Free · San Antonio & the Hill Country

The Drought-Proofing Checklist.

Twenty moves that keep a Texas yard alive — and lower the bill — through a dry summer. Established water-wise practice, nothing exotic. Start a few this weekend.

Water

  1. Water deep and infrequent — one long soak trains roots down; daily sprinkles keep them shallow and thirsty.
  2. Water before dawn — midday watering loses most of it to evaporation.
  3. Put out a rain gauge and skip a cycle after any real rain.
  4. Move beds from spray to drip — it delivers to roots, not to the sidewalk.
  5. Catch roof runoff — even two rain barrels bank free water for dry spells.
  6. Hydrozone: group plants by thirst so you're not watering a whole bed for its neediest plant.

Soil

  1. Mulch 2–3 inches on every bed — the single biggest cut to evaporation.
  2. Leave grass clippings where they fall — they feed and shade the soil.
  3. Add compost, not just fertilizer — organic matter holds water (each 1% ≈ 20,000 more gallons held per acre. NRCS).
  4. Stop compacting — keep mowers and traffic off wet beds; packed ground sheds water instead of drinking it.
  5. On slope, build shallow swales and berms — slow the water, spread it, sink it.

Plants

  1. Swap thirsty turf for native or adapted grasses (buffalograss, sedges) — or beds you don't mow at all.
  2. Choose proven Hill Country natives for caliche and heat — cenizo, salvia greggii, gulf muhly, blackfoot daisy.
  3. Right plant, right exposure — a sun-lover stuck in shade sulks and wastes water.
  4. Plant in fall, not summer — roots set in cool months face the next summer far tougher.
  5. Keep your big shade trees healthy — a mature live oak cools the ground and moves ≈ 40,000 gal a year. USGS

Design

  1. Shrink the lawn to where you actually use it; plant the rest.
  2. Shade the west and south walls — a cooler house means less AC and less-stressed plants.
  3. Cluster containers and pull them into shade during a heat wave.
  4. Read the land first — soil, slope, water — before you plant. Fighting the site is what burns the water.

Want it on the ground?

Leave your email and we'll send your native plant list — matched to your soil and sun — and set up an on-site read: 60–90 minutes on the property, a written summary in 48 hours. $300, credited toward your build.

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Expect your native plant list and a note about the on-site read ($300, credited). In the meantime, save the checklist for the fridge.

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Figures are established public references (NRCS soil-water; USGS live-oak transpiration) and vary by site. A Site Read is $300, credited — free when you build and carries no obligation; the $300 credit applies to a paid design if you move forward. Plant suggestions are starting points — the right list comes from reading your specific ground.