Abilene sits at nearly 1,750 feet on the rolling West Texas plains, where the landscape opens wide under a sky that delivers only about 25 inches of rain each year. The native clay loam soil that blankets the city and surrounding areas like Buffalo Gap and Clyde holds moisture unevenly, swelling after a good rain and cracking hard during the long dry stretches of summer. Homeowners near Catclaw Creek and throughout the Wylie corridor regularly fight compacted soil and struggling turf in beds that have never been properly amended. Bulk mulch, enriched topsoil, and decorative stone work together in this climate to slow evaporation, cool shallow root zones, and give plantings a fighting chance through the brutal heat of a West Texas summer.