I just finished sheet mulching an area of my front yard this afternoon.

Sheet mulching is a fine way to improve soil quality and increase water retention while eliminating most pioneer plants.

The area I sheet mulched now has a pinon pine as its only feature. Come springtime, I will create a pinon-juniper guild there, with spreading juniper, artemisia absinthum, goji berry (chinese wolfberry) possibly some prairie clover to fix nitrogen, and alpine strawberries for groundcover.