Howdy all!

I posted this post in the Meet & Greet area, but figured I might as well place it here too since this sub-forum seems to generate more traffic...

My wife and I are closing on our first house next Wednesday, and while we're very excited about having our own home, I'm more excited about completely revamping the landscaping, lawn, and starting a small-scale produce raised bed or two.

I haven't taken any soil samples for testing, but will do so in the near future.

I'm taking recommendations for redoing the landscaping up front with the following requirements:

-low maintenance
-drought tolerant/reasonable watering requirements
-all existing plants to be removed (I HATE ligustrum)
-would like perennials only (not big on replacing annuals due to cost/effort)
-I think I'd like a chaste tree on the far left & right of the house as a specimen

I like a more structured arrangement with depth created via height difference, and color intrigue as well. I'm giving some thought to removing the pine tree on the left as it's starting to lean towards the house and allow more room for the bed to curve out towards the drive/street for another specimen tree.

I wouldn't say I'm a complete newbie to growing plants/gardening, but skills definitely need improvement. There is a sprinkler system already installed, but I plan on building a rain collection system to do most of the watering (if possible) and will supplement with the sprinklers.

Sorry if this comes off as looking for free landscape design services, but just looking for recommendations of your personal favorites for the Katy area.

Here's a pic of the front elevation.

Thanks in advance!

My recommendations would be for the lawn. You have too much shade to have any grass but St Augustine. Reset your mower to the highest position and leave it there. The lawn in the picture was mowed way too low. Simply growing tall St Aug will make the lawn as low maintenance as anything.

We have St Aug. It's great. We do have some Indian Grass mixed in with it out front. It just grew that way. We do nothing to it except mow. Looks great. The St Aug in the back takes a beating from the dogs and still holds up.

I bet Howard would say to pull the soil away from those pine trees til you can see the flare.

We may do Texas sage this spring for bushes. I see people do well with them.

Hi to all on www.dirtdoctor.com. Just letting everyone know house cleaning Las Vegas is for sale. I will accept any fairt offer. Have a wonderful day!