Cities have the best chance of reducing water use when people actively participate in water conservation, but even that might not be enough in the future.
Edit to add a Garden design for Tuscon and also one for Las Cruces. The goal isn’t necessarily water conservation but, it generally is trying to use natives.
Having a gravel front and backyard is probably lots of fun
A few people go for zen gardens, but there is a lot of low-water vegetation out there. Some municipal utilities even publish books about it
There’s a lot of ways to incorporate things that would naturally live in those environments.
Shameless plug for !nolawns@slrpnk.net
Edit to add a Garden design for Tuscon and also one for Las Cruces. The goal isn’t necessarily water conservation but, it generally is trying to use natives.