You have a small "garden" or rather, weedfest of a space in front of and to the side of your house; what would you do? Details important here.

Wildflowers. You can buy bags of random bright-flower wildflower seeds (which in another context would be “weeds” themselves) and just sow them more or less randomly to take over from the “weeds you don’t want”.

One place I lived was infested with mint. Everywhere we did not plant, mint was growing. And it was perennial.

And by mint, I mean yes, THAT mint. A lovely flavoring for tea and lemonade. Not a bad choice for a pernicious weed.

You could dig up the earth and plant Irish Moss. It would take water while getting established but it is really cool. Mounds of bright green moss islands. It blends together and forms a sort of lumpy carpet, fills in cracks in the sidewalk or grows over/around the tree roots. You could probably get a couple of flats at Home Depot or some other garden center for about $19–20 a flat. Space the moss balls about 3–4 inches apart and they will blend to0gether.

I planted a big ceramic bowls with about 6 leftovers a couple summers ago. It looks really cool!

I also like the pine trees at the back end of my yard. (You don’t want them too close to the house, because of their propensity for dropping largish branches during the winter, and during the occasional summer storm, too.) They drop a carpet of needles that pretty much blankets everything underneath. It’ll take years, but those needles will form a not unattractive and relatively smooth covering over whatever grassy type weeds are now growing.

Forgot to mention for those who dont know me: I live in the desert.

Groundcover. The ones we have here in Denver, CO (which, btw, our botanic gardens invented xeriscaping so we could have gardens despite our lack of water) are tons of succulents, especially sedum and hen-and-chicks (houseleeks), snow-in-summer, myrtle, Irish/Scottish moss, mint, creeping thyme, lambs ear, catnip, mountain gold, and then a few shrubberies like lavender, sage, and lilac for a bit of height. I don’t know what the differences between Denver’s desert and Israel’s are, but I can swing by the Denver Botanic Gardens and check out more ideas for you if you like (or rather, pass on what I learn when I go for me…).

Plant a raised bed garden. You can find posts, 4×4’s and or timbers to square out a decent garden and fill with dirt, mulch, leaves anything to get 4”-6” of tillable soil. Plant what you can afford. Find a gardening club and inquire about seed exchanges. a couple dollars is all you need to buy seeds and plant them yourself and once things get going you can probably find other gardeners you can trade plants with. 6 square meters can support a nice garden.

Your post says “too much H20” but you live in a desert. I was thinking of succulents or cacti but if there is lots of water in that area of your garden, that probably wouldn’t work. If there isn’t though, cacti and succulents can be really hardy plants that like sun and harsh conditions. They also have lovely flowers too.

Or if there is a lot of water, what about putting in a pond or a water feature? Pave around it? You can probably pick up second hand pavers from ebay or something and make the pond yourself?

@Bellatrix No, grass requires too much H2O, not he has too much H2O.

That did confuzzle me… I was thinking too much water in the desert? Cacti and succulents would be my suggestion then. Even I have difficulty killing them and some of them spread really well. Echeverias for instance. They are incredibly easy to cultivate too so cheap.

This website gives lots of examples. I used to buy them from ebay. http://www.thesucculentgarden.com.au/index.html

@Bellatrix You can buy plants on ebay? Score.

Yes!! I have bought heaps of plants from ebay and apart from a very small number (which was probably my fault for not planting them straight away) they have all lived. Succulent and cacti are good because you can get things you can’t necessarily find in the local plant nursery. I also often look on ebay when I see something in a gardening book and think it would be good but it isn’t a popular plant anymore.

@Bellatrix Seeds, or already started?

Already started. (I am a crap gardener and much too impatient for seeds. I have lots of packets here waiting to be planted though). They send them dry rooted usually. Wrapped in moist newspaper. The key is get them in the garden/pots when they arrive. Do a search. You will find lots of things on offer. I found a nursery here selling plants on ebay too. Except the plants on ebay were about a quarter of the price. I think they must have been stock they wanted to get rid of at the end of a season, but they were all healthy and are still living.

@zen which reminds me, gazanias are tough as old boots too. You could try some of those. They don’t mind limited water.

@zen For what it’s worth, yards and meters are almost exactly the same. There’s a bit of difference, but it really only matters once you get into larger numbers.

Pea gravel base, raised beds with a self-watering irregation system. Easy to make.

Whatever you decide, make sure to take a couple pics and post them here. Because, pics or it never happened ;)

Rocks and more rocks, from golfball to baseball size- different colors. And the you plant a bush here and put driftwood there, an old rocker to hold a cactus. This is what I have.

…grass? Too much H20.

I meant grass – it requires too much water.

@MyNewtBoobs 2 yards = 1.83 meters.

I’m willing to bet some of the weeds are edible. Time for salad.

Would a “Zen” garden be too out of line? ;) Rocks, with succulents tucked in, too.

Maybe like this or this?

I would go out each day and de-weed the space. There is a certain reward with digging up the culprits before they spread.

@zen Exactly my point.

@zen yes I know. @MyNewtBoobs explained to me. I was having a duh day. I went on to put my suggestions for a dry garden. I like the idea of a zen garden by @laureth. Bring together the succulents/cacti and rocks and perhaps a bit of a very simple water feature?

Thanks!

You might look for some variety of locust tree. They thrive in arid climates and have a property that doesn’t allow weeds to grow in their drip-line (I don’t understand it, ask a botanist, but it’s pretty cool).