American Wild Carrots - Edible, drought tolerant and beautiful

Arizona Walnuts

Anasazi Bean Plants in Bloom - Native to the SW

Pomegranets are easy to grow here

Armenian Cucumbers grow really well here

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Smart cities grow produce for their residents! I have noticed a few such programs in other places where the spaces along sidewalks and in medians are used to grow food that anyone is allowed to pick and eat. And today I ran across this article: http://grist.org/article/food-smart-city-governments-grow-produce-for-the-people/full/ which talks about how other cities have started planting edible plants on city lands, and are planting or allowing residents to plant edible gardens in medians like they've done in Seattle, Washington and in those areas along sidewalks.

The watering system is already in place, and it is usually used to water plants which may be pretty, but are not necessarily the best use of city resources. The over pruning of trees and bushes, leads to the need for more water, so there need not be the assumption that growing edibles would take more water. Especially if edible plants which are indigenous to the south west are used such as those listed here: http://www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/category/edible-plants/ and on http://www.nativeseeds.org/

Also, some plants already growing on city landscapes are edible, and all that would need to be done would be to make it clear to people that it is legal and actually encouraged for those in need of them to pick the fruits, seeds, pods, etc. And some things such as ornamental oranges could easily have other types of fruit grafted on and become fruit salad trees.

Cities can also encourage residents to make their edible landscaping available to others. In some places people use websites to list locations where edible plans are welcome to be picked, and people who give tours explaining which plants are edible and where to find them in the city.