Check out a book by Sarah Williams from the University of Saskatchewan Extension Department. She is a well recognized expert on the Prairies and has several books.

Clayton

Here is a link that might be useful: U of S Extension

Xeriscaping can mean a range of things from plant free yards done in stone and gravel to lush gardens that simply don't need supplemental water.

Where in Ontario are you? Most of Ontario gets sufficient rainfall to support a plant based garden if you are careful with plant selection. I have a scree/cactus garden, a short grass prairie, a woodland garden, a bog and a tall grass prairie garden on my Southern Ontario yard and, except for the bog which is fed by the overflow from the rain barrel, supplemental water is not used. I use the rain barrel water to top up a very small pond and to water containers.

Choose plants that naturally grow in average to soils and avoid plants that require moist soil unless they are shade lovers. What kind of soil and how much sun does your front yard have? Do you want flowers or greenery, shrubs or trees, how tall, ultra low maintainance, groundcovers or patio instead of lawn .....

Give more detail and we can recommend plants.

Some of the plants I have in my SW facing front yard short grass prairie garden, in stony, dry, limestone based soil (all native).

Little bluestem grass, side oats gramma grass, buffalo grass, liatrus cylindracea, various penstemon, nodding onion, rattlesnake master, various low growing fleabanes, ratibia pinnata, butterfly milkweed, wild blue flax, purple cone flower, Kalm' St Johns wort, Potentilla, Serviceberry, various asters, various clump forming goldenrods, geum, opuntia.

Gee,this is good! Thanks for the information.
I am in Ottawa - zone 5 (used to be 4a but has been upgraded).
It gets H O T in the summer in the front yard during the heat waves and is quite warm in the afternoons. I am thinking of the following:

Progress the project in stages over the spring/summer:

First, by the front window - remove the lawn, install patio stones with thyme and other low growing plants between the stones. I want to make a sitting area.

Second, work in a scree bed around the perimeter of the sitting area incorporating (please suggest plants here) low growing grasses and plants for this area.

Third, mark out a gentle walking area through the remaining lawn (this will either be mulched or stone/gravel walkway) - work on this.

Forth, order mushroom compost (about 3 x 3 cubic yards) and cover the bed areas over (I was thinking of covering the grass with newspaper, grass clippings and last years wintered leaves) and then top with the compost.

Fifth, plant the plants. I have a lot of perennials and some grasses that I have started.

I will be cutting the grass out about a foot and flipping it over all around the garden bed areas (I have done gardens this way before).

And finally, sit down, relax and start working on decorating the whole thing. There's a list for this too:

Hummingbird feeders and plants that they like will be planted.

Bird feeders made from cup/saucers.

Butterfly resting areas in the shady nooks with sand in more flatter containers (with drainage/screening so the sand won't spoil).

Decorated round stepping stones to incorporate throughout and other ornamental ideas.

So I guess I am looking for plant types and more information on what and how a scree bed is designed. I have seen alpine gardens but I need to think hot plants here.

Thank you so much for the information to date. I will be checking the resources mentioned, the library and the Master Gardeners in the area.

Any ideas or comments are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
McPeg

You will need mulch, not compost to keep weed seeds out of the planting beds. Compost is good for perennial beds but not for the scree bed.

A scree bed is made of limestone screenings, coarse sand and a small amount of compost with peagravel as a mulch. Small boulders and large river rock can be placed for interest, then plant low, rock garden plants. I made my scree garden as a raised berm varying from 6 to 10 inches high by just dumping the scree mix in wheelbarrowfuls over grass that had been killed with Round up.

I have various species of hardy northern cactus, mostly Opuntia, along with Ratibia pinnata (Mexican Hat), Penstemon pinnifolis, butterfly milkweed and various fleabane. Grasses in the scree include sand drop seed and blue gramma.

Thanks Judy - I do plan to mulch the perennial beds. The scree garden is absolutely new to me. This is the information I was really curious about.
Many thanks,
McPeg

Wonderful input from the above posters. I know this is an old post....if any one is dividing their native plants this year..this Torontonian would surely love some. :) TIA