I'm interested in this one. It looks to me like watering was the obvious problem. I wish you had mentioned where you live, but if your temps are over 105 from June through Aug, that pretty much narrows it down to a band from Las Vegas south through Indio to Calexico and east to New Mexico. I grew up in temps like that (before the SoCal smog cooled things off). Your problem area is on a slope. Slopes, hills, and mounds drain water fast. With your low humidity, high temp, and on a slope; your grass is not getting enough water. The only way to really keep moisture on that would be with a soaker hose running continuously at a trickle. Rather than do that, I would let the grass die out and do something else. It also looks like you have the wrong grass for your zone. It looks like fescue in the pictures. It should be bermuda if you absolutely have to have a grass. At this point I would plant xeriscape plants on the slope. I don't think you can water it enough under your conditions. If you don't want xeriscape plants, then you could mulch heavily in there and plant pretty much whatever you want that is adapted to your area. Keep the mulch on, though. When people come here and report a "clay" soil, they usually have clay but without a healthy population of microbes, especially fungi. The people with healthy soil don't usually report having clay. The fungi will help your soil retain moisture, but you have to have moisture for the fungi to survive. That's where the mulch comes in. As for the rest of the lawn (not on slopes), you should water deeply and infrequently. In your case, twice a week is probably infrequently but three times is pushing the limit. The idea is for the surface of the soil to dry out between waterings so weed seeds will not germinate. No problem with twice a week in your area. As for duration, 20 minutes is not nearly long enough. I water from 1-3 hours per zone. Last night I watered 6 hours because I've been away for 3 weeks and my wife doesn't water that long. Once you have a healthy population of microbes, your soil will not allow runoff, so even with 6 hours, it all soaked in. As for your yard, unless your sprinkler pours out the water, I would start moving up toward 1 hour (from 20 minutes). Watch your grass for signs of wilting. If it wilts, water immediately but water more heavily (longer) until you can go from one watering to the next without wilting. With a clay base, once you get the microbes going, you might be able to stretch it out to once a week watering, even with your heat. Watering at night is probably not a problem in your area. Our water restrictions in San Antonio require night time watering year round. I've been doing it for a couple years and have not had any more problems than when I watered in the day - and I was expecting problems. Then again I'm on an 100% organic program and fungus diseases are not much of a problem, so your mileage may vary.

CitrusNYC, citrange and houstontexas make excellent points regarding temperature and light. Speaking of light, I don't see any windows near your lemon. Does it receive at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight (preferably a South-facing window) during the growing season? Next, [you allude to this] I would focus on the soil since over-watering as a result of using highly water-retentive peat based potting soils (such as Miracle Grow for Citrus) is a leading cause of citrus death, particularly for a lot of people in the N.East/New England. For help on this, do a search in this forum on the following key words: potting soil, 511, and gritty mix. Also, have a read through the highly dense but really informative link below by tapla/Al on container gardening, on the perils of the 'perched water table', and Al's recommendation for soil mix recipes that will help to rejuvenate your plants' roots. Good luck and keep us posted, and by all means come back and ask questions as people here are only too happy to help! Tim Here is a link that might be useful: Container Soils - Water Movement & Retention by tapla/Al

Nice collection of plants, especially for this time of year. Your tulips look like they are coming along great. I don't have any personal experience with fungus gnats, but the link says that though they mainly eat fungi and and organic matter in the soil, they will eat plant roots. How voracious they may be in eating strong roots from a tulip bulb I don't know. Perhaps let the soil dry out as the article suggests: About fungus gnats Maybe someone else will see this now that it's brought back to the top and have more information. It's unfortunate that posts which are not answered don't stay at the top until someone logs on that knows the answer.. You have to click the "Latest Activity" box and go to "Unanswered" to find them. There's been a lot of complaints about it so maybe that will change. In the meantime maybe original posters can post to their post to bring it back up.

Neem oil is a very efficient miticide - insecticidal soap is not. Not sure where you are located and if the plants in pots are indoors or not but mites can be problematic anywhere that is warm and dry. So if indoors, bumping up the humidity by giving the plants a shower once a week or so or misting daily will help to keep mites at bay. If outdoors, just spray the plants down, similar to the indoor shower.