Texas Gardening: Help me decide what to do with this area, 2 by pbtxlady

pbtxlady wrote:
One side of my house is a problem. My neighbors have a humongous 25-year-old Bradford pear in their front yard. It blocks ALL the sun from their yard and a substantial part of mine. They have decided they would rather have the shade and live with bare dirt. Unfortunately, their decision applies to me too. I did have a little scraggly St Augustine growing in this area, still hanging in there, but last fall they had a new retaining wall built, and the workmen killed what was left of my grass.

There are other problems. They also run a sprinkler system on this side of their house, and they usually run it too long. Since they have no landscaping left over there, it all runs off into my yard. During the spring and summer the whole area pretty much stays a muddy mess.

I have no idea what to put here. I have tried azaleas and hostas... everything I can think of that grows in shade. The frogfruit I put out (planning to let it spread as a groundcover) is still alive after 2 years, but barely. The shade is just too deep.

It's all very unattractive, and I have to do something. Suggestions? Anything you think might grow? It doesn't even have to be plant material. Given its age, I keep thinking that Bradford pear is going to die soon, so I don't really want to spend the money on a lot of hardscaping. But I'm fresh out of ideas.