every county has a soil conservation district office ... in spring.. and sometimes in fall .. they off native ... small... stock.... for wind break purposes ... another word for a wind break.. is a sight break ... e.g. they sell pines in my area.. 25 for $16 .... at about one foot tall .... so you might be able to cover a lot of ground ... for not a lot of money.. with stock that is chosen for your county ... the lists usually offer trees.. conifers.. and shrubs .... thats were i would start ... let us know what they suggest .... ken ps: no matter what you decide to do .... go diverse .. a nice mixture of many different types of things for your project ...

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I guess we have to rule out Japanese Maple since our front yard is south-facing and gets full sun. We were visualizing a tree with foliage that is full and rounded, and about 5-6 feet off the ground. We don't want anything shrub-like mainly for aesthetic reasons. We'd like the tree to shade the house in the summer and allow the sun to come through in the winter. Below the tree, we'll have succulents and drought-tolerant plants, with much of the ground cover being pea gravel. I'm still looking up all the various suggested trees on the web to see what they look like... but please keep your suggestions coming! Also, if you can recommend a good nursery in the San Diego area, I'd appreciate those as well!

She needs to go into the TLC on Memorial and ask for Marteen. He is the primary overseer for all conifer orders. He has years of experience with conifer survival in this area. He will shoot her straight on what will make it here and their variety to pick from is impressive. Unfortunately their prices are fairly high as well. I'm currently in the middle this spring and coming fall of putting in an extensive combination of conifers. I'm trying to see how far I can push micro-climating but definately anticipate losses. Our heat is not very conducive to a lot of conifers. mark

What kind of soil do you have? Some of the choices do better in clay and others do better in sand. You could go with a warm season lawn (blue grama and/or buffalo grass), but those do better in hotter climates and would be green for a short time at your elevation. They probably use the least amount of water, but you'd have a short green season and you could lose some to winter kill (might be what happened to your blue grama). Many of the natives are slow to establish, but maybe you could get faster establishment if you seeded more heavily. You'd want to be careful not to seed too heavily or you might cause problems by overcrowding. Do you get winter snow? I've had the best luck at getting seeds to germinate by seeding just before the first good snow. The seeds then germinated when the soil warmed up in the spring, using the melted snow and any rains for moisture. Of the low-moisture grasses I've used, the two that germinate the fastest are crested wheatgrass and sheep fescue. Most crested wheatgrass varieties are bunch grasses, but some newer versions will spread via rhizomes. I think Ephraim and Roadcrest are varieties that spread (although they spread much more slowly than something like KBG). Sheep fescue is a bunch grass, but if you mow it periodically, it will spread a little bit via tillering (sending up new shoots next to the existing shoots). It has very fine blades and can be anywhere from blue to dark green (Covar is the variety I've planted and it's green and probably the best choice for a lawn). One caveat about sheep fescue is that although it requires very little water (less than 10 inches a year) it doesn't tolerate heat well. It won't die, but it will go dormant in the hottest part of the summer (maybe not at your elevation). Streambank and western wheatgrass are the other grasses in my lawn. Western wheatgrass is more of a blue and streambank wheatgrass is a light green. Streambank wheatgrass establishes much more easily than western wheatgrass (although not as readily as crested wheatgrass and sheep fescue). Western wheatgrass will stay green longer without water, but streambank wheatgrass can deal with prolonged dormancy better. If you've got sandy soil, thickspike wheatgrass would be a better choice for you than streambank wheatgrass. Thickspike, streambank and western wheatgrass are all shizomatous spreading grasses. None of these should be fertilized with very much nitrogen fertilizer. I haven't fertilized in 2 or 3 years now. If you do fertilize, don't use more than about 1/2 to 1 lb of actual N per 1000 sq ft per year (and if you use 1 lb, split it into multiple applications). If you're used to KBG, you may think I'm kidding, since it takes about 3-4 lbs of N per year to be happy. But too much N will cause these grasses to suffer and maybe even die. Maybe a mixture of grasses would do well--some crested wheatgrass and/or sheep fescue for quick establishment and some streambank/thickspike and/or western wheatgrass for better fill-in. That more or less describes my lawn. I've also added some Palestine strawberry clover (part of why I never fertilize, since it adds some N). Dutch White Clover is more drought tolerant than Strawberry clover, but it prefers acidic conditions (definitely not what I have) so I got the most drought tolerant of the Strawberry clovers. Let me know if you want some contact information for suppliers of these seeds and I'll dig up some links.