if you go the do-it-yourself route I would highly recommend native plants, San Marcos is hot and dry. TYou can refer back to the previous discussion a few months back “I hate iceplant” where we talked about different native plants.

Out in the San Marcos area is a guy by the name of Jim Sherman, he owns a nursery called Sherman Nursery his phone number is (760) 471-9988. Fun guy and loves plants, he would probably be willing to point you in the direction of some great native/drought tolerant landscape plants. When I used him for work sites in the past his prices were great and his plants were good quality.