I lived in Temple for a decade and one thing to keep in mind is that it straddles the edge of the Hill Country. That means the land from the middle of town and west of I-35 has a relatively shallow layer of topsoil (6" or so, but it varies) with underlying limestone. Which means lots of plants can grow easily, but there no deep reservoir of soil moisture when dry periods hit. So plant drought-tolerant species. East is prairie land with deep clay, so you've got some different parameters there.

Thank goodness there are many excellent low maintanence native plants with which to landscape. The book "Native Texas Plants, Landscaping Region by Region" by Sally Wasowski contains some great landscaping plans with lists of plants.

One among many good blogs to check out would be:

http://www.penick.net/digging/

Good inspiration is to be found on some of the Central Texas Gardener videos on Youtube.

One poster here that has a beautiful drought tolerant landscape said she found inspiration by observing plantings at some of the malls around San Antonio.

What fun to plant a new landscape! It's great that you have offered to help. Happy Texas Gardening!

Here is a link that might be useful: Central Texas Gardener Youtube videos ...

What a fun project! There are lots of beautiful pictures by this forum's posters if you click on the gallery link near the top of the page. Also, you might find out if you're near any of the plant swaps that will be happening around then. That would be a fun place to meet and talk to long time Texas gardeners and perhaps pick up some plants too! Give a shout out and see if anyone here lives near Temple. Have fun with your project. Spring is a very pleasant time to be in Texas.

princealbert lives up that way in Belton and he must not be around this week since he would usually jump right in here.

He'll probably be along soon. We'll bump this up next week too.

Thanks for the info everyone. I've been watching the Central Texas Gardener for the last few days and tracked down the garden layouts from the Austin program. I'll try to piece something together from those maybe. Or if princealbert has some examples that would be great too :)

My brother is on the South East part of town so I think we'll be dealing with clay as opposed to the 6" of topsoil. Did you have any stellar plants that you suggest I try jblaschke?

I did notice that the Bell County Master Gardener Spring Sale is going on around the time I will be there so hopefully they will have some good ideas for us.

I did check out the gallery but unless I'm missing something the galleries seem to be from all over the place as opposed to just Texas? I was hoping for some nice example photographs from the area. I'll follow up on the blog you suggested though.

Thanks again!

Shirley, princealbert doesn't have an organized garden, thanks for the good words. That's why I didn't jump in.

Red shirt cat, when you get down here give me a call I may be able to hook you up with some seedlings or rooted cuttings. I'll send you an email with phone #. Which part of Temple does he live in? I haven't seen the announcement for the MG show/sale yet. It is only about 1 1/4 mile from the house. They had some neat stuff last year.
pa

PA - LOL, what's an organized garden? I don't think I have one of those either. Probably because I love too many different plants.

That's the great thing about Texas gardening, very few rules unless you have a really picky HOA.

We have thin topsoil and rocks here so I'm not much help with clay. When I did garden in clay I used a lot of containers just like I do now.

I'm the one who uses the landscape at the mall for inspiration. We have some beautiful commercial landscapes around here so I'm always looking for ideas when I'm out. The professional landscapers know what works and is low maintenance so when you get there take a look around at banks, restaurants, and shopping centers too.

redshirtcat - There are actually two gallery links. The one furthest up on this page is for all users of this website, but the gallery listed below the bold MESSAGES area is strictly of posters in this forum. I'll link to it below -

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Gardens Gallery