If your plants can't stand the heat, tell them to get out of your yard.

That's what Patsy and Earl Smith did three years ago when they landscaped their new house on San Antonio's Northwest Side. Gone are lawn grass - and the task of mowing.

With hardy perennials in the oak-shaded front yard and the sunny backyard, Patsy enjoys the colorful landscape she wanted, and she doesn't sweat maintenance or exorbitant water bills.

Drip irrigation, delivered through perforated half-inch-diameter brown tubes that snake through the shredded bark mulch, puts water directly to the plants' roots.

"Right now, we're dripping three times a week, 20 minutes per zone," she says. "Even at that our water bill is only $115."

By contrast, a neighbor running sprinklers on an expanse of Bermuda grass rang up a $300 bill last month, she notes.

The Smiths' landscape is one of six to be featured on the Watersaver Landscape Tour next Saturday.

More for you Lifestyle Water-saving plants also ease garden work

To help water the landscape, the Smiths collect rainwater off their roof in three large cisterns connected to downspouts. "A half-inch of rain will fill the 1,000-gallon barrel. We were stunned when we found that out. That's why we put more in," she says. Before recent rains came, their 6,000-gallon capacity was almost dry. Now the tanks are recharged and ready to feed water hoses and fill watering cans to quench containers and trees that aren't on the drip system.

A wide granite path that meanders between mulched beds gives the landscape a parklike feel, Patsy Smith says. And with perennials such as plumbago, esperanza, pavonia, lantana, cherry sage, ruellia and ceniza, the garden is seldom without flowers - and hummingbirds and butterflies.

In place of grass in the front yard is a swath of Asian jasmine, which gives the eye a place to rest, the same serene effect as a lawn, says designer Brian Hough.

Though some people equate xeriscapes with too-wild landscapes that cause woes with homeowner associations, Hough says the key is in design.

More Information Look for these desert plants Given adequate drainage and air, many desert plants are adaptable to varied regions and climates. John Fairey says these specimens might be difficult to find but are worth the hunt: Beaked yucca (Yucca rostrata): A soft-looking texture and blue-tinged foliage give the plant a soothing and psychologically cooling presence. Choose the variety native to Mexico, not Texas, for its soft-tipped leaves. Nelson's blue bear grass (Nolina nelsonii): The monumental plant, which grows to 15 feet high, resembles beaked yucca but is taller and more rigid. Lindheimer's bear grass (Nolina lindheimeri): The lime-green foliage and arching habit of this Hill Country native make it a good choice on a wall. Brasil tree (Condelia hookeri): Birds love the fruit from this contorted tree native to South Texas. Acid-green foliage makes it stand out in the landscape. Flaxleaf bouchea (Bouchea linifolia): Fine-leafed plant native to West Texas; grows in full sun; produces lavender blooms spring through frost. About 1½ feet tall. Visiting Peckerwood Garden Peckerwood Garden covers 40 acres and includes about 3,000 cultivars in settings that include a dry garden to woodlands to a meadow. The garden is open for guided tours at 1 and 3 p.m. Oct. 15-16, 29-30 and Nov. 12-13. Tours also available by appointment. Tickets: $10, free for students 12 and older. Because of the delicate and sharp plants, children younger than 12 and pets are not allowed. Getting there: 20571 FM 359, just south of U.S. 290 in Hempstead. The garden is about an hour northwest of Houston; three hours northeast of San Antonio. More info: www.peckerwoodgarden.org or 979-826-3232 See More Collapse

"People think in terms of plants, not design," he says. But hardscapes - decking, patios, walkways and beds - come first. Then he thinks about the shapes of plants before selecting them.

The plants, while low maintenance, do require trimming. When it's not too hot, Patsy Smith clips until the trash can is full. Every couple of weeks the Smiths squirt weeds with Roundup.

"Whenever you choose to go out and do something, you can," she says. "It truly is low-to-no maintenance."

The shifting plant palette could be a sign of the times.

"People might as well get used to it and design and plant around the heat and the drought," says John Fairey, a plant collector who grows agaves, yuccas and other specimens from arid climates alongside woodland plantings at Peckerwood Garden, the Hempstead garden he founded and named for the plantation in Auntie Mame

Desert plants thrive in dappled sunlight in Fairey's 40-acre botanical laboratory about an hour northwest of Houston. The plants require little care, but they do need ample air circulation and good drainage for wet spells.

Their planting mixes differ, but Hough and Fairey agree that a healthy landscape starts with good soil. In most parts of Texas, good soil comes from the gardener, not nature.

On his sites, Hough puts down at least 6 inches of a landscape mix that combines soil and organic material. Fairey's formula combines one part of the best black topsoil available with two-to-three parts of decomposed pine bark, one part gravel and one part coarse sand. He measures the parts in 5-gallon buckets, mixes it all in a wheel barrow and adds a quart of Microlife, an organic slow-release fertilizer.

"You're putting a 5-gallon plant in a $20 hole, a $100 hole if you have somebody help you," he says.

For plants that require even better drainage, he puts a 2- to 3-inch layer of pea gravel in the hole before the plant goes in.

All the desert plants at Peckerwood are top-dressed with gravel. In addition to helping keep weeds at bay, the gravel heats in winter and cools in summer. "It's also aesthetically pleasing," Fairey says. "It's the binding element that pulls everything together in a dry garden."

tlehmann@express-news.net