Mulch
Mulch garden beds to retain moisture in the soil and to keep the soil cool. Mulches, including bark-based varieties, pea straw and pebbles, can also restrict weed growth.
Mulch is best applied at the end of winter or the beginning of spring while the ground is moist from winter rain and before the hot, drying winds of summer.
You can create a low maintenance pebble garden in an unused lawn area using washed river pebbles as mulch around succulent plants such as Sedum spathulifolium ‘Purpureum’.