I don't know much about warm season grasses, which probably account for most of the grasses that are grown in zone 8-9 AZ. Depending on where in AZ you are, there are a few cool season grasses that may work. I don't know how well these will match your requirements. Many of these are native and/or unconventional lawn grasses. Cool season grasses: There are five fescues that are adapted to a fair portion of AZ: Sheep, Arizona, Hard, Tall and Creeping Red. All but the creeping red fescue are bunch grasses, although sheep fescue will tiller fairly aggressively if it is mowed. There are also some varieties of tall fescue that spread slowly via rhizomes. Sheep fescue is somewhat blue, but the others are all green or blue green. Two wheatgrasses that can be used in lawns are adapted to at least part of AZ: western and thickspike. Both of these spread via rhizomes. I particularly like the looks of western wheatgrass. Warm season grasses: Buffalo grass and blue grama are both natives that are well suited to most or all of AZ. blue grama is a bunch grass that is very attractive, with fine soft blades. Buffalo grass spreads via stolons (above ground runners). It has a somewhat gray green color to it and may produce a somewhat thin lawn. If you want the lawn to be soft and you choose buffalo grass, make sure you pick a sod or plug variety that is all female. The seeded varieties produce a large seeds in burrs. Most of the grasses I've listed here will live with little additional water. Tall fescue is the only one that will need regular watering.

Hi Juju, I've only been to Phoenix a few times, but I'd say yes. I first read on AZ gardening, then Tucson-specific gardening and then got those booklets from the Phoenix Water people - All seem to say the same things. If you were moving to a higher elevation in AZ, things would be different, but from what I remember of the weather (oppressive heat), the main parts of Phoenix were very similar to where I live in Tucson. You might have problems with plants that are on the border of a "zone" ... I'm not sure about that. We had a frost here last year that killed some cacti and other things, but other than covering things you know are "tender" for a couple of weeks - paying attention to plants' highest zone number seems most important here in the desert. To tell you the truth, most of what I've paid attention to when researching plants is the amount of sun and heat they can take, and how much water they need. Realizing this came only after much denial and losing many plants. Oh, and you *absolutely must* plant most things in fall. If you remember nothing else, remember that! I tried to plant in the spring a couple of times and nothing survived. Including the native plants. At first I tried planting stuff I'd loved when in CA and NY - Don't do it! Unless they are succulents or cacti :D What's great about the book and sites I mentioned is you can see there are gorgeous plants that smell good, will feed birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, and they will actually *thrive* here. They might not be what you are used to, but change can be a good thing. Of course, a gifted gardener could probably get many things to grow which I cannot... but after losing so many plants over the years I'm always looking for the prettiest plants that take the least amount of effort and water :) Most of the plants here have to deal with full, *blazing* sun, which has to be similar to most of Phoenix. It's been a pain changing my mindset and learning all this new stuff which is usually the exact opposite of anywhere else I've lived. Happily, more plants survive now because of all the time spent researching and because I can now pry myself away from all the plants I love (but won't survive here) that bigbox stores and a lot of nurseries carry. If you have a hard time leaving your favorite plants behind at a nursery, make sure you bring a list of plants that will do well here - AND STICK TO IT! That's the hardest part :P Good luck!

Ignore my seed suggestions and listen to TW. The 700 sqft lawn has too much shade for bermuda. You might send a soil test to Logan Labs and post it back here to see what morph has to say about the soil chemistry. TW's comment on salt has me concerned. I've seen St Aug growing from the sand dunes out into the sea, so I'm not too concerned about that, but I'm wondering what salt there is in PHO. You would be better off waiting for the old grass to revive than to seed with new. Established roots work better and faster than new roots. As I usually mention to people who are impatient with their bermuda coming out of dormancy...give it time and you'll be laughing that you ever suspected there was a problem. Now with the shade, you do have a problem. Your steps need comment: Kill everything with roundup. This is fine. Wait 2 weeks, then mow to lowest setting. Oops! Don't wait 2 weeks. Water the area daily to try and sprout all the weed seeds you can. Then spray with RU again a week later. Rake up all the debris. This is good Aerate the soil with rental from homedepot. No need for this step. If you have hard soil, then use shampoo on it. Spread the bermda seed, and add top soil. YIKES! No. Scatter the seed and roll it down with a rented water fillable roller. For really small areas, just walk on all the seed to ensure good seed-to-soil contact. Don't add topsoil unless you are trying to raise a low spot on the yard. Adding topsoil WILL change your drainage. There's another recent post on this forum where the guy has a broken house from water backing up into his garage and then freezing between the bricks. His pictures indicate too much top dressing caused the water to not drain into the yard but instead back up to the buildings.

If you want a tree to stand there like a statue, never doing anything biological then a lot of them are unacceptable. expensive to trim when they get big This is prevented by choosing trees that don't get bigger than the situation calls for. nothing will grow under them Where palms are prevalent in the occupied landscape there are palms with grass and other plants beneath them every where you look. With their tiny root systems and the tendency of many popular kinds to hoist their comparatively limited crowns up on long bare stems these would appear if anything to be much more suitable for planting beneath than usual. Those with fronds coming right to the ground or nearly so may of course be a different situation. You often can't easily get small plants to grow up underneath low branching evergreen shrubs of all kinds - this is not limited to palms.