First posting: the plan...

My goal for this spring is to get the portion of the backyard that extends from the back of the house to just past the fire pit to look less like a open field. It is a disaster! I also want to start working towards building some raised beds along the property line and plant some sort of shrubbery that will provide a degree of privacy.

This work can be broken down into several tasks...

1. come up with a general layout that can potentially accommodate an outdoor, wood-fired pizza/bread oven.
   
2. clean out the pool planter of the existing succulents and replace with an herb garden consisting primarily of perennials.
3. build a slightly raised bed around the fire pit and plant flowering perenials around it.
4. construct some sort of walkway from the pool gate to the fire pit.
5. figure out where to construct the raised beds along the property line and what materials to use (probably indigenous limestone bricks) with a goal of getting them in and ready for a fall planting.
   

I've got several constraints. The first is that it needs to be xeriscape and not require a sprinkler system. The second is that it needs to be low maintenance and low cost to maintain. The third is that I want to use perennials and annuals that reseed themselves as well as indigenous or close to being indigenous.