And marigolds are always a good choice–very robust, and also repel mosquitoes.

Something you might want to consider, Squirrel, is to invest in moisture crystals and use them in any new planting. These funky little crystals swell up and hold water like crazy–they supposedly are a great way to conserve water since they will just sop it up (instead of it draining/evaporating away) and then the plants can access it from the swollen crystals and stay wetter longer. My sister loves that stuff–she discovered it when she lived in a nasty hot desert area in New Mexico. She said none of her plants would have survived without it! I just bought some, and am going to try working it into the soil of my existing lawn (which is in dire need of rejuvenating…and I’ve noticed certain spots just don’t hold the water well at all and so look dry and start to die if I don’t water them almost constantly). I’ll let you know how it goes :)

http://www.soilmoist.com/ http://watersorb.org/