Growing Things: Watering tools and drought-tolerant plants offer low-maintenance gardening

Q: We are part owners of a vacation rental property in Palm Springs, California. It is located in a three-storey building, and our unit is on the ground level, so we are able to do a little more gardening than the others in the building that only have balconies. We have a 200-square-foot area of garden plus our concrete patio, which is 100 square feet.
Our problem is that while we would love to be there to garden year-round, we cannot because the property is shared. The other owners are les