Amazon is right about Bermuda being tough and drought resistant. It would also be kid and pet friendly but it does have a dark side. It is extremely invasive which is okay if you don't mind it taking over your back yard, it is hard to get rid of if you later decide you don't want it, and it does go dormant in the winter. Just look before you leap with Bermuda. You didn't mention what part of Nevada you live in. I live in Las Vegas but conditions are so different in the Northern part of the state that plant selections would be very different. You sound like you want shade and of course there are shade structures available all over or great shade trees wherever you live. I think to get good help here you are going to need to be more specific. Do you want a lawn for the kids or would you rather have gravel or mulch for a ground cover. Do you want a tree for shade or would you rather have an arbor. Only you can answer those questions. Good Luck, Maria

a mister system installed in remesh might help too since it is so dry in Vegas,depending on what you want to grow. Careful not to overuse it so it doesn't cause any type of fungus or rot. Cantalope grow well in the arid climates and fast.Peas(place a pea seeds in an ice cube tray fill with water freeze then plant the whole ice cube).Mammoth sunflowers these have the gray&white stripe seeds you get at stores to eat. Planting marigolds or other flowers help with bugs. Mix them in amoungst the veggies. Perennial herbs such as Rosemary grow well in arid conditions. Be careful to watch for scorpions in your compost, and garden. Corn grows well in sun too. A lot of these plants can also be reused/replanted by collecting the seeds they produce, just let some of them stay on plant after ripening until they dry. Collect the seeds keep them dry and marked stating when they were harvested,what they are or what colors they are if they are flowers or different varieties of the same veggie. For pest control go online and order ladybugs(chuck@highsierraladybugs.us) or praying/preying mantis egg cases. You can also add beneficial nematodes or add natural,organic fertilizers containing Endomycorrhizae,Ectomycorrhizae and beneficial bacterias. Jobes(I do not work for them) makes a good inexpensive brand. It is called Jobe's Organics Natural&Organic Fertilizer. I even use this in all my houseplants and cacti garden. I have a huge house plant that I have kept alive for 45 yrs. with the help of Jobe's stuff. Bone meal everything! Have fun, gardening is so fun and therapeutic too.

"O.P. stated in the beginning - as people often do - that they don't want anything poisonous or messy. Which eliminates many items on preceding list, which is full of fruiting plants." Yes, I was aware of that. But that mainstream, fast food, McLandscape mentality of wanting "fast-growing and not messy" plants is also what's helping to drive our current 6th mass extinction of wildlife on this planet - cutting their populations down in HALF over just the last 40 YEARS!!! The situation is EXTREMELY dire now - as we are literally creating a sterile, inert dystopia! And there's no way you can overstate that fact - or ever UNDO it once it's done! "Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said. Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies The primary culprit, researchers speculate, is the intensive use of pesticides on vast tracts of monoculture crops, especially wheat and corn. The problem is not that birds are being poisoned, but that the insects on which they depend for food have disappeared. “There are hardly any insects left, that’s the number one problem,” Recent research, he noted, has uncovered similar trends across Europe, estimating that flying insects have declined by 80%, and bird populations has dropped by more than 400m in 30 years. Shrinking woodlands, the absence of the once common practice of letting fields lie fallow and especially rapidly expanding expanses of mono-crops have each played a role." So, given that we have already logged all the old growth native forests and replaced them with suburban lawns...we really need to start stewarding our lawns LIKE old growth native forests now. Because there are basically no old growth forests LEFT. So, we need to think more "old growth" instead of "fast-growing," "productive" instead of "not messy," and to promote more natives and no invasives... I mean, who cares if you're not there in a few years anymore? Leave a sustainable legacy!!! "The population of the U.S., now over 300 million people, has doubled since most of us were kids and continues to grow by 8640 people per day. All of those additional souls, coupled with cheap gas, our love affair with the car, and our quest to own ever larger homes have fueled unprecedented development that continues to sprawl over 2 million additional acres per year (the size of Yellowstone National Park). The Chesapeake Bay watershed has lost 100 acres of forest each day since 1985. We have connected all of our developments with 4 million miles of roads, the paved surface is nearly five times the size of New Jersey. Somewhere along the way we decided to convert most of our living and working spaces into huge expanses of lawn. So far we have planted over 62,500 sq miles, some 40 million acres, in lawn. Each weekend we mow an area 8 times the size of New Jersey to within 1 inch and then congratulate ourselves on a job well done. And it’s not like those little woodlots and “open spaces” we have not paved over or manicured are pristine. Nearly all are second-growth forests that have been thoroughly invaded by alien plants like autumn olive, multiflora rose, Oriental bittersweet, and Japanese honeysuckle. Over 3400 species of alien plants have invaded 100 million acres of the U.S, and that area is expected to double in the next 5 years. To nature lovers these are horrifying statistics. I stress them so that we can clearly understand the challenge before us. We have turned 54% of the lower 48 states into cities and suburbs, and 41% more into various forms of agriculture. That’s right: we humans have taken 95% of nature and made in unnatural. But does this matter? Are there consequences to turning so much land into the park-like settings humans enjoy? Absolutely, both for biodiversity and for us. Our fellow creatures need food and shelter to survive and reproduce and in too many places we have eliminated both. At least 40% of Delaware’s plant species are rare or extinct, and 41% of its forest birds no longer nest in the state. Over 800 plant and animal species are rare, threatened, or endangered in Pennsylvania and 150 have already disappeared entirely. Many of those that haven’t suffered local extinction are now too rare to perform their role in their ecosystem. These can be considered functionally extinct. The song birds that brighten spring mornings have been in decline since the 1960s, having lost 40% of their numbers so far. Birds that breed in meadows are in even more trouble. Once common species such as the northern bobwhite, eastern meadowlark, field sparrow, and grasshopper sparrow have declined 82%, 72%, 68%, and 65%, respectively, in total numbers, and are completely absent from many areas that used to support healthy populations." Anyhow, yes, the Texas Mountain Laurel is poisonous. However, its seeds are only toxic if cracked open - which is really difficult because of how hard their shells are. Hence: "The beans cause hallucinations at low levels. The beans are also very poisonous if the alkaloids within are released. The same seed coating that protect the seed from drought, however, will allow it to be swallowed and pass through our bodies without harm, in most cases." So, it's not as risky as it sounds - but of course could simply be omitted just to be safe. As could the Eve's Necklace, which is also reputed to have poisonous seeds if ingested. But all the other plants I recommended ARE non-toxic, mostly natives (with a few foreign, but at least not invasive) with high ornamental and/or edible/utilitarian value (i.e. "MESSY"). As this PRODUCTIVITY helps us to make the most of our diminishing resources, for both us and all of our wildlife companions. OK, PSA over. Just addressing a larger issue at hand here, that I think needs to at least be considered every time a homeowner reaches this point of deciding how to landscape their yard? Which I thank Kimberly for even asking! As it may seem inconsequential...but when multiplied by BILLIONS of other people too - is actually of immense, PLANETARY consequence!!!

Some input from a long-time rose grower in hot Phoenix area. I am fortunate to live in an older part of town where the soil is good due to house being on land that was farmland previously (probably cotton). It is clay but once enriched with compost and other goodies is quite good soil. On the (endless) housing developments on the edge of town where they have torn up the desert to build, the soil is terrible. I've also known people to try to garden in areas north closer to mountains and it is rocky, rocky, rocky. I don't know if I could ever get anything to grow in that! I grow mostly old garden roses but also some hybrid teas and floribundas, etc. There are many that do well here: Fragrant Cloud, Love Song, Marmalade Skies, Iceberg, Perfume Delight, and many more. OGRs: teas, chinas, and bourbons generally do well here. Teas especially; they are quite easy to grow. I would advise you to take the opportunity to grow teas as they are wonderful roses and you are lucky you can grow them (zone). I really try not to plant anything after February (March at latest) so the roses can put on a root system before the heat begins. I often don't follow my rule on this because I get tempted by something and buy it late and then I have to work hard to keep it alive during the summer. It is usually the first year that most roses are at risk for dying in heat. I use drip irrigation (supplemented by hand-watering for those first year roses). I use beach umbrellas to temporarily shade some plants during the summer, mostly during their first year. I have many roses that are planted in my southern-facing front yard that get little shade in the summer and they do ok. I don't expect blooms between May and late September/early October due to heat. But, I get blooms the rest of the year, except maybe late December/January if if is fairly cold. I have even "forgotten" (neglected) to water some teas on the side of my house for the whole summer and they survived. Established roses can go for quite a while without water (well, maybe just teas). Hope this helps learning to grow roses in hot, dry climates. They do very well here. They grow to be monsters!