditions to the estimate.

The kind of home you have decides what the law gives you.

Lone Tree has more homes in multi-unit buildings than detached houses, and its newest neighborhoods are its densest. That matters for turf, because SB23-178 protects back-yard turf only on a single-family detached home. Its bar on HOA design guidelines that prohibit nonvegetative turf doesn't reach a condominium, or an attached home that shares one or more walls with another (SB23-178).

In a detached house in Heritage Hills, Carriage Club, the Fairways or Acres Green, the back-yard protection is yours, though the front yard is still your HOA's call. In a townhome or condo, the association's rules decide, and the patio or strip outside may well be common property.

Heritage Hills' own rules make that front-yard call concrete. Effective 1 June 2022, and not applied to a project already completed or approved before that date, the association's design standards bar artificial turf on front yards and on side yards visible from the street (Heritage Hills HOA Design Standards). Hardscape — concrete, tile, stone and sport courts — is capped at 20% of the front or back yard, with pool decking excluded from that count. The HOA can allow up to 33% only where the landscape plan uses screening or the lot is enclosed by a privacy fence, and that expansion is the board's call to grant, not something to count on going in. For a back-yard putting green with paver surrounds or a sport-court pad here, run the hardscape math before the plan goes to the board, and confirm the current rules with the Heritage Hills HOA before you design around them.

Shared ground carries a second limit under Colorado's newer turf law, set out in our guide to the state turf law. The city's own code is the other place a landscaping standard could sit, so ask Lone Tree before you design a front yard.

Which side of I-25 sets your watering days.

Three districts serve one small city (City of Lone Tree). West of I-25, Southgate Water and Sanitation District has declared Stage 1 drought: single-family homes water two days a week, Sunday and Thursday at even addresses and Wednesday and Saturday at odd ones, and only between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. Multifamily and commercial properties water on Tuesday and Friday.

East of I-25, Parker Water and Sanitation District assigns three days: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday for even addresses, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for odd, with no watering from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Parker Water). Select Terra Ridge homes on Indian Wells Drive are served by Northern Douglas County Water and Sanitation District, also at Stage 1, with two days a week and no irrigation from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. between 1 May and 30 September.

East-side homes on Parker Water can use Resource Central's lawn replacement discount of up to $750, but Resource Central requires the replaced area to be at least 50% waterwise plants (Resource Central), so an all-turf yard won't qualify. Turf doesn't need a watering day on any of the three calendars.

Bluffs, clay and tilted bedrock at 6,280 feet.

Lone Tree sits at 6,280 feet, rising from built-out suburban ground in the north to grassland bluffs in the south with views of the Front Range. Bluffs Regional Park, 235 acres of open space and trails, is where you can see the change.

Beneath it is Douglas County's swelling clay: bentonite and montmorillonite that can grow by up to 20% in volume and press on a foundation with over 30,000 pounds per square foot (Colorado Geological Survey). The county also maps a Dipping Bedrock Overlay District for its steeply tilted bedrock (Colorado Geological Survey).

On ground like that, the base is what keeps a lawn flat from one season to the next, and on the bluffs grade and drainage matter as much as depth. On the free visit we measure the yard and look at the ground, then plan a base that suits it.