Caveat: I am one of those people who slinks around at dawn looking for incredible yards & design ideas… Is this one yours??? or did you design this landscape?? Please leave a link in the comments so we can attribute you and/or accommodate privacy requests. Love your work! 

1. A New Kind of Grass - the Meadow Garden 

Ain't nothing wrong with grass. IF it's a super drought-tolerant native variety! Large ornamental grasses are MUCH more drought resistant than conventional lawn sods and provide a lot more privacy too. Mound your soil up to create drainage and capture rainwater closer to thirstier plants. Mix in flowers for seasonal variety. And be ready to cut back ornamental grasses hard in Nov-Dec for the best growth in the following year.

DESIGN IDEAS: 

• Find 1-3 low-water ornamental grass varieties that you like and space 3-4' apart to fill in where your dead lawn used to be
• Mix ornamental grasses with a few other similarly sized mounding shrubs for a more colorful look. 
• Avoid invasive grasses (i.e. this purple pennisetum variety - use new zealand flax instead!) so they don't start showing up all over the place. 

FEATURE PLANTS: Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens - can be hard raked instead of cut back), Mexican Marigold (Tagetes limonii), Purple NZ Flax (Phormium purpureum - insetead of invasive Purple fountain grass) 

2. White Stucco - Spanish Modern 

  

The color contrast of this sharp royal blue, brick red and white stucco house with lavender sages, golden kangaroo paws is HARD to beat. The other vibrant pops of color from crepe myrtle and lion's tale bring home the swan song. I happened to snap a pic of this yard 2 years ago before it reached maturity and I can tell you, it looked pretty good then too. 

DESIGN IDEAS

• Play up the formal Layout / Straight Lines (notice the hedging at the right & linear walkways)
• Add a clean low privacy wall for a backdrop for your brightly colored plants (just a head’s up most neighborhoods require a 3-foot setback and wall to be under 3 feet in height)

FEATURE PLANTS: Kangaroo paw (Anigazanthos), Palo Verde (Parkinsonia 'desert museum'), Santa Barbara Sage (Salvia leucophylla) 

 

3. Sea of Jewel Tones

4. Mow-Free Native "Lawn"

5. Mediterranean Minimalism - Contemporary Drought Tolerant

6. Sea of Silvers (with gold accents) 

,This is an epically low-water garden with lots of great natives and water-saving design features. The majority of most blue leaved plants flower yellow, so we know that this garden explodes with hot, nicely-contrasting gold accents in spring-summer.

DESIGN IDEAS: 

• Mix all blue & silver foliage plants or those with a powdery coating (foxtail agaves, etc.) with a few deep red or rust colored accents. 
• Plant on or create a slope to ensure great drainage for soggy-sensitive native and low-water plants. 
• Mulch & repurpose: A nice layer of mulch helps keep soil moisture in place (but just a head's up certain plants like Palo Verde don't like mulch)

ACCENT PLANTS: Knifeleaf Acacia (Acacia cultriformis- not actually sharp), Blue spurge (Euphorbia characias), White sage (Salvia apiana), Variegated Smooth Agave (Agave desmentiana variegata)

7. Low-Water Japanese Rain Garden

This gorgeous collection of dwarf ginkgo biloba's sits over an epic rain water collecting feature. Rosemary, mandarin, lavender and silver carpet dymondia pair with other low small dry grasses and wildflowers. A bonsai pine or 2 complete the effect. 

DESIGN IDEAS:

• A staggered row of dwarf trees with seasonal interest
• Rocks. No Japanese garden is complete without them. They symbolize miniature mountain ranges in this traditional form of design. 
• Large “dry” streambed or rain garden. This one takes the cake by using a blue (silver carpet dymondia) groundcover to fill in the sunken flat surface of the rain water capturing feature, giving it the feel of water year-round
• Groundcovers and mounding perennials 

The topography of this garden is SO impressive. Having a nice deep seasonally dry stream bed like this really helps capture rain water in big storm seasons. Plus all the big rocks provide a lot of great drainage. A real high-functioning beauty.

FEATURE PLANTS: Dwarf ginkgo biloba (Ginkgo biloba ‘menhir’), Silver Carpet groundcover (dymondia margaetae), Rosemary 'Boule', Bonsai Juniper

Bonus! Succulent Groundcover Lawn

Okay, maybe you can have a lawn, just with a bit of a different look. There are 2 super tough succulent ground covers on the market that are really putting the idea of Alternative Lawn to the test.

GROUNDCOVER LAWN ALTERNATIVES:

• Dwarf Carpet of Stars (Ruschia lineolata) which hails from South Africa and brings a nice little lumpy ice plant into an easy low-water mat form for all your groundcover needs. Holds up to foot traffic too.
  
• California native Japanese-patented Kurapia (Alt lawn ulta) that is mow-optional dog-friendly and also very low-
  water.  Each groundcover plug can spread up to 10' while sod gives you that instant super green. Stays green in winter though it stops growing. Spring blooms attract bees.
• Silver Carpet Groundcover (dymondia margaetae) is a relative
• of the african daisy that is a minimal bloomer. It can be tough to get it full coverage. But with well established conditions and the right watering system blue lawns are possible. 

Ensure your soil has decent drainage and ammend lightly (lawn fertilizer is way too strong for this stuff). Lay your groundcover well spaced. Accent with broadly spaced drought tolerant shrubs or cactus