So I take it that if the fescue is dead, then its dead. I can't revive it without re-seeding, correct? Bah. Yep when it is dead it is done and has to be reseeded. Bermuda on the other hand goes dormant when it does not receive enough water, and comes back with water. However it will not wait forever and will also eventually die. Question about bermuda - the bermuda I've seen around Las Vegas needs to be trimmed very short. Its almost like a carpet. I have doubts as to whether my mower can actually mow that short. Yes Bermuda is kept very short. That is why I mentioned it has to be mowed at least twice a week if irrigated and fed. However not all Bermuda grass is alike as their are many varieties all requiring different maintenance techniques. 1. Most of the common types from seed are used for pasture hay and erosion control and those are not mowed but rather cut once or twice a year to harvest hay. They are rarely ever fertilized except once in the spring and never irrigated. Not something you would want for a turf grass 2. Improved common seeded types for turf grass and the quality varies quite a bit in leaf size and cutting height. Some like Princess (aka P77) are near golf coarse quality requiring to be kept very short of 1 inch or less, fertilizing every 30 days during growing season, regular irrigation to maintain color. The there are several varieties which are medium quality than can be maintained around 1 to 2 inches which is probable the best fit for you. They still require frequent fertilizing and irrigation to maintain color, but you can have a decent looking stand using a push mower set for 1-1/2 inches. 3. Then there are the hybrids varieties. These are from sod, plug, or sprigs only. No seed available for hybrids. These are the high quality varities and they fall into two classes semi-dwarf, and dwarf. I will not go into dwarf varieties because they are stickily professional care used for golf greens and very wealthy people who have full time pros maintaining it. What you likely see around town and on all golf coarse fairways and tee boxes is a semi-dwarf hybrid variety. The two most common varieties used and widely grown by sod farms is Tifway-I (aka 419), and TifSport. In most states where Bermuda grass is grown Tifway-I is the default choice of all builders and landscapers. TifSport is gaining popularity as it is a little finer grain, denser, and better cold tolerance than Tifway-I. Either way they are both fairly high input grasses and best maintained at 1-inch or less with a reel type mower. However many and I would say most maintain them with a rotary mower between 1 and 2 inches. However those that do use a rotary mower do so because that came with there home and they just do not know better. It works, but not optimal. As to watering I split a different way than David recommends. Normally I would agree once a week with a deep soaking is the best method as a rule of thumb. But not for out here. Unless you are blessed and top soil was shipped in to your yard, or in a flood plain where soil is carried in from flooding, you do not have soil. You have rubble and coarse granite/quarts sand eroded from the surrounding mountains of LV. There is nothing in it to hold water and coupled with bone dry 10% or less humidity and searing temps you have to water much more frequently than most folks do. In summer once a day is the normal practice out here. At least in Prescott and Phoenix it is. Maybe Vegas is different, but I doubt it as the soil and climate are very much alike except Vegas is a little cooler than Phoenix. You guys only get up to 110, where Phoenix 115 is long sleeve shirt weather in summer. Now with that said I can say you are watering too frequently at 3 times a day for a few minutes each time. To be honest I do not know exactly what to recommend, other than when you do water, do so very early in the morning, and only once in a day. I imagine during cooler months once about every 3 or 4 days. During the blistering summer days it will take watering every day in the mornings. A lot is going to depend on which grass type you choose and actual soil conditions. I suggest you go around to a few nurseries and landscape companies to seek advice, maybe even visit a golf course and talk to a supt. You should be able to get a pretty good idea if you do that. Or if you have a neighbor with an impressive yard, stop by and ask them as most people will be flattered and tell you exactly what they do unless they pay someone to do it for them. I know from visiting Vegas often and now living in AZ, yards are rare even in the upper class neighborhoods. Just takes too much WATER to maintain them. That is why I mention Buffalo grass to be considered.

Oh my gosh, WOW, what a lovely bunch of sunbeams came into my life. Thank you batya, terrene,& butterfly4u. Thank you so much for your kind words. As you restated, fabric softener was never going to be my new soil treatment of choice. It was an experiment, a trial to see if I could make a task easier. I am a problem solver by nature. I am always looking for solutions to all kinds of things. I'm willing to as was said, think out of the box. I think I colored out of the lines also as a kid. Maybe I need to start a new thread "Aleve for your Garden". I have made the effort to take two Aleve prior to heading outside to do any chores and if I've worked fairly hard, when I come in, I immediately get into a hot bath with epsom salts, soak for awhile till I'm sure my muscles are thoroughly warmed. At bedtime I take two more Aleve and find that in the morning I can move with no pain or very little. If I've worked extra hard, I do give myself a break the following day. I had just read an article about Jane Fonda keeping in shape but she does the the Aleve in the a.m. & p.m. maybe I could and should also give it a try. My finger joints don't hurt nearly as much and I think the swelling has gone down, my knees are better also, my low back is better also so that I don't walk hunched over while working outside. I really have paid a toll with my body, pushing too hard for too long but maybe I've found a bit of relief. Batya, when this subdivision was first built 21 yrs ago, one of the first in the So CA High Desert, everyone poured up through the pass into this open area w/clean air, dazzling blue skies and AFFORDABLE housing. All of the new homes had huge green lawns in front. All these crazy So Calif people started planting their petunias, carnations, impatiens, azales, etc. We all poured water on everything like we did when we lived BELOW in LA, OC, & Riverside counties. Then we went through a summer, then a winter and everything was wiped out. Few of us have tried to learn about the soil. Some have kept their lawns but they are chemical lawns, they haven't seen any steer manure, or natural anything since they were planted. The water rates are going to bring everyone to their knees soon. My in-laws lived in Elgin,IL & had a lush acre w/forest, gorgeous. Butterfly4u, I will give your RoundUp method a whirl. The thing about RUp is that once it hits the ground, it is nuetralized and is no longer effective so I'm a little confused but since you were willing to give me an understanding nod, I certainly can reciprocate and try it out. I hope to get back to Charleston & Savannah to walk the two cities thoroughly. Terrene, your right, I could have tried the baby shampoo, dog shampoo, Castille soap, virtually anything that creates "slip". When I was thinking my idea through, I wanted the most bang for my buck and fabric softener struck me as truly concentrated with slip properties, although as I think about it, hair conditioner is right up their also. Wonder if I would have created such a stir if I had used hair conditioner, I bet not cuz it doesn't seem SO chemical and a whole lot of people use it daily. Yet chemically I bet fabric softener & hair conditioner are very close in chemical makeup. Hmmmm, interesting. Oh I must share that as I was overturning the soil and pulling out the roots of bermuda, I found a nice long worm. I'm sure I heard him say something about "never smelling so good..." My meadow idea, actually came from High Country Gardens catalog and as I look at their picture, I see they are calling it a Western Prairie. I have a horseshoe shape of turf area, it's not planted, just named. It is apprx 4000 sq ft. The back portion I'm thinking would be planted in HCG native grasses for the high desert and I'd mix in wild flower seed that is natural to the area also. The garden was designed by Dan Johnson as a short grass Cottonwood Garden displayed at Denver Botanic Gardens. It uses Legacy buffalo grass, and Hachita Blue Gramma grass. To that is added Mirablis, Oenothera, Callirhoe, Sporobolus. They also add Asclepias, Dales, Artemisia, & Schizachyrium. You can see it online at HCG's website. I still have the large planting areas or rooms as I call them and like you Batya, I know I must give up my flower filled garden idea but I have found at Annie's Annuals.com several flowers that will make it here. She does a great job of finding the species that are truly resiliant, not the big box flowers that don't stand a chance in our environment. The good news is that I ran all over the backyard gathering twigs, branches, dried weeds, anything I could find and raked them altogether and have been putting them through my shredder, then spreading it in the planter beds. Wow, I put what seemed like a lot through the shredder and got kind of a pitiful pile but I'll keep at it and I do have a compost pile though due to the dryness, it takes a good amount of supervision. I also started looking for anything that could be used as cover for some of the more obnoxious weeds so they will die out. I will likely need to water here and there to loosen the soil to pull some weeds but I can sit on a garden stool to do that. I have a very bad habit of bending over at the waist which is the worst thing anyone can do. My knees are both injured from a car accident several years ago so I really hate to bend them and getting up isn't pretty. So kids, I am trying to be resourceful while the weather is cool. Our winters the last 2 years have been long, into May but this year I'm thinking we may see a warming much earlier. The jury is still out. So I need to be very busy while I can work outside. Is it just CA or have you all seen the dramatic rise in the cost of steer manure, compost and other amendments? Geez. One question: I was reading about Soil Sulphur, the organic kind and thinking that it sure sounds like just the ticket for this very alkaline soil. Anyone ever used it? Gypsum is what is talked most about at this forum but it is very, very slow and takes forever to work. Why wouldn't I add either the sprayed on liquid or pellets. It is immediatley available to the soil, breaks it up, makes it much more difficult for weeds to set in and gives plants a fighting chance. I don't expect to get my soil to a nuetral ph but if I could lower the alkalinity some, it would make a big difference. I searched for sulphur & soil sulphur on this sight but nothing showed up. I suppose I could pose the question here and watch the fur fly or get beat into the ground again. Sometimes I don't understand why many people get upset if a quicker way is suggested to improve soil other than dropping leaves, twigs, compost (self made)only. Again thank you so much for the kind words. I do appreciate it. Batya, I would love to hear about your moving to Israel from Chicago. Mary

You're in luck Mermaid! Lady Banks is salt and humidity tolerant. LOL! Florida is really beautiful and as the name implies many completly gorgeous flowers will grow there :) I've only lived really close to the beach once. (Half moon Bay San Fran) I loved the sound and the smell of the ocean. I think I would like Florida better tho. I'm not much for chilly weather and Half Moon was too cold for me. nice, how neat! I love pass along plants and plants with a history! I get a lot of my native/rarish plants from a nursery called Weston Gardens. It has a ton of history as a rich man's party place back in the day. They turned it into a nursery/historical demo garden thing. If I had the money I'd rehab an old Victorian house and re-create the gardens in a minute! PJ

Hi. Joining this long thread a little late. My name is Lisa. I'm 35 and currently a SAHM to two boys, ages 6 1/2 and 4. I finished a post-doc in Clinical Psychology 2 1/2 years ago, before moving from Chicago to the Philly area. I plan to go back to work part-time some day but haven't taken steps in that direction yet. I've been married for 10 years to my dh Scott who is a Neurologist specializing in Epilepsy. This is our 2nd house. We've lived here for 2 1/2 years. It's a new construction house, though we didn't design it (when we purchased it, it was 95% finished). It's (to our mind) not particularly attractive on the outside, but it is very spacious inside and didn't need renovation. That was key for us, as we moved here with very small kids and had just worked hard renovating parts our old house in the suburbs of Chicago. New construction is an anomoly in our neighborhood. The builder had torn down one house, split the lot, and built two houses on it, facing the other direction. So what we have is a big house on a small lot and a funny shaped (long and narrow) back yard. No one has big yards in our neighborhood, and the neighborhood has an "urban light" feel to it, with side walks and homes built close together. We actually like this--we like knowing our neighbors and being able to walk, ride bikes, etc. on the sidewalks. We walk our oldest to 1st grade, which is wonderful as well. I like decorating but feel I am a complete novice at it. I am one of those people who know what I like when I see it but can't always imagine it in my head. Strange for me, since I consider myself a fairly creative person. I guess this is a art unto itself. We have a lot of white walls that need painting rooms that need tweaking. I just keep telling myself that it's a process and there's no hurry. Here are my boys celebrating Hanukkah this year: Here's a family pic. Had to go back to last April to find one of the 4 of us! Here, you can see some of the front of our house (stucco in front, siding and stucco on sides and back):