Berbera? Romneya poppies?

sedum. artemisia. agave. ephedra. nassella grasses.

Thanks for the suggestions. The only one of those I've tried is the sedum, but the deer ate the flower buds every year. Last year I moved them inside the fence, and I should be seeing the blooms shortly (for the first time!)

Heathers are very good in those conditions, I have several on a ramp that get little water. I have winter blooming Erica carnea 'Springwood Pink', then Erica x watsonii 'Pink Pacific' with pink urn-shaped flowers on tips of gray-green branches, mostly over but a few still pink, and a couple blooming now, Daboecia cantabrica 'Atropurpurea' has flowers like purple balloons; Calluna vulgaris 'Mrs Pat' has pink flowers and can have colored leaf tips in spring. Heathers can make a patchwork quilt of different colors and bloom times.

I also like your Oregano, different colors of Oregano/Marjoram flowers and leaves can be interesting and tough, like Golden or Variegated forms, white or pink flowers, dwarf or tall forms, etc. Some Thymes can also be very tough and bloom well.

High Country Gardens specializes in xeric (drought-tolerant) plants. Their website allows an advanced search, including several factors like Sunlight Preference, Moisture Preference, Soil Type, Resists Deer, etc., so you can get ideas of plants you may want to use. Here's a link to their search page.

Mariev, I got so excited when I read your post that I would get some useful lists. No matter what type of plant I put in the search engine the response was that they couldn't find any plants that met my search.

Think I'll investigate heaths and heathers.

You can get a lot more results if you leave most of the criteria blank. For example, when I choose the following:

Soil Type: Sandy Garden Soil
My Growing Region: Coastal Pacific Northwest
Limit results to: Resists Deer

but leave the rest blank, I get over 16 pages of results.