Why don't you plant more trees instead? Turn that into a forest with nice flowering shrubs as your ground covers. Texas Forest Service sells them cheap but you have to keep up with weed control and fertilizer to make them grow faster.

i know how you feel. why not just seed it with bermuda and once it is established, then quit watering it. my 4 acres are never irrigated, and my bermuda does pretty good. not golfcourse like, but at least it keeps it from being a big mudhole/dustpan depending on conditions at the time.

David, the biggest difference is that the area that Iron chef lives in doesn't get as much rain as you do (easily over 40 inches? even 50 inches? We're lucky to hit 30 inches). Not even close. Worst years, they die off in masses. I've seen that happen here if neighbors do not keep up with watering, they just turn brown and takes months to recover if the rain is normal.

yes, we get a little over 50 inches a year, BUT from July to Sept we rarely get even 3" total. the grass will brown a little if not watered, but it rarely goes fully dormant.

trees will take a while and need a BUNCH of water to get established, maybe even more than grass. of course, once established they need much less attention as well!

Not only that, we have crappy soil. You have much better soil. That goes a long way for sure!

As for trees, it depends on a lot of things. 1g trees growing in rootmaker will only need a few months to get established because of superior root development. Compare that to 30g trees growing in conventional container and it has terrible root system (huge circling root problems that is basically unfixable) and it takes 3-5 years to get established if at all. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google Whitcomb system (or rootmaker containers). I'm very impressed with rootmaker containers. Trees have grown fast and have very nice root system unlike the ones I grew in conventional container.

Seems like we didn't really answer your question. You don't want more of the same grass, and you want a groundcover that is low maintenance. I don't blame you. I googled Texas native groundcovers and Texas native grasses and got a bunch of hits. Good luck. I bet you can find something suitable. I think we all have to think about water conservation, as water availability is unpredictable. I think some native grasses in among some rocks and groundcovers would be great. Maybe keep some of the rocks. Even so, there will be some snakes and other critters (scorpions? and spiders) who will find your area appealing. Always look and poke around with a stick first, and teach your kids to be ever watchful. I've lived in the bayous of Louisiana, and we had plenty snakes and other critters.
Laurie

I always thought dirt was the native Texas groundcover. :)

No, the native Texas gound cover is Rock. Even Texans can grow them. : ) Just kiddin, try a native grass stand.

Thanks Louisianagal (and all)...yes, I was looking for some more definitive answers. I'm not looking to plant more trees. I was hoping that there's a grass out there that tolerates shade well and needs little water. Maybe I should have posted in the Landscaping forum.

My first thought was to just mow what is there since what is already there has proven its ability to survive there but you said you wanted it to look nice.
My next thought was to plant cacti and succulents and mulch heavily in between the plants.
Native grasses are great but many don't like to be mowed as often as turf grasses.

Here is a link that might be useful: Native Groundcovers for Texas

If your goal is low maintenance a native stand of grass or maybe some wild flowers. If you plant trees you will still have many yrs. before the tree will mature and provide shade. Think about the suns movement and plan turf areas outside and around shade patterns.