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We live near Santa Fe, New Mexico in a high desert area. The ecosystem is pinion juniper, although we don't have any pinions on our 2.5 acres, we do have junipers, and lots of grasses (and tumble weeds and pig weed, but that's another story). 

We get about 8 inches of rain per year - which would be enough water to support our plants and landscaping, if it came throughout the year. However, it falls mostly in the monson season, mid July to mid August. We've installed a drip irrigation system to provide water from our well for the garden and some flowers. The other thing we've done is start to "harvest" the rain. During the monsoon rains, the water comes so hard and so fast that it usually just runs right off the desert land and into the arroyos. To prevent this, we dug "swales" horizontally across the inclines on the land. When it rains, these swales fill up and hold water. We've been amazed at how well this works. Water is no longer flowing off our land into the arroyo, and many plants that would not have survived the dryness here are flourishing in and around the swales. 

We learned about swales from Amy Pilling. It's part of Permaculture, which you can learn more about at: http://www.permaculture.org/