Reddit reviews Desert or Paradise: Restoring Endangered Landscapes Using Water Management, Including Lake and Pond Construction

• Here's Bill Mollison's Global Gardener series episode on Dry Lands.
  
• Sowing Seeds in the Desert by Masanobu Fukuoka
  
• And maybe this isn't as pertinent to your situation since you likely aren't able to do a lot of things in the book but...Desert or Paradise by Sepp Holzer
  
  You could plant trees there especially where you see other plants growing like around dry creekbeds which often hold moisture underground longer than one might expect. You could also try propagating plants that are there or that look like they ought to be there - the more habitat, shade, and surfaces for dew to form on, the better. The more terraced, divoted, and vegetated the land the more water and organic matter will accumulate on it rather than simply blowing away. You could start some shrubby plants around areas as windbreaks. You could also start shrubby plants as barriers against the pollution and gusts from the offroad vehicles and try to plant things intended for eating at a higher elevation than the road. Also think about starting some deep-rooted plants whether trees or herbs or whatever that will be suited to your area since they are usually plants that are good at seeking out water and nutrients from far down and bringing them up to the surface. If you want to get a good start it would help to water regularly and use deep layers of mulch. Stuff like beans, curcurbits, peppers, sunflowers, garlic, and corn can generally do well in dry, hot environments but will need some attention and watering.

All of the posts so far are great. I would also suggest to anyone with less space, look into miniature or smaller breeds of certain livestock, possibly. There are quite a few books on working to get more out of small plots when it comes to gardening and farming. Rotational grazing and other wise pasture management can help you get the most out of your space without turning it into a manure-coated moonscape! There are many more, but here are a few of my favorites to homesteaders starting out. Others have already mentioned some I really like as well.

Desert or Paradise - Sepp Holzer
*Sepp usually works with larger tracts of land, but his methods and ideas often still apply to smaller scale.


The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It - John Seymour This one talks about a variety of DIY homesteading things. It also gives some basic layout and space allocation ideas for different sizes of homesteads. They're a suggestion, not an absolute template. Customize to your needs as with everything.



The Resilient Gardener - Carole Deppe Carole discusses growing the majority of food for her and her flock of dual-purpose (meat and egg) ducks. She's also a scientist and shows ways to work more efficiently. She has a couple other great books and sells seeds when she has extra. Her method of growing certain types of garbanzo beans to pop into a nutty treat is something I'd like to try. http://www.caroldeppe.com/

Also check out this site. They grow quite a bit on a well-tended suburban-size lot. It's about 1/5 an acre.
http://urbanhomestead.org/