Service · Plant palette

Native landscape design.

Texas Hill Country natives matched to your soil, sun, and water. Built right. Maintained low. Beautiful through the worst of summer.

Hill Country natives · deer-resistant · low-water Caliche-tested palette

The plants that already grow in the Hill Country without a sprinkler are the plants that should be in your landscape.

Most landscape design in San Antonio uses the same 12 plants, none of which are native: Indian hawthorn, dwarf yaupon, knockout rose, photinia, asian jasmine. They all need supplemental water, regular shearing, and replacement every 8-15 years. And the deer eat half of them.

Noon's native landscape work uses the palette that evolved here. Live oak. Cedar elm. Mexican sycamore. Texas sage. Salvia greggii. Lindheimer's muhly. Gregg's mistflower. Frostweed. Inland sea oats. These plants handle drought, deer, heat, freeze, and caliche soil — because they spent ten thousand years figuring out how.

§ 1 · How we design

Read first. Then plant.

Every native landscape we install starts with a Site Read. We're not selling you a plan — we're listening to what the property wants.

Then we build the palette. We work in matrix-and-pulse: a base of native grasses and sedges (the matrix), accent forbs that bloom in sequence (the pulse), and structural plants that give the design year-round bones. Looks intentional. Reads as wild. Maintenance dropped 70-80% versus the conventional alternative.

§ 2 · What's included

From read to bloom.

Included
Site Read + soil probe
60-90 min on-site. Written summary. Foundation for the design.
Included
Custom plant palette
Hill Country natives selected for your exact sun, soil, water, and deer pressure. Not a generic list.
Included
Layout + planting plan
Plant locations, spacings, mature sizes, sun exposure. Drawn for installation.
Included
Native plant install
We sourced and planted. Container sizes optimized — bigger isn't always better.
Included
Soil amendment as needed
Compost top-dress, biochar charge in planting holes for caliche, no synthetic fertilizer.
Included
First-year stewardship
Optional. Visits at month 1, 3, 6, 12. Catches and corrects before problems compound.
§ 3 · Pricing

Honest pricing.

Native landscape pricing follows square footage and plant density. Most clients budget by zone — front yard, back yard, side yard — and phase the work.

Single bed
$2,500-$6,000
200-500 ft² · design + install · single ecology (sun, shade, or rain garden)
Yard zone
$6,000-$20,000
1,000-3,000 ft² · full design + install · multi-bed · soil amend + mulch
Whole property
$20,000-$50,000+
Multi-acre · master plan + phased install · year-round stewardship
§ 4 · Why native

The economics.

A conventional landscape costs less to install and more to maintain. Sprinkler bills, replacement plants every 8-15 years, regular shearing, fertilization, pest treatments. Compound the cost over 20 years and a native landscape is half the price.

A native landscape costs more to design (it's a real design problem, not picking from a catalog) and less to install per plant (smaller starters, denser planting). But it pays back fast: 70-80% less water, no synthetic fertilizer, no scheduled pest treatments, no replacement cycle.

And it does what the conventional alternative doesn't: builds soil, supports pollinators, holds water on the property, and looks better every year instead of worse.

§ 5 · Cross-links

Read more.

Tool
Native Planting Estimator
Free calc — your sq ft + palette type → plant count + species list.
Tool
Habitat Health Score
Score your property's habitat 0-100. Tells you what's missing.
Service
Soil Amendment
Native plants need real soil. Often a soil program comes first.
§ 6 · FAQ

Common questions.

What are Texas Hill Country native plants?
Plants that evolved in the karst limestone belt of Central Texas — adapted to caliche soil, hard summer heat, occasional hard freeze, and 30 inches of annual rainfall most of which falls in March-May and September-October. Examples: live oak, cedar elm, Texas sage (cenizo), salvia greggii, Lindheimer's muhly, frostweed, Gregg's mistflower, inland sea oats, blackfoot daisy, damianita, native sedges.
Are native plants deer-resistant?
Many are, but not all. We design specifically for deer pressure — Bulverde and Spring Branch require a more selective palette than Alamo Heights. Reliable deer-resistant natives include Texas sage, salvia greggii, damianita, Mexican feathergrass, blackfoot daisy, agave, yucca, and most ornamental grasses. We avoid deer candy like Indian hawthorn and roses unless the property has fencing.
Will native plants survive my caliche soil?
Yes — that's what they evolved to do. The trick is the planting technique. We dig the hole 2x the rootball width, break the caliche cap below it, mix native soil with biochar (5-10% of hole volume), and water deeply for the first season. After establishment, most natives push roots through the fractured caliche on their own. We do not raise beds for natives unless the property has specific conditions.
How long until it looks finished?
Year 1: it looks like a garden. Year 2: it looks intentional. Year 3: it looks established. We design for the third year — by then everything has filled in and the matrix carries the weight. If you need it to look finished day one, we plant denser (and bill accordingly). The compromise is the matrix density we choose at design.
How much maintenance does a native landscape need?
Year 1: regular deep watering until established (every 5-7 days). Year 2: occasional deep watering during dry stretches. Year 3+: drought-resilient. Annually: one spring cut-back of grasses, occasional pollinator-bed deadheading, no synthetic anything. We offer a first-year stewardship plan that handles all of this and catches problems early.
How much does native landscape design cost in San Antonio?
A single bed (200-500 ft²) with design + install runs $2,500-$6,000. A yard zone (1,000-3,000 ft²) is $6,000-$20,000. Whole-property master plans phased over 2-3 years run $20,000-$50,000+. The Site Read + plant palette is $299-$499 standalone if you want to install yourself.
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Book a Site Read.

Site Read + custom palette + planting plan. Written design in 48 hrs. From $299.

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