Landscaping in San Antonio has to live through a long hot season and then survive a hail-and-rain evening that strips leaves and floods a bed. St. Augustine struggles when the heat runs for months. A lot of yards do better with plants that tolerate that heat and a sudden soaking: mountain laurel, Texas sage, and other tough locals, under live oaks that already own the shade. Caliche and limestone make a shovel lie. Digging is part of the design, not an afterthought.
Drainage is the storm test. Water that stands against the foundation after a cloudburst wets the brick or stone ledge and invites termites into the cool joint. A low crossing on the street is not something a bed of mulch will fix, but grade on your own lot still decides whether the patio becomes a pond. Say where water is an hour after the rain and where hail stripped the canopy. Silt and leaf litter are not topsoil. Do not bury the grass and call it repaired.
Irrigation has to bridge the long dry stretch without running as if this were a swamp. Hard water crusts heads and spots foliage. Spray that hits the windows etches glass and becomes a window complaint. Drip on a caliche bed should reach the root and then stop, or you will grow fungus in the one humid week and stress in the next ten. Ask for a system you can pause after a storm.
Hail defoliates without always killing. Do not rip out shrubs the morning after. Trees that touch the roof are a rat path and a limb risk when ice from the sky loads them. Ask what to prune off the tile and what to keep for shade on the west wall, because the cooling season is long and a bare wall will punish the house. Rock mulch washes in a downpour if the grade is wrong. Ask where it will go when the water moves.
Describe the yard: sun or oak shade, limestone, and whether the trouble is heat-stressed turf, grade, irrigation crust, or hail damage. Say if water stands at the foundation. Ask for a plan that takes the long heat and the heavy rain without fighting either one. Call the number on this page.