Topic
Front yard, backyard, rock garden, and desert landscaping ideas that prove a low-water yard can be the best-looking one on the block.
10 guides
Every landscape claims to be low-maintenance. A realistic ranking of yard types by the work they demand each year, and the design choices that actually buy back your weekends.
The difference between a rock garden and a pile of rocks is design. How to bury and group boulders, build a crevice garden, mix the soil, and pick plants that make stone look like it grew there.
Cheap xeriscaping ideas that don't look cheap: free lawn removal, free wood chips, $2 plants that fill in fast, scavenged rock, and design tricks that make a small budget look intentional.
Most dry creek beds are decoration that fails in the first real storm. How to build one that actually moves runoff: routing, sizing, rock sizes, lining, and the mistakes that cause washouts.
The strip between sidewalk and street is hot, dry, salted and stomped on, which is why grass fails there. How to landscape a hell strip: rules to check, tough plants, mulch and layout.
15 backyard xeriscape ideas built for living: gravel patios, fire pits, shade, play space, raised veggie beds, privacy shrubs and habitat, all on a fraction of a lawn's water.
14 desert landscaping ideas beyond the beige gravel rectangle: blooming cactus beds, sculptural silhouettes, layered texture and night lighting, for both hot low deserts and cold high deserts.
25 front yard xeriscape ideas that trade lawn for curb appeal: boulder groupings, bloom drifts, dry creeks, hell strips, lighting and the layout moves that make a yard look designed.
Xeriscaping a slope solves the two things hills do worst: shedding water and shedding soil. Terracing, keyed boulders, deep-rooted plants, erosion netting and drip that doesn't run off.
Proof that low-water doesn't mean low-interest: 16 xeriscaping ideas with proven plant combos, season-long color, hardscape moves and five styles to borrow.