1. Start with RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE. Find the plants that grow where your garden is, without the need for extra water. Lots of "Mediterranean" climate plants (from the Basin, from Australia, from Chile, from the Cape of So. Africa and from California. 2. Reduce or eliminate the garden water-guzzlers (traditional roses, birches, liquidambar, weeping willow, poplars, magnolia, bamboos, citrus, avocados) 3. Design your garden to be functional. First. And then embellish for beauty. 4. Get rid of the lawn. Completely. No if's, and's or but's. 5. Choose an effective irrigation system. One that trains plants to be drought-tolerant. Drip ain't it. 6. Turn off the computerized irrigation controller most of the time and use your own brain -- and finger. 7. Set up your sprinkler system or hose to avoid watering hard surfaces such as driveways and patios. 8. Regularly check your hose or irrigation equipment for leaks or blockages. 9. Hydrozone -- Group plants with similar water needs to make watering more efficient Plant at the right time. Take advantage of cool fall weather and winter rains by planting in October-November for most Med. Plants. Contrary to popular -- almost universal -- belief, adding organic matter to the soil ("amendment") does not lead to a drought-tolerant garden. Water newly-planted plants WELL. Starting with soaking the planting hole THOROUGHLY before putting the plant in. Cover the ground -- with hardscape or plants. ALL the ground. Mulch newly-planted plants. But NOT the whole landscape. Mulch intense garden working areas: orchards, vegetable gardens. Manage weeds. (do NOT pull them.) Reduce fertilizing. Where you MUST fertilize, use an organic fertilizer. 18 Prune trees and other woody plants only when necessary. Pruning stimulates shoot growth, which increases the need for water. Plant windbreaks where wind is a factor in growing plants (as well as in being comfortable outside). Collect and use rainwater. And design your garden to channel what does hit the ground during the rainy season. Do some homework on gray water usage. What's legal in your area? RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE. Again. Joe

Thank you yaardvark. i just uploaded some pics as you suggested for the front yard. new user so bear with me - for some reason houzz wouldn't let me upload more than two. i will try and edit/add more through comments. hooveb - that's exactly right. Several contractors would not even come out to give a quote unless the project was a minimum $50k. Your drip irrigation story sounds awesome. I think we know what we want but the lowest possible option still comes out to about $45k. I am drawing a blank as to what we need to outsource to the contractor and what part we can do ourselves. We have been mulling over this project for over a year now. Spoken with 3 or 4 contractors, looked at lots of houses and millions of pictures. Information overload perhaps because i still can't seem to make it work. As I said, we know what we want. we want to extend the patio area (concrete/pavers) to twice the existing size to provide entertaining/play space. Cost of that is $10k minimum, possibly more. The other half of the backyard would have remained lawn/turf but with better irrigation since artificial turf would be even more expensive and we don't like it much. Some sort of focal point in the backyard would be nice but an appropriately sized water fountain would add another $5-$8k so nixed that. We were considering adding a retaining wall on the back end of the backyard and on the right side and extend the sidewalk but that's another $10k so nixed most of it. We want to add a fire pit and some seating. We want to extend the concrete sidewalk (sideyard), build steps going up to the front of the house, add some trees that will eventually provide shade. Veggie garden on the other side of the side yard. We ruled out bbq/island etc. We had also ruled out gravel/decomposed granite (except in the veggie garden area) as being hard on the feet and tough to maintain but I am wondering if we can work that into the design somehow to keep costs down. kiminipl - house faces North east. Backyard faces southwest and as I said, we get relentless sun. There were three ficus trees in the corners of the backyard that we had to take down because the roots were terribly invasive but it made things worse from a shade perspective. garden gal - thank you for your perspective. I will check out the link. I have scoured pics on bewaterwise.com, houzz for drought tolerant plants etc... just can't seem to figure out the right plan for us with the budget we have in mind. As I said.. help/ideas/perspective on actual situation (looking at the pics) would be much appreciated. thank you all so much!

I think the question is "What plants might work here?" Some additional goals might be helpful - low maintenance? low water use? appealing flowers? flowers for cutting? prefer foliage? interested in a tapestry effect? If you are in a similar zone and growing conditions, you certainly can use the same plants. Or you can wander around areas where you like the plantings (nurseries with demo gardens, perhaps the San Diego zoo, any botanical gardens in the area, or homes with plantings you find appealing) and take photos of plants or arrangements you like. You can take the photos to nurseries or post on Name that Plant forum to get IDs. You may also find that asking this on your local area forum (southwestern or California) might be more useful as far as plant suggestions. Generally this forum deals with design questions rather than plant selection issues.

gardengal48 I met with a man from a local nursery today at my house. He seems very knowledgeable and we started to put together a plan using some of my existing plants (they are in pots and seem to be doing fine until they can be replanted) and some other plants that do well in my zone and sandy soil. We will likely do a hedge of Thryallis in the back and then build from there using the mona lavender, red pentas, etc. I really love agave plants and or crinum lily plants so he may work one of those into the design. I told him that I do not want anything that is in a easy to follow pattern and that I would rather have drifts or sections of plants, but other than that I gave him the reins. Thank you for all of your input it was very useful in our meeting today. I'm very excited to see now everything pans out!