Planting a drought resistant garden in the rain

Our garden has been a sad affair ever since we move to the Okanagan almost 4 years ago. Every year we would add a few annuals to try and boost colour.  All our efforts were for naught as the soil seemed not to retain moisture and whatever did grow became delicacies for the local deer population.

Grasses

This year we decided to start all over.  We (or the strong half of the team) dug out all the poor, packed soil that turns out to be as much root as soil.  After removing this root and some of the poor soil, we added new topsoil.
Then the fun started.  We selected all kinds of grasses, saome daylily