Regreening/re-flowering 3 acres of Central Texas depleted soil - what would you do now?

Central Texas, NW of Austin, 30" annual rainfall average but can be as low as 8".

Berms/swales put in June 2024.
Cover crops/misc pioneer species (incl. ragweed, pigweed amaranth, silverleaf nightshade, and horseweed) come up at different times. Thankfully, no pioneer has been the scary reseeding nightmare we were warned about.
Sapling plantings in Feb probably all failed. Some we can't locate because we had such a wet spring and six feet tall greenery dominated on the berms.
Existing perennials (we did not plant) go strong for about a month or so, then fade away, incl. blackfoot daisy, Texmenia, Mexican Hat, Antelope Horn milkweed, gaura, black-eyed Susan, prairie verbena, prairie broomweed, frogfruit, Texas sage (the short ground-cover type), Texas skeletonweed, four-nerve daisy, gayfeather, menodora, and many others. Some of the fore-mentioned do indeed ebb and flow so don't just totally fade away. Annuals like sunflower and poppies, plus ragweed and giant ragweed go strong for awhile. Hackberries and agaritas give early-spring nectar to pollinators. Flameleaf sumac, Texas persimmon and various other stuff flower seasonally.

We've set up 3 IBC totes for the 3-acre pasture and will passively drip irrigate SOME areas. A fourth tote is for the front and backyard of the cottage.

First priority:
1) Help along some existing perennials so they flower longer than a month, esp. handy in late summer to help the pollinators (we have 6-8 bee hives).

2) Plant a number of Texas native plants appropriate for the rocky soil there to help the pollinators, provide beauty, and take over from the pioneers.

3) Establish a small orchard. There are two plots great for orchards, with deep soil brought in years ago (now depleted but fixable). One has lots of wind protection and some protection from western sun. That latter spot has a slope of about 5%.

4) Establish a dotting of overstory trees, at first for shade and wildlife feed and to establish little guilds of flourishing that will then spread.

If you were us, what would you do this fall into spring?
I still have three 40-pound bags of cover crops.
I can buy a wide variety of native trees from a local seller.
I can buy a LOT more native plants.
I can buy and spread more wildflower mix seeds, this time irrigating them; the first time I just spread them was a total failure.
I do not have to do all of those things now. BUT I can do a little of each as well.

I am there every week or two for a day or two except in winter. I'd rather not have to fill the IBC totes up every time I'm there. But we have a full 40,000 gallon rain tank ready to go. I don't want to irrigate directly from it in case the system leaks while we're not there. A nightmare is coming back to an empty tank. By late October, we will be installing poly pipe going up the pasture to fill the totes and poly pipe for drip irrigation, which I recently learned how to do by just doing on our suburban lot. Note the swales are far too large to just fill for irrigating purposes.

Anyway, any random suggestions are welcome, thank you.
- Suzie

Sounds like you have a good plan well in hand. I doubt anything I could add would be much value.

I see you have several interesting short term goals listed, but what is you long term goal or vision for the place?

I'm a propagator. If i buy a plant i must find a way to propagate it for 'free' before i buy more of the same if i like them. I have a passive propagation system to the north of oak trees which you probably do not have, cuttings survived the worst drought and highest temps this summer without watering, because of shades and windblocked by other trees and shrubs. Microclimates are essential even if it takes invasive species to establish microclimates. The north of a house can be a great propagation starter place too, because of monitoring.
I would check what grows in nature establish those and then use them to establish store bought plants. Chop and drop and shading are essential features. Create windblocks with the most drought hardy trees east-west. Create food hedges north-south that provide shade for each other while growing up.
I know i'm in France and what we call drought is a wet year to you, but principles remain true.
Good luck, hope this helps.

Your plans sound good.

I would include a plan to build soil.

Collect organic matter such as wood chips and leaves.

Start a compost pile to make good soil.

Learn to grow mushrooms.

I would look to find an area close by that is native. Native vegetation is what is suitable for your site, this is what evolved in your climate. This is not to say some introduced species are counter but think it through. I restored tallgrass prairie very authentically in 1993, still going strong today. Used local source grass seed and the forb seed was hand collected from our burned prairie remnants the year before. We are very dry this year with just over half of the normal yearly rainfall to date. Some of this grassland was grazed by my neighbors' cattle, the cows, the calves and the grass did very well. Think deep roots to get through the dry periods, this will also help bring up nutrients from down under.

Thanks for all the input!

The native tree seller (also an arborist) is in the same county just 18 minutes away, so much of his stock is pretty darned local.

I propagate from time to time, but I haven't dedicated the space for it at the suburban place and don't feel I'm at the property often enough to tend to them there. I do realize it can be quite rewarding. I have 3 baby Goldenball Leadtrees in long skinny pots that can be planted soon that I happened to find seeds for off ebay from a seller in the same city! I have a lot of seeds I can make plants out of. Having the seedlings watered while I'm out of town (I'd like to be free enough to do that more often) is an issue. At least I've established some automated irrigation for the food forest while it's establishing, but I think our heat is making those 1/4" connections leak. More experiments will continue. Hmm, the idea of a propagation area north of some big trees sounds neat. The area north of the rain tank is super close to the cottage and very protected by the tank on the south, and big trees to the east and west without blocking much sunlight.

I would love to do windbreaks. The property slopes from West to East and berm/swales are North to South so a bit more difficult. I'll ask the native tree seller what he thinks.

The future of the place is unclear. A lot of things tie us to Austin, including very fun grandchildren and my manageable, rewarding suburban food forest I started last fall. One vision I have is turning the country place into a verdant productive permaculture example for the region, to be visited, studied and the like. I don't know how feasible that is at our ages - early 50's - and we still enjoy Austin. The journey continues.

Thank you for the food for thought, exactly what I was looking for.

Maybe you could propagate at your location and transplant in two or three years when established?

Since the future of the place is unclear, this sounds reasonable.

Early 50s is NOT too old to think long term. With a bit of luck you have 20 to 30 years with enough health and energy to enjoy this place.
I am 65 and I like to imagine the next owner of my place will keep some bit of what I did.

My vision is very lightweight, not a burning desire. I don't have a particular future in mind. I am enjoying the present and working on small-scale permaculture daily. I made several mistakes in my mini earthworks but I'm learning very practical lessons. The giant swales I've found hard to maintain during drought since you plant on the slope and then it's hard to target irrigation. Plus on 250-foot runs, to do all of them, I'd need quite a few IBC totes to cover all of them. So I'm not going to in the near future

To Anne's point, there is a tree service down the road that has already dropped off four 40-yard loads of decomposed wood chips and is happy to drop off more anytime. The only thing is that biting ants LOVE the decomposing mulch so it's hard to work with it I plan on getting more from him and hiring his crew to spread it with loaders. 2 of the loads someone or the city/county hauled away!! even though it was out of the road in the easement. Crazy. The rest we've spread around OR the depleted soil has gobbled up.

Anyway, lots of options so far, but I am also trying not to take on too much. Go with the flow. Thanks again!

It is not necessary to work with the wood chips.  Just let them sit where they were dropped and decompose.

Then when the weather gets cooler maybe you could spread some where needed.

Plenty of folks have posted picture of their wood chip piles.

I think the next wood chip loads will go directly to the fenced gardens. I can plant some trees there - one is very wind protected and the other is definitely protected on the North side.

I got a lot of recommendations from the native tree seller and he has a few of many varieties which we'll buy after I get irrigation ready to go - probably in the next 2 weeks. Of windbreak trees, Arizona cypress is my top choice.

Haven't seen mention of your soil profile - what's going on under the surface at different depths? Were you able to closely examine a deep test cut when you excavated the swales and determine soil horizons and characteristics? In semi-arid climate, soil conditioning and hydrology is pretty crucial, lots of different strategies and timelines to work with on that depending on your capacity and goals.
You've been able to observe and learn from the swale installation, how about any other experimental interventions, like incorporating amendments, organic matter, tillage, mulching - any notable benefits? How about what others in that area are doing to establish successful plantings? Any prospects for digging out larger catchment basins, or even something like Holzer's Krater/Crater gardens? Finding and storing subsurface moisture seems pretty key!