Landscaping in Texas is drainage, soil movement, and plants that can take a long heat and a drowning rain. A yard can pull away from the foundation in a dry spell or hold water against the brick after one storm. Clay in the north and along the gulf swells and shrinks. Thin soil over limestone does not hold moisture the same way. The plan has to match the ground under that lot.
Grade comes before plants. Soil that slopes toward the slab will wet the crawl space or the brick ledge every heavy rain, and no shrub will fix that. A low pocket in a gulf yard becomes a mosquito pond and a dead spot in the turf. On a hill lot, water off a higher grade can cut a gully through new beds. Say where water stands after a storm and where it never stands.
Irrigation is easy to get wrong in both directions. Too little water on expansive clay lets the perimeter dry and pull away from the foundation. Too much water on St. Augustine in humid weather feeds fungus and shallow roots. Rock and thin soil want drip on the plant, not a spray that is gone by noon. If a short freeze is normal where you live, ask how the backflow will be handled.
Trees are part of the house. Live oaks and other mature shade hold moisture against a roof if the canopy sits on the shingles, and they drop limbs when ice loads them for even a night. Roots in a sewer lateral are a plumbing symptom with a landscape cause. After hail, stripped foliage is not always a dead tree. After flood silt, turf may be buried rather than diseased. Ask before you rip out plants that are only ugly for a month.
Describe the lot: clay or rock, sun or oak shade, and whether the problem is grade, irrigation, a tired lawn, or limbs on the roof. Say if water stands by the foundation. Mention kids, dogs, or a narrow side yard only if it changes what can be planted or accessed. Ask for a plan that moves water away from the house and keeps the soil around the slab honest. Call the number on this page.