Mole, your new home looks lovely. Since your backyard is basically fence and grass, you are starting with a "
clean slate". I personally enjoy the naturalistic look of layers - trees, then big shrubs, then smaller shrubs, then perennials. Also, since your neighbors are nearby, you also want to consider privacy issues. Also, it's important to look to the overall development of your landscape and not get in a hurry.

My husband and I were in a similar situation with a blank slate. Plus, we were totally psyched up about finally having a garden. But we got in a huge hurry and started out with a 150 foot tree, shrub, and perennial bed. Looking back on it, we "bit off" far more than we could "chew". It's beautiful now, but it was a LOT of maintenance to get a border that big all started at the same time. Plus, we didn't foresee how the garden would change as the trees matured, and we had to redo many shrub choices.

My suggestions are to plant some large, fast growing hardwoods like sycamore, and intersperse some pyramid-shaped smaller trees for better privacy. In front of, and around the trees, add large shrubs like viburnum.

One other suggestion from hard experience - always keep the ongoing maintenance in the forefront of your mind. It's very very easy to get excited reading all the plant and see catalogs, get a bunch of flowering plants, and end up with a maintenance nightmare. My philosophy is that a well-maintained yard is the most attractive.

The exact placement would depend on your views and your comfort. I recommend reading current and past issues of Fine Gardening magazine and reading books by Julie Moir Messery to get more information about framing views and shaping your garden to bring pleasure to you and your family.

You also asked about timing. You live in a very hot area like me, so we either have to plant in the early spring as soon as the last frost is over or in the late fall. That way, the plants get their roots established before the heat and humidity start wearing on the plant. If you can wait, the fall is far superior since the plants will have the fall and spring to develop healthy roots before the plant's first summer heat wave.

Good luck! I hope the advice helped.

First thing you should do is prune back the maple? and remove the stakes and if were me I'd transplant it to the backyard and replace with a crape myrtle. You might want to look at nandina domestica, heavenly bamboo to interperse along the fence. It's evergreen, grows up to 8' and has bright red berries in the winter. I'd also check out some groundcovers, evergreen, like liriope, euonymus, and cotonester. Visit the local garden center, not a big box, and see what you like and what might work then start on one project first. Remember one gallon container plants can grow up to 8' and can get broad so don't plant to close to immoveable objects.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

Yes, a beautiful house! I don't know much about Texas shrubs and perennials, I'd suggest you ask for specific plant selections on the Texas Gardening forum.

I would disagree with the suggestion to use Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo); it is on the invasive plant list for Texas and most of the southeast.

Here is a good list of shrubs for Texas.

Obviously it has not been updated to remove Nandina domestica - not everyone is concerned about invasiveness unfortunately. Note they do recommend Harbour Dwarf nandina - it is one of the cultivars that does not produce berries and so is not invasive. Do research any plant idea you have, making sure you know if it is invasive or if the mature size will be wrong for the spot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas gardening forum

I also started with a clean slate. I would take advantage of the walls and plant a vining plant along the whole back wall and maybe even the side walls. This helps regulate summer heat, softens the landscape and also takes up less space than if you planted a hedge of some sort. You can find self-climbing vines or install trelisses on the walls. Clematis vines would look awesome. I grew a purple clematis vine and a Carolina Jessamine on the same trellis and the show was amazing.

I don't know what the sun issues are where your fence is so I can't say what to plant there however, I don't much care for black plastic for a border, I prefer pavers for example as a border and I think a ground cover on the the steep slope (such as periwinkle (doing well in sun or shade ) would do better than lawn, no need to mow or mondo grass for example. Grass is hard on a steep slope.

If you are indeed "clueless", you'd be best off to find a professional whose work you like, and/or spend a good while with books, magazines on garden design and some time driving around neighborhoods. It will be hard for you to utilize random advice from a forum on specific plantings that will somehow fit your needs, tastes, and the specific growing conditions around your home.

The first step is to walk around your property and brainstorm about what you want to be able to DO or experience out there, and look out all your windows and see what you see, vs. what you might like to see. You would think about what "look nice" means to you and whether that is simply "curb appeal" or lots of functions, such as patio, herb garden, flowers seen from certain windows in house, etc.

Once you get into this process, you'll feel a lot more comfortable identifying what you really want--a shade tree, and where, why ? A pathway? and so on. Theoretically you try to think through the whole list, in case one thing cancels out another, so you don't have to rip stuff up. But most of us aren't perfectly sure about every single thing we may want or need. If you're pretty sure about a few of those things, you can focus your questions or searches and do a few things at a time.

I am in the same boat, with the added need to get some privacy going along the back to help with the huge nursing home going up behind me.

The plan I had drawn up includes plants suitable for z6, so not helpful for you, but it's a mix of trees and large shrubs, some evergreen, some deciduous, with a curving border. I am going to try to resist the urge to put perennials back there, instead keeping them to perennial beds near the house, and hope that my shrub/tree border grows enthusiastically without too much help from me. I know trying to maintain a 125' border with perennials or annuals would be rough.

Good luck and enjoy your new house!