Xeriscape Plants
Xeriscaping is planting for the water you actually have rather than the lawn you inherited. The plants on this page are the ones we would put in a bed that gets occasional deep watering and nothing else once established. All of them carry a low water rating, and most are succulents that store water in leaf or stem, which is what lets them coast through a Central Valley or high desert summer.
A xeriscape bed is usually a plant list plus a mineral mulch. Decomposed granite and landscape gravel both work, and they keep the crown of a succulent dry, which matters more than people expect. Size the rock with the coverage calculator. Read the mature width before spacing: xeriscape plantings look sparse the first year by design, because filling the bed on day one guarantees crowding by year three.
