The first thing to establish is what condition the soil is in. Prickly pear and mesquite is native in soil that can be quite poor. Not sure exactly where you are, but in much of this central Texas area, caliche is the rule. If you have a patch of green grass, that could well be what is underneath it. That's where you might have a few inches of topsoil over quite hard limestone. It can be a lot of work getting that stuff out. Once you do, you'll need to backfill with a decent gardening mix, and say your prayers. Well, at least for veggies.

If you've been there over the summer, you've probably figured out that vegetable gardening is going to be quite unlike Wisconsin. Forget whatever you learned there about vegetable gardening. In Wisconsin, high summer is for gardening and harvest. In central Texas, it's about survival. That's the bad news. The good news is that we have two growing seasons, and August is pretty much right between them.

Talk to your neighbors, and see if there are any local gardening clubs.

-Since you are renting, I would use raised beds to grow vegetables to avoid the work of amending the ground.

- Contact your Ag. Extension Agent. Their office is between Wonderworld and McCarthy. They can give you valuable info.

- I would not clean everything (mesquite and prickly pears for sure). Take time and research for species you want to keep, like oaks, madrones, Arroyo spicewood, kidney wood, etc. Having some shade around the perimeter of the property provides character and curb appeal.

- Visit Gardenville and Reid's ( local nurseries) and ask for advice.

- You may want to contact "Sustainable San Marcos" (Suzi Fields). They have a community garden where you can learn the gardening tricks of the zone.

Good luck!

Omar

I'd recommend a field guide book, Wildflowers fo the Texas Hill Country by Marshall Enquist. There's also a native plant nursery in the San Marcos area, but it's only open by appointment, so you'd have to call them. If you can take photos of the plants on your place that need to be ID'd, post them on here and hopefully people on this forum can help you. Although San Marcos doesn't have meetings for the Native Plant Society, there is other chapters and contact info is given. If you decide to allow any of the chapters to come out to check your place, let me know. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: There's contact in

I also recommend Sally wasowski book " Native Texas plants: Landscaping Region by Region". Also " Gardening with difficult soils: Limestone, Alkaline Clays and Caliche" by Scot Ogden. It was writen a while ago so the choices of plants don't take in to all the advances in native plant availability but it is very good.

Lady bird Johnson is having their biannual native plant sale this Fall. , And if you travel to austin , be sure to check out Natural Gardener and Barton Springs Nursery.

Do you know what soils you have?

Ah! I forgot the name of the nursery in that area. Here it is below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Madrone Nursery