Bonded drainage and bioswales, rainwater harvesting, native and xeriscape design, fountains, organic pest control. Built for clay flats, Edwards limestone, and a spring-fed river watershed — not a one-size catalog. The on-site read is $300, credited â free when you build.
Bonded · street & right-of-wayHays CountyFree Site Read
San Marcos sits right on the Balcones Escarpment — the seam where two kinds of Texas meet. East of town is expansive Blackland clay that swells, cracks, and holds water at the surface. West, toward Wimberley and the Hill Country, the ground thins to Edwards limestone that sheds a storm like a roof. The same property can carry both.
And everything here drains to water that matters. The spring-fed San Marcos River runs through the middle of town, and the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone runs underneath it. What a property does with its rain — how fast it sheds, what it carries — lands in one of the cleanest, most sensitive watersheds in the state. That raises the bar on how landscaping gets built here.
We read your ground before we build on it. That's the whole method, and on a river town split between clay and limestone, it's the only honest way to work.
The #1 call. Storm pooling on clay, foundation grade, sheet flow off limestone. Bonded for the street and right-of-way — and built to clean the water before it reaches the river.
Food and habitat that fit the lot — from a Blanco Gardens river-bottom yard to a Kissing Tree slope.
§ 2 · The local reality
Clay, limestone, and the river.
Most of the landscaping failures we get called to fix around San Marcos come from ignoring the ground. Sod laid over unbroken clay that drowns its own roots. A French drain dropped on limestone with nowhere to daylight. A bed graded toward the foundation. Runoff dumped straight downhill toward a creek that feeds the river.
The fixes aren't exotic — they're just specific. Break and amend the clay so it drains. Fracture the thin limestone soil so roots and water can get through it. Send the storm to a planted swale that slows and filters it instead of the slab. Choose the palette that already knows this heat. Done right, a San Marcos landscape needs less water, less rescue, and less of you every year — and sends cleaner water to the river.
§ 3 · Rebates & water rules
Let the city chip in.
San Marcos runs drought watering restrictions, and SMTX Utilities offers rebates for rainwater harvesting systems, irrigation zone conversion or removal, and a Soil Saver rebate for aeration, compost top-dressing, and mulch. Where a project can qualify, we design it to — and we'll point you to the programs that are live at sanmarcostx.gov. We never quote a rebate number we can't source.
Do you fix yard flooding and drainage in San Marcos?
Yes — it's one of the most common calls we get along the I-35 corridor. San Marcos sits on the Balcones Escarpment edge: Blackland clay east of town that won't take the water, Edwards limestone in the Hill Country west that sheds a storm like a roof. We read the actual flow path on the property, then build the right fix: a planted bioswale, a regrade, a French drain only where it's truly needed. Because San Marcos drains straight to the spring-fed river and the Edwards Aquifer, we build drainage that slows and cleans the water — not just routes it off the lot. We're also bonded for work in the street and public right-of-way, so we can take curbside drainage all the way to the source.
What grows in San Marcos's clay and limestone soil?
More than people think — if you match the plant to the ground and prep the soil right. East San Marcos sits on expansive Blackland clay; the west side runs to thin soil over Edwards limestone in the Hill Country. We design with Hill Country natives that evolved for both — Texas sage, salvia greggii, damianita, inland sea oats, native sedges, live oak, Texas persimmon — and we break and amend the soil at planting so roots can actually get established.
Are there rebates for water-wise landscaping in San Marcos?
Yes. SMTX Utilities offers rebates for rainwater harvesting systems, irrigation zone conversion or removal, and a Soil Saver rebate for aeration, compost top-dressing, and mulch. We design projects to qualify where they can, and we'll point you to the current programs at sanmarcostx.gov. We never quote a rebate figure we can't source.
Do you offer a free estimate in San Marcos?
The first Site Read is $300, credited — free when you build — a 60-to-90-minute on-site reading of your property (soil, water, sun, drainage, canopy) plus a written summary within 48 hours. It's the honest version of an estimate: you get a real plan and a price range, whether or not you build with us.
Logged on site
From first look to built
Three steps. No leap of faith.
Start free. See your property in 3D before you spend a dollar on the build. Then build it for a number you can see coming.
01 · Free
Preliminary Read.
We come read your property — soil, water, light, the lay of the land — and sketch a direction. Credited in full, no obligation.
02 · $300, credited in full
3D LiDAR Design.
A drone-LiDAR scan and a measured 3D design — exactly where the water flows, drawn to the inch. The $300 comes off your build.
03 · Priced clear
We build it.
Curbside bioswales from $300 a linear meter, plus fountains, native landscapes, and water systems — built by the same hands. No surprise numbers.