Moving and starting all over

We currently live in the mountains and have only the natural landscaping. We are moving back into town and I was looking for help with low maintenance landscaping. I few houses ago I used the ECS gardent kits (http://www.facebook.com/ECSPlanters or http://ecsplanters.com/ ) for all of our planters and we setup a waterfall which moved the water through the system. I loved the system and it was low maintenance as all I needed to do was check the water level every few weeks. Our new yard will be about 1/3 acre and I was wondering if anyone knew of any other low maintenance landscaping systems. I want more than a flower bed this time and would like to set up different zones in the back yard to teach my kids about growing their own food and such. Before I invest into the system again I wanted to see if there was any other technology out there I should look at.

Well, you can use all the technology you want, but I would start with a good landscape design.

Accurately draw the property on a large sheet of paper. Draw to scale. 1/3 acre might fit on a 24 x 36 sheet at 1/8" = 1'. Depends on the shape of the property.
Include the house, property lines, and existing things like trees, driveway and so on that will stay.
Include comments about where the best view is, and where you want to add screening.
Include notes about where the utilities are.
Water- so you can irrigate.
Electric- so you can connect pump, lighting and other things.
Gas- if you want an outdoor kitchen/bar-b-que, or firepit.
Include the elevations if you think you need retaining walls, or have drainage issues. Good to get the elevations where you think you want the water feature. You can set up a stream and pond system that flows like a natural stream if you lay it out right.
Make sure you mark North, and walk the property at different times of the day to see what is shaded by your trees or the neighbors' trees.

You can start the design process by 'ballooning' ideas. Lightly, in pencil sort of quick sketch rough circles and label them Patio, Good view, Vegies, Lawn, Tool shed/work area and so on.

Then put a sheet of tracing paper over that and start laying out the hardscape. This will be new patios, decks, walkways, retaining walls (including raised beds for vegetables, and compost bins), drainage or anything else that is construction related. You may need several sheets of tracing paper. The first will include underground things like plumbing, drainage and similar things. If you are building anything that needs footings or piers these will be marked on this sheet.
The next sheet is the above ground parts of the hardscape. The actual deck, patio cover and so on. Lay out garden hose, string and stakes or other markers, then set up patio furniture in the areas. Smaller patio? Larger? Walk around the areas you are thinking of as walkways. Are they efficiently layed out? Pretend you just bought a large bag of potting soil and must get it from the car to the tool shed/work space. Can you get the wheelbarrow from here to there?
Consult the experts in any specialized field:
Any automatic or powered things like retractable awnings will need some input from an electrician. If you go with a commercial patio cover, available as a package, there is often 'canned engineering' for thing like this, so you put the right support in the ground considering snow load, and wind.
Fire pit, bar-b-que or heaters that are gas will need the right pipe sizing.
Water plumbing for irrigation, ponds and other things will also need to be planned to be installed before the visible hardscape. Pretty difficult to install an irrigation main line after your freshly poured concrete!
Include a hose bib near the vegetable garden, and one near the tool shed/work area.

Then you finally get to the planting.
Think about how large plants actually grow, and do not plant them too close to each other, or to structures.
Have a helpful person hold up a 10' and 20' pole where you think you need to block a view. Will a large shrub do the job, or do you need a tree? Go inside the house and look out through the windows, too.
Lay out garden hoses or string or anything else, and walk around picturing lawn, planter areas and so on.

As for automatic pond set ups, yes there are quite a few out there. The basic waterfall/stream/pond idea is common, and many companies have 'kits' you can buy with everything you need to set up any size water feature.
Look for a pump with a long warranty. The basic set up usually includes an upper basin where the filter material goes, then pond liner to make a stream or pond. A lower pond will need to be large enough to hold all the water, if the pump is turned off. If you want fish, plan properly so the pond is deep enough not to freeze, and large enough for their needs (1000 gallons per Koi, 100 gallons per Goldfish). Plan an auto-fill, and a drainage method for when you need to clean it.