Steve, There are numerous resources on line to help you. Just google 'xeriscaping' and enjoy. I would NOT use landscape cloth, it creates more problems than are eliminated. You didn't mention how the grass was removed but I would wait at least this season to make sure the grass is completely removed. Warm weather grasses can be the bane of an landscape because of their invasive nature.

The resources on line will lead you through the whole process and give you a large assortment of plants to choose from.

I only use landscape fabric in a couple of small areas in my front yard. It has helped tremendously with weed control. We live in an agricultural area that received a lot of wind and I would die without landscape fabric. For the larger areas, I just use Preen. Once the shrubs fill in, there really aren't too many weeds to deal with.

Even in the areas where I used it, I made sure to cut very generous holes around the shrubs and I make sure that the soil is draining, as the fabric can cause xeric plants to get root rot if the drainage is bad.

It's great for some areas and around certain plants, but I wouldn't use it everywhere. High Country Gardens is a great resource for xeriscaping. You might be able to plant Buffalo grass or even Australian native groundcovers to suppress weeds. I personally love myoporum parviflorum, but it doesn't like foot traffic.

Good luck.

Be careful of Buffalo Grass, it is a best marginal south of the 35 th parallel. For reference purposes, Las Cruces, NM is at the 32 nd parallel. The content sun is the biggest problem we have in the SW so the "locals" have the best answers.

I love it everytime I hear someone is converting to xeriscape. Here in my town, everyone has the darn lawn in the front and no one uses it. Xeriscapes not only conserve water, but look lovely as well.

I'm curious, what else are you planting?

Xeriscaping does NOT mean or imply that the use grass is bad and should be eliminated. The use of grass in a xeriscape can be a better choice of ground covers than using stone. Researching xeriscape will lead to a real understanding of the concept which is NOT the commonly seen landscapes implemented today.

Thanks all for the responses. In response to your followup questions:

I used RoundUp on the grass (a thick mat of St. Augustine) and had the old grass dug out and hauled off. Then the yard was rototilled (and raked). I am confident all the grass is gone.

What am I planting? I bought a couple of assortments from High Country including 1 each the following :
Havard's Century Plant
Dwarf Utah Century Plant
Sotol, Desert spoon
Texas Red Yucca
Camp Verde Century Plant
Banana Yucca
West Texas Tree Yucca
Yucca Nana
Beaked Yucca

Plus a couple more:
Nepeta 'Walker's Low'
Lavandula intermedia 'Hidcote Giant'

Plus I have several plants from around my house that I am transplanting . Mostly Mother-in-Law's Tongue and a ground cover that I don't know the name of (it is a low growing succulent that is frosty green and spreads itself) I am putting these out by the curb and expect them to eventually fill in.

After I plant all this stuff, I was planning on filling any open spots with something like cedar mulch

Regarding Buffalo grass: I seriously considered it for a while, but decided I didn't want any grass, at least for now. Besides I think I have enough plants :-)

I am now figuring out how to arrange all these in my yard. Plus another concern is how quickly all the yuccas and agaves will grow, they are pretty small....

Anyways, thanks again for your help
Steve

I converted in the fall of 2007. After I removed the grass, I dug an additional 2-3 inches and also removed all the large rocks and boulders (some were up to a foot or more in diameter), of which there were many. It was a lot of work, but I was deternined to have enogh depth so that when I put in the landscape rock, it would be thick enough to block out any light. This was done so that I wouldn't have to put down any landscape cloth. No weeds at all and saved a lot of money also.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. But it also sounds like a very nice setting. Do you have pictures of your yard.
I want to remove all the St Augustine grass in the front yard and was thinking of putting down flagstone in its place. I am reseaching to see what others' experiences and recommendations for a good replacement would be.

This may be totally off the norm, but worked for me.

I ripped out half my grass 3 years ago. Decided to play with the lasagna idea. Layers of newspaper and large cardboard, then top soil. Although I didn't wait until letting all settle, just started planting. The xeriscape plants grew like weeds and very little maintenance for real weeds.

I even used a lot of the grass dug up to create mounds for some landscape design. Throwing them upside down and building up, then the layers of paper. The grass died and hasn't come back.

My location is CO Rockies, Zone 5, but this adventure worked well and am now on to the back yard.