For institutions
Water districts, municipalities, and conservation nonprofits bring the policy, the funding, and the accountability. SimplyScapes brings the platform that turns those commitments into real yards on real streets.
The triangle
Homeowners live in their yards. Professionals shape them. Institutions steward the water, the incentives, and the long-view goals. None of the three can move the needle alone — and for decades they’ve been working in software that never talked to each other.
SimplyScapes is the platform that connects the triangle. A homeowner’s design becomes a pro’s proposal. A pro’s install becomes a district’s rebate record. A district’s policy becomes the homeowner’s next Saturday project.
The primary focus
In the arid West, outdoor irrigation is the single biggest lever a water provider has left. Indoor efficiency is largely solved. Agricultural reform is politically slow. Residential turf is the acreage that hasn’t moved — and it’s the acreage where institutions, professionals, and homeowners can all act.
We design the tools for that work. Every design made in SimplyScapes carries its plant palette and layout — the raw material a rebate program needs and that spreadsheets can’t provide at scale.
The carryover
A water-wise landscape doesn’t stop at the meter. Done right, it compounds — restoring habitat, cooling streets, and making neighborhoods more resilient in the face of the other challenges the West is facing.
Native plantings restore habitat for the 1,167+ bee species native to Utah alone — along with the butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects that irrigated turf displaces. A parkstrip conversion becomes a pollinator corridor.
1,167+ native bee species in Utah — the Beehive State deserves its name back.
Thoughtful plant selection and zoned defensible space — gravel and low-growing succulents near the home, spaced native perennials further out — reduce ignition risk in the wildland-urban interface. Fire-wise design is a choice the library makes easy.
Real plant data — zone, water use, mature size — supports defensible-space design.
Rock-heavy conversions run 5.4°F hotter than turf (DRI research). Plant-forward oasis designs — the kind we advocate — lower surface temperatures, cool neighborhoods, and keep cities livable through hotter decades.
Plants first, not rock-scapes — the library leads with living coverage.
Who we build with
These are live deployments and a standing membership — not logos on a page. Whitelabel partners work in the product every week, and what they need shapes what we build next.
Multi-year program collaboration
Utah Water Ways leads statewide conservation work through Slow the Flow. SimplyScapes provides the software behind Utah Plant Finder and the program's whitelabeled Visual Designer, while field projects help shape what we build next.
Visit utahplantfinder.com →Live whitelabel deployment
Yardtopia is IRWD's whitelabeled Visual Designer: Southern California homeowners design their own water-wise conversions under the district's brand, on the district's domain.
Visit yardtopia.com →Member
AWE is the leading North American non-profit advancing the efficient and sustainable use of water. SimplyScapes is a member because the conversation about outdoor water use needs software at the table, not just policy.
Visit AWE →Working in Utah
Utah Water Ways brings people, policy, education, and field work together through Slow the Flow. Our role is to make the digital part useful: helping Utahns find climate-ready plants, picture a different yard, and turn a public demonstration into something a neighborhood can repeat.
Learn about Utah Water Ways →Show what is possible
Utah Water Ways renovates real landscapes for deserving families and communities, then shares the process through practical video and Slow the Flow content. The projects make water-wise design visible, local, and easier to copy.
See the demonstration projects →Build in public
The Governor’s Mansion park-strip project turns a prominent state property into a working example of plant-forward, water-wise landscaping. The landscape was designed with the SimplyScapes Visual Designer, and Scott Brady joined Utah Water Ways in the hands-on build and installation. The completed conversion is expected to save more than one million gallons of water each year.
Put tools in residents’ hands
UtahPlantFinder.com helps residents choose plants suited to Utah. The Slow the Flow Visual Designer lets them explore a water-wise direction on their own property photo. Both are powered by SimplyScapes and available through Slow the Flow.
What SimplyScapes provides
What ships today — and, clearly labeled, what we’re building next with partners.
Shipping today
The Visual Designer and plant catalog under your brand, on your domain — the model running today as Yardtopia (IRWD) and Utah Plant Finder (Utah Water Ways).
A plant-selection experience scoped to your region — real photos, zone, sun, and water-use data — like Utah Plant Finder does for Utah's climate.
Residents can explore a water-wise direction on their own property photo, then choose and place plants themselves. A visual starting point makes the next conversation with program staff more useful.
Homeowners share a link or a PDF of the actual plan — real plants, real placement — that program staff can look at and understand.
In planning with partners
Enrollment, conversion tracking, and water-savings roll-ups for program reporting. In planning with our whitelabel partners — not shipping yet.
Aerial measurement and irrigation design ship today in beta for professional workspaces; the institutional layer on top of them is on the roadmap.
Partner with us
If you’re a water district, a municipality, a conservation nonprofit, or a funder — we’d like to talk. Tell us what you’re working on and we’ll show you exactly where SimplyScapes can pull a load off your team.
30-minute intro call. No sales pitch — just show us the problem you’re trying to solve.