Thanks for the comments. Holleygarden, I do it all of the time! haha. A lot of the plant material I'm using is very young and will take some time to fill in. Most of the succulents actually look better this time of year when the cold temperatures come our way because they get awesome colorations. Take Aloe Cameronii for example, it will turn a bright red when stressed by cold or drought. Plus, I got to expand the "plantable" space in my yard. I am now growing lots of plants that I didn't have room for before. Arbutus Marina, Agave Vilmoriniana, Aloe Littoralis, Aloe marlothii, Aloe arborescens... those are only some of them. I can't wait to see what my yard evolves into. I agree with Rhodium as well. We thought we would need a lawn at the time we installed it. We would always have friends and family over, and we love to have a good barbeque, so we figured a lawn would be the best option. It turns out, we opted for eating indoors a majority of the time because it was either too hot or too cold outside! lol (our summer temperatures can easily reach 115F and more). Even if we ended up eating outside, we would stay under the ramada (to the right of the pictures above). It's been about 4 years since that. It was always such a hassle to mow the lawn, fertilize it, water dry spots... all for looks, since we hardly gave it its intended use. This summer was the last straw for me. The pressing drought issues along with what i've already mentioned made me take the lawn out. It was a rather slow process since I took out pieces as I had the money to replant the bare spots. Plus, I added some mounds here and there to give my aloes good drainage. Like laag mentioned, it makes you content to stay in the garden. And we use the area even more now that the lawn is gone!

I'd also suggest using succulents in these containers, because most can take the full sun and reflected heat with just once a week handwatering. Aloes, soft Agaves such as A.attenuata or A. bracteosa, Bulbine frutescens, Aeonium simsii and A. haworthii, and other South African plants such as Arctotis cultivars(winter into spring blooming daisies in a multitude of colors), Kalanchoe pumila, Ice plants such as Lampranthus, Drosanthemum, Crassula 'Campfire', are all plants that can give lots of year round color with just once or at most twice a week handwatering. Phormiums will tend to burn in inland S. California sun. Make sure you have new good potting soil and work in enough time release fertilizer, and maybe even incorporate some of the water absorbing polymers into the soil mix to help retain available soil moisture between hand waterings.

I have quite a few different kinds, the species P. tenax, 'Apricot Queen', 'Maori Princess', 'Maori Queen', 'Pink Stripe', 'Yellow Stripe', 'Guardsman', 'Jester', 'Platt's Black', 'Jack Spratt', 'Tom Thumb', 'Bronze Baby', etc, etc. Here in my neighborhood they are really sensitive to the depth at which you plant them, they tend to rot and die if planted even an inch too deep. Also make sure that mulch is no closer than a couple inches away from the base of the plant. I plant them an inch or two higher than the surrounding soil and that seems to really help. Some landscapers planted a dozen or so at the house down the street and put them all too deep, and I knew they would all die and they did! They have the best color with morning sun/afternoon shade. They grow fine in full sun but the foliage color isn't so good--looks bleached. I have the best results if the rootball is quite large (5 gallon sized) before I put them in the ground. If I buy a small one I grow it up to 5 gallon size before it goes in the ground. They are really pretty happy in pots in morning sun/afternoon shade for a long time if you keep giving them a bigger pot whenever the roots fill up the one they are in. Also here they can get mealybugs, I have to check for those.

Dwarf forms have been around long enough to determine mature height - just maybe not as common in this area as in say, southern California :-) There are actually a good many dwarf forms, as not every garden can accomodate a full sized behemoth like atropurpureum or Maori Chief so hybridizers have been busy over the years. Some are quite dwarf, rarely exceeding 18 inches, but to my eye don't quite come across with the same effect as a larger form. Here is a link that might be useful: some nice dwarf phormiums