Primrose, azaleas and rhododendrons, you could also try some of the blue grasses. I have some Elijah's blue fescue beneath some pines. I also have a rose bush that has been planted beneath a bunch of pines and a cedar (just to the front of them) for 10 years that outdoes itself each year. My irises didn't ever bloom under my pines so I've had to move them all but some small rhizomes still pop up each year. When I lived in Mississippi I had loads of white irises beneath a chinaberry tree so it may just depend on the tree and I also have some purple ones under an oak now that is extremely dry that bloom. You might also want to try some succulents, sedums, hens and chicks of different colors too. Good luck with whatever you plant. Nancy

If they get bright indirect light they will survive. However, if you give them a few hours of direct sun, either morning sun or intermittently, they will bloom thier heads of. If they get filtered sun (e.g. dappled shade from the spaces between the leaves of large tall mature trees) they will also do ok. In dark areas of the garden with no or little direct light they will not do well. Avoid all day hot sun, or placing them in a southern or western position where light surfaces may radiate hot sun on them in the afternoon. Eastern exposures are best.

The oak tree that my veggie patch is near was there for decades before I decided to remove some lawn for this bed. I chose to put the bed where it is, to the north of the tree, so there would be shade during the hottest part of the day. After working with it for a couple years, I'm really liking it, and from what I've read from others, the results are very good. Tomatoes are still producing after being planted in March, and last year I was still picking lettuce after people started talking about bolting. Some of the things I tried there need more sun, like Okra, probably sweet potatoes, some of the beans, but as a recently transplanted yankee, I haven't given myself too much grief over these incidents, and will do it differently yet again next year, always learning. The tree does rob the area of moisture but, like you said, so would more mid-day sun. Also have the dry spells you mentioned, weeks without a drop of rain. I spot-water with the hose and have very few weed problems from allowing the space between plants to remain dessicated. Although that is less of a factor as I keep adding OM, the soil throughout this area is becoming much more moisture-retentive, dark, humusy, easy to dig in. It's under about 18" of leaves for now, everywhere there isn't still something growing. I'm a huge fan of mulch but find it gets in the way when trying to germinate seeds, and have stopped putting mulch in areas where I want to grow from seed. Using just compost, leaves, and grass from the mower bag seems to work better in these areas. No idea what tree to suggest for TX, but would hope you'd choose some kind of native if not a specific edible. You may also want to investigate espalier techniques for your tree, and various arbors/vine supports. As well as having a purpose of being visually pleasing and/or a supports for vines, they make little spots or rows of shade. It's a good time to lay some cardboard to smother the grass/weeds for your new planting area, cover with whatever organic matter you have, leaves, kitchen scraps, mowed grass, start improving the soil right away.

I grew up in an 3-story English Tudor-style house with a similar yard (my mother is still there), although the back yard is turned ~90 from yours. Ie., it is ~30ft wide by ~50ft deep. Because the house is at the bottom of a hill and the houses from the intersecting street have their rear yards extending perpendicular (crosswise) but on a higher grade (about 7ft - 8ft above my mom's grade), anyone in the closer houses can look down into the yard. The people who owned the house before us installed an aluminum/wrought iron covered patio connected to the back of the house and that helped some for privacy in the back, from anyone looking down from "above". But eventually that had to supplemented. What's currently at the rear of the yard against an 8ft retaining wall, are a 40' Eastern white pine and a 40' Norway Spruce - one in each corner. The spread of both trees covers the width of the yard (without imposing on the center). The trees were eventually limbed up to about 12' above the ground and the remaining branches droop down to near the top of the wall to form a wall of conifer branches. But it took a bit of time for them to get there (30-some years from young 4' trees). ;-) But before they reached that size, my mother had Blaze climbing roses there to supplement the existing old New Dawn climbers left by the previous owners. My concern for that size yard is your considering a maple. Except for maybe the Japanese maples (and even those eventually grow over time to have a good-sized canopy depending on the variety) or perhaps a dwarf red maple, the maples themselves tend to quickly outgrow a small space. After almost 40 years of my mother dealing with her neighbor's Norway maple trees, the new owner who bought the neighboring house finally removed the largest - an 80-some year old one that was in the center of their yard (which took the landscape guys 3 days to take down when they found its canopy easily 100 ft. wide). They also removed most of that tree's half dozen 10 - 20 year old "seedlings" (that themselves were 40 footers). This all happened last week to my sheer amazement. Basically over the years, that yard had become a forest of these massive trees that were WAY too large to be in a typical city lot. Nothing could grow under them and they became a nuisance with the yellow pollen when blooming, the seed wings, the continual threat of lightning strikes and constant fear of tree trunk-sized branches that could hit the house. A large branch had already cracked off a couple years ago and damaged the chainlink fence between the properties. The trees became a bridge for the squirrels and racoons to the roof and OMG the leaves that piled half a foot thick in my mother's yard. I've seen Autumn Blaze in action and it is a beautiful tree in fall but IMHO, it would be the kind that might be planted in one of my sister's yards (1/3 acre) rather than my mom's. Granted - it's not a Norway maple but it can become as large as one. As an alternate to the thuja, you could consider an Easter Red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) which has a columnar to pyramidal habit. Along the back, just as a what-the-heck since I've seen them planted for similar reasons, is an upright english oak (Quercus robur 'Fastigiata'). This particular one is columnar and somewhat slow growing but is also narrow. There are a couple planted along the back of my apt. building, probably when the building was built ~1960 and they are now about 7 stories high. I've seen a few downtown here as street trees in the historic part of the city. Another alternate might be a thornless locust (honey or black). There are some that are slow growing, have a beautiful shape, and produce thin compound leaves that don't mat like the larger hardwood leaves. Just some suggestions and thoughts...