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Without going to those extremes we can decide how much work and expense our garden will require, either while designing it or remodeling an existing one, with the help of a professional if need be. We must keep two ideas in mind: we cannot allow ourselves to become slaves to our garden, and low maintenance is not synonymous with ugly. To meet both goals, there is much we can do.

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Get rid of the lawn, which requires constant watering, mowing each week, fertilizer, seeding, loosening of top soil and other work. That nice green blankety look and the coolness a lawn provides can also be achieved with ground-covering plants such as myrtle, carpet weed, dichondra, hyperico or pachisandra. They all need less water than grass does and above all less work.
For areas that will be stepped or walked on often there is a wide variety of highly practical and attractive paving materials.

Create a microclimate in your garden by planting trees that only need water in their early years and provide shade and coolness. This also reduces the water needs of other species.

Place species that need the most water in shady areas, and use resistant ones in sunny spots. In either case, it is always best to choose indigenous plants suited to the local climate and resistant to disease and pests.

Use sprinklers. They save water, allow you to give each plant just the amount it needs and limit the growth of weeds and fungal diseases.

Covering flowerbeds with pine chips helps keep the soil moist and fight emergence of weeds.

Improve soil quality only in areas where you are going to plant and use high-quality products which have been disinfected and are free of weed seeds.

Fertilizing properly can save a lot of time and money since it reduces the risk of pests and disease.

Trimming hedges also involves a lot of work. To keep them looking nice requires two trims a year, and when they are large this is a major job. One alternative is to use climbing plants, which are trimmed only to keep them from overgrowing. Another is to invest in a fence that need not be covered completely. It can be made of wood, iron, wicker or wattle screen if given a finish nicer than what we are used to seeing.