correction silver poneysfoot, not money foot ( that auto correct again), Yucca not tucca

I was going to suggest Gregg's bluemist, but I don't think the light green leaves would necessarily go with the house color. You may need something with silvery leaves. Like Dalea Greggi or maybe silver ponyfoot. Some of the ornamental grasses may work, like Muhly. If you want something for a pop of color, just get annuals and change them out for each season. It would allow you to experiment with color, etc. until you get the rest of the yard in. I like your house.

What about ferns? We have reasonably good luck with Boston ferns in Bandera soil. Do you also have to be concerned with deer helping you with the landscaping?

Also where did you get the three slabs in front of the porch? Were those poured in place or brought in?

I was also thinking of Stipa tenuis or weeping muhly for texture. A thought occurred to me that the southern exposure , the thermal mass of the cement would make this a good place for semi tender succulent. It would heat up with the low winter light and the overhang would hold the heat over the night, and the eves would protect it from excessive moisture. One could do a columnar cactus , IE a Sagaro cactus or the chilean saguaro like one with minimal need for protecting. Along those lines there is also Pedelanthus macrocarpas. Occasional protecting might still be needed.

If you think of ferns , I would go with ferns that are xeric in the chelanthes family (sun ferns) , like C sinuata (wavy cloak fern) or C .lanosa. I have some that have grown in situ for 15 years. If one does not get occasional water in the summer , they curl up and look dead showing their brown under leaf. Then open up silver with water. Mine lived through the 201 drought unwatered. They are a beautiful silver. The wavy cloak fern is native to our area. I have seen a native variety being sold at Plant delights with a name of a Memphis gardener tacked on it. (Jo Levy , I think). Barton Springs Nursery or the Natural gardener carries it in Austin.

Living on a totally unwatered garden dependent on water ketchment alone for all your needs makes one understand the dormant period of gardening in the summer. The late summer /fall rains bring so much rebirth. You will garden with nature and that means your garden will look compromised at points. I have learned to live with this periodic lack of green. The golden browns of dry native grasses are the baseline of my yard. They can go from almost grey and bare dirt when it is really droughty to green and flowering in a couple of weeks. It is a whole other way of looking at your yard. How large is your cistern and do you have a grey water zone designed into your system?

Have you been to the West Cave Preserve and seen their system?... Another interesting place is Pliny Fisk's Max's Pot east of Austin). They have some interesting ideas on wet gardens using effluent. He does a Friday night gathering/show and tell, or used to.

Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) might work well in that light. Damianita (Chrysactinia mexicana) is another nice long-blooming evergreen, but may get leggy in heavy summer shade.

thanks so much for all of the suggestions! wantonamara i've had to look up all of yours, but I love them. i have so much to learn and am so excited to get started. the thermal mass of that entry is AMAZING during the southern sun months. too bad it's not consistently cold during those months.... but if it helps the pedilanthus macrocarpus i'll take it! that may be just the ticket.

the deer and, get this, wild goats in our neighborhood far outnumber the humans, so we have to make sure not to simply plant a buffet.

we are definitely aware that we will be embracing brown during drought conditions. all spare water will go towards our edibles! i too, love the dry grasses; my husband, the firefighter, does not. we have areas far from the house where he's allowed the higher grass to stay, though. i plan for a very structured, modern area immediately around the house that quickly blends into the untamed land. our only planned effort to tame the land is to clear as much cedar as possible.

right now we have one 12,000 gallon tank with plans for another. we did not capture gray water, although that's definitely something i would plan for if we ever do this again. we contracted the house ourselves and did a lot of the work, so i really hope to NEVER do it again. the concrete steps were poured in place.

do y'all have any suggestions for nurseries in my area (new braunfels/north SA)? i love a good austin nursery, but hate the trek.

I do suggest Sally and Andy Wasowski's book " Native Texas Plants" and Gardening in Difficult soils by Scott Ogden. It is a great jumping off sight. I used to think about the formal garden around the houses but I have stepped back mostly because of who I am and what I need to do leaves me with not enough money AND TIME to do it right. There is also too many seeds blowing in the wind to keep that neat look up. I am more likely successful at poking a hole in the native grasses and planting a xeric survivalist that is of size to compete with deer (no goats) and weather. I do not know how large a piece of land that you have but I have gone to gardening in drifts the farther away from the house I go and making my plants larger also. I have worked out viewing avenues. Then I plant for wildlife and land restoration practices everywhere else.Been there done that, I actually never finished doing it. LOL, A defect of character. We have 20 K gallons and have only run out with three people living here once for two months in dreaded 2011. We had water trucked in and I was the water nazi. I would stand heard over showers. I have given up on high summer vegetable gardens. When the tomatoes are done, I am done. I do have a perennial arugula and a Chinese leak that I now keep in a large pot that keep producing.

Our bathroom sink, bath water goes into a central drain. It makes collecting grey water much more systematic.

You might have to wrap the pedelanthus with a blanket when it gets below 25 , but I would put a thermometer out there and see how the entry holds the heat. Hummers love the flowers. They have territorial battles over it. I am further north and higher than you and I have it in a huge pot. I also have it on the upstairs porch so no thermal mass for it. I wrap it on most nights less than 25 and on the 15F nights, I roll it indoors but I bet a blanket with a heating pad would do well in a fixed position.. I do hear that people in arizona grow it outside and are known to grow back from the roots. I have never let it do that, but I did find when I reported it, that the roots went really deep.

Here is a LINK TO ME REPOTTING the P. macrocarpus that will show you the root structure. Mine does get morning sun in the summer.