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On this one I would recommend doing some homework on your location. I am a certified Permaculture designer. One of the biggest problems with people is we tend to modify our climate and in many cases in a negative way. If you don't want to have to mess with your lawn then approach it with the strategy of low maintenance and low water requirement plants and mulches. The last thing we want to do is to continue to create deserts even if we live in one.
Look up Xeriscaping and research the plants that would work well in your climate. Consider water catchment systems on your home such as relocating water downspouts to locations where you want water to go. Look at how your beds are designed and take advantage of landscape contours. Heavy applications of free resources like wood chips can make for a fairly low maint landscape while retaining water, suppressing growth you don't want, and providing food for your plants.
Consider tree and perennial plants so that they come back year after year and your not constantly investing more in your lawn unless you simply want to. Tree systems are amazing and can provide shade for you home, food, and a place for lots of beneficial creatures to make a place called home. There is so much to cover here and lots we can talk about. So it all depends on the purpose of the landscape, how much time you want to invest, and what your goals are.
My objective is to learn from nature and mimic what she does, not to interfere and create a bigger problem. The more complex we make our landscapes the more life lives there and the benefits are huge. I personally have garden in the front and back at my home and started putting in tree systems this year. However I don't have an HOA that can tell me what to do. Deep mulch systems, swales, and water catchment make for low impact and low water use, and I get amazing veggies, flowers, and fruit in the process... And I live in an arid environment where we get 15-18 inches of precip a year on a normal basis. So anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I use free resources, and sweat labor to get it done and it has been great.
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