Gardeners can't take water for granted anymore. Drought-resistant garden design and drought-tolerant plants are the wave of the future.

Southern California is leading the way with water-wise landscaping practices, but even if you live where you can count on a great deal more than their two inches of rainfall a year, water is getting to be an expensive resource. Garden designs that emphasize water-thrifty plants are appropriate everywhere.

Barbara Paul, a landscape designer in Long Beach, California, turns to plants from the Mediterranean region, with its bone-dry summers, for her colorful, drought-tolerant landscapes. Paul teaches classes on drought-tolerant plants and design for the water department in Long Beach, which offers financial incentives and a selection of free garden plans to encourage homeowners to eliminate thirsty lawns and replace them with water-wise landscapes. The program emphasizes front-yard gardens because the water department wants neighbors to see the results.

Removing a traditional lawn and replacing it with a different kind of landscaping doesn't mean you have to grow cactus, Paul says. Her flower-bed designs place tough, drought-tolerant succulents right next to billowy plants like salvias, which she loves for their long period of bloom and because they attract hummingbirds and butterflies. She relies on freesia, crocosmia and other warm-season bulbs -- many from dry areas of South Africa -- to give her clients' landscapes character and long-lasting color.

"I also like to talk about structure -- about walkways, dry stream beds and patios," Paul says. Structural design elements are crucial to defining a garden's spaces, but they also never need water. A fence, an arbor, a line of steppingstones or a carefully placed bench can dramatically change the way you experience a garden. Suddenly, a swath of lawn seems less essential because there are so many other things going on. "When you work with this for long enough, turf-grass lawns look really boring," Paul says. Some homeowners want a lawn for children or pets, "but I ask my clients to rethink how much lawn they really need."

The Long Beach Water Department's suggested landscaping plans for homeowners are full of great ideas for gardens anywhere. These are not sterile, dreary conversions of traditional landscapes, but inspiring designs that transform turf-heavy front yards into welcoming and interesting gardens. Iceberg roses, Mexican bush sage, penstemons and perennial geraniums all show up on these plans. Small shrubs, tough ornamental grasses, boxwoods and lavender all contribute structure, texture and fragrance to these refreshing and colorful gardens.

California is not alone. Botanical gardens across the country are offering sustainability workshops, developing lists of drought-tolerant plants and including low-water-use display areas to educate visitors and demonstrate that horticultural beauty and water conservation can go hand in hand. Some gardens, such as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, emphasize native plants and naturalistic landscapes. Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin, recently opened a delightfully unexpected gravel garden, densely planted with hardy, drought-tolerant plants, right at the entrance to the garden. On Olbrich's 16-acre grounds, rain barrels, rain gardens and low-maintenance lawn alternatives show how a lush, first-class botanical garden can lead the way in water conservation.

For businesses that develop and introduce plants, drought tolerance is a big priority these days, says Jeff Gibson, landscape business manager for the Ball Horticultural Company, an international plant company that introduced the popular Wave series of prolific petunias. Gardeners, garden designers and landscape contractors all want environmentally friendly, low-maintenance gardens, he says. Even where the annual rainfall totals normally register well up in the double digits, prolonged dry spells put a lot of stress on plants and lead to high mortality, disappointing performance or high water bills.

To help professionals and gardeners choose wisely, Ball developed a sustainability index to highlight its most drought-tolerant offerings. Dozens of hard-working annual and perennial flowers are on the list, including lantanas, angelonias, coneflowers and vincas.

These durable plants are also tough enough to survive the widespread condition that Gibson calls "self-inflicted drought," which occurs when plants are grown in exceptionally challenging sites, soils and temperatures. Plants growing along the street or driveway or under trees often suffer from unusually dry conditions, he says. Plants growing next to a driveway are exposed to tremendous amounts of reflected light and heat, so they tend to lose a lot more moisture to evaporation than you might expect. Mailbox gardens or the corners of a yard are often beyond the reach of sprinklers. And trees compete with flowers and shrubs not only for light, but for moisture and nutrients in the soil. Rain doesn't solve these problems for long, but drought-tolerant plants do, Gibson says.

The best way to grow beautiful plants that need extra water is to use them sensibly, Gibson says. Thirsty plants will thrive in a big pot by the front door, for example, where they will have lots of impact, and where they can be watered relatively easily when necessary. Grouping plants that need extra moisture together, so they can all be watered at once, saves water and time, and it helps ensure that none are neglected. New plants that need water while they become established can be spot-watered with a watering can instead of a sprinkler. Spraying the whole garden when you really just need to water a new shrub is wasteful, and you miss something of the joy of gardening. "Hand-watering is fun," says Barbara Paul, who admits she keeps a bucket in the bathtub and uses the shower water for her plants. They don't need much.

Sources

-- Long Beach's Lawn-to-Garden website is a good resource for gardeners everywhere. There are free landscape design plans for drought-tolerant gardens, with tips, plant lists, lots of before-and-after images of garden makeovers and virtual garden tours at lblawntogarden.com.

-- Landscape designer Barbara Paul, who also teaches classes for homeowners as part of the Long Beach Water Department's Lawn-to-Garden program, writes about drought-tolerant gardening and shows images of great gardens on her website, gardenssss.com; her work can also be found on houzz.com.

-- To find a landscape designer in your area, check the website of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, apld.com.

-- Ball Horticultural Company develops and introduces new plants. You can read about landscape sustainability and water-wise plants on the company's landscape website, balllandscape.com. The site also has downloadable plant lists and a link to a map showing U.S. drought conditions.

-- Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin; olbrich.org.

-- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas; wildflower.org.

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com.)

If you've recently moved into a new home, the world outside your windows is waiting. It's time to tackle the garden.

Turning a piece of property into a garden that reflects your style and meets your needs is quite a project, whether your home is a brand-new place on an empty lot or an established home with a patchwork of landscaping going back through a succession of previous owners. Either way, the possibilities are unlimited. The first step is to give yourself permission to dream a little.

"Look at your property and ask yourself what your long-term goals are," says Cheri Marie Stringer, a landscape designer and owner of TLC Gardens in Longmont, Colorado. General goals are fine, she says. You might want a lawn for the kids to play on or a patio for entertaining. That's a good start. But perhaps you're also thinking of a sheltered place to sit outside, a small vegetable garden or a flower garden that welcomes you home when you pull into the driveway.

Stringer most often works with clients who want to renovate an existing landscape. "When I meet with them, they're trying to work around what's there instead of imagining how it could be completely different," she says. "They can't see what it could be."

On an empty lot around a new home, there are no distractions, so it may seem easier to imagine your new garden, but the process is the same, Stringer says. Figuring out what you want comes first. She guides her clients from an initial list of goals to a list of priorities; the two won't always coincide. Then, working with both lists, she helps clients envision developing their garden one step at a time.

Working with a garden-design professional helps even if you're an experienced gardener. It's less about digging holes and planting things here and there, and more about coming up with a coherent plan for a beautiful and inviting garden. Sally Wittkofski, a landscape architect and owner of SWW Landscape Design in Richmond, Virginia, goes through the same process with her clients in the rolling terrain and relatively mild climate of the mid-Atlantic area that Stringer does in the Rocky Mountains and high plains of the West. "Don't be afraid to start," she tells them. "Starting is the hard part."

Wittkofski suggests shopping for ideas in the pages of magazines and on websites such as Pinterest or Houzz. When something appeals to you, she says, "ask yourself why you like it, what draws you to it?"

Working with a designer will help you develop your own style, so it is important to try to find the right professional, and to be willing to listen to the voice of experience. You could order a pallet of rocks from the local stone yard and lay a patio yourself in one weekend, but having a conversation with a designer before you start will help you make some crucial decisions about the location and shape and size of the patio, and about whether stone or bricks or pavers are the right choice for your site and your needs. After talking with a designer, you may decide to hire her and her crew to build the patio, or she may give you the encouragement you need to do it yourself, with the assurance that the results will be satisfying.

Professionals are familiar with local codes and covenants. Designers or their contractors can help you address drainage issues and can level uneven ground where necessary. They are also adept at looking at the overall picture of your property and helping you decide where you can save and where you should splurge.

Whether you do all the work on your own or collaborate with a professional, dividing the project into phases helps make it more approachable and more affordable. If your budget is generous, you may only have a couple of major phases, the front yard and the backyard, for example. To spread the work and the expense out, you could divide your garden plans into eight phases, based on your list of priorities. This year, you can put in a patio, or build some raised beds for a vegetable garden and plant a couple of trees. You'll find yourself, and your garden, making satisfying progress as time goes on.

SIDEBAR

Getting Started

When you're landscaping your property, don't be intimidated, designers say. Savor the opportunity: This is a chance to make your garden your own. Here are some tips and ideas:

-- Ask yourself how you want to use your garden. Where will you spend the most time? What do you want to do there: entertain friends, play games with the kids or relax on your own?

-- Take an inventory of what's on your property. Existing trees, shrubs and flowerbeds should be on your list, but also structures (garage, potting shed) and features such as walls, fountains and paths. This will help you get a better feel for the possibilities and problems.

-- Make a note of every idea you have for the garden, even if it's a long list.

-- When you're putting your ideas together, don't forget to look around your neighborhood. If your neighbors have beautiful landscaping, you may be able to incorporate views of their property into your own layout.

-- Don't be afraid to remove plants you don't like.

-- There is something to be said for instant gratification, even in gardening. A fence provides privacy much faster than a line of shrubs. If you put up a fence, you might want to plant shrubs or trees in front of it, to give the landscape depth and texture.

-- Plants come last. They are the finishing touch in a great design.

SOURCES:

-- Cheri Marie Stringer is a landscape designer and owner of TLC Gardens in Longmont, Colorado: tlcgardens.com and houzz.com.

-- Sally Williams Wittkofski is a landscape architect and owner of SWW Landscape Design in Richmond, Virginia: swwlandscapedesign.com.

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com.)

Give your garden a lift with a trellis. They're versatile, vertical plant supports with lots of sculptural appeal. Even in the tiniest garden, you can find a place for a trellis.

When you put up a trellis, you're also adding an eye-catching architectural element to the garden. Besides providing a blank canvas for brilliant displays of bloom, trellises are extremely functional. A trellis will instantly block undesirable views, such as the view of the compost heap from a patio. A simple panel trellis -- painted, stained or weathered to a silvery gray -- might serve as a privacy screen between your house and the neighbors'. Trellises mounted on the house or on the side of the garage break up an expanse of wall and give it more definition, echoing the geometry of a window, for example, or creating a sense of depth to make a small garden seem a little larger. Trellises look pretty on either side of a garden gate or by a patio. They're perfect along a porch rail.

Trellises are real space savers, too. If you're running out of places for plants, you can grow roses, clematis, peas, beans and many other climbing plants on trellises; they have a very small footprint but make room for flowers or an impressive harvest of fresh vegetables.

In vegetable gardens, trellises can be extended along the length of a bed for peas or cucumbers, and they hardly take up any room at all. Just be sure you position them in such a way that they do not rob the rest of the bed of its sunlight.

For centuries, garden designers have employed trellises to create fanciful and useful accents up against garden walls, and to help define garden rooms. All trellises naturally create gentle boundaries -- see-through walls that introduce veils of color and texture. Sometimes they're meant to stand on their own, without any plants on them.

In the 16th century, willow whips and trimmed shoots from fruit and nut trees provided excellent pliable trellis material, and they remain highly serviceable to this day, especially for rustic pieces. Bamboo poles make tremendously sturdy trellises. If you're looking for a great garden project, lots of trellis plans and supplies are available on the bookracks and in the regular aisles at builders supply stores. And you'll find all kinds of ready-made trellises at garden shops, too, made of wood and metal, and in colors as bright as any garden.

Trellising can mirror the architecture of almost any house style. Bentwood trellises seem perfect for bungalows and cottages. More sharply angular trellises lend themselves naturally to the Craftsman style. Slim trellis panels fit into tight spaces, which makes them suitable for Federal style facades and backyards and patios. Georgian and Palladian styles call for arched trellises.

In a large garden, you can put several panels of trellis together to form a backdrop for larger plants. It's the same effect as a wood fence, but more discreet and friendlier. Unlike a hedge of junipers or hornbeams, a trellis needs no watering or pruning, and will never outgrow its spot.

In tiny gardens, trellises almost have to be part of the garden plan. Even a window box has room for a little trellis and would look wonderful with annual black-eyed Susan vines twining up it. On a south-facing balcony, a series of trellises in deck-rail planters would offer a lot of protection from the hot summer sun. On a small patio, you can put a trellis in a large flowerpot, plant it with cucumbers or cherry tomatoes, and pick your own salads all summer long. Almost any cascading plant, including petunias, nasturtiums or licorice plant, could be trained up a trellis instead of being allowed to tumble freely.

Trellises are low-cost, high-impact garden solutions, handsome as soon as you put them up. This might be the year to give them a try.

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com.)