I always have to go look up these grass varieties. Marathon, for those of you who don't know, is TTTF. And for those of you who don't know what means, turf-type tall fescue is a grass that does spread by itself but the progress is measured in terms of ice ages. Basically if you want more grass, you need more seed/sod. I have seen it everywhere in SoCal. It does seem to do surprisingly well even in the very dry climates of the desert. I guess they water the heck out of it. I have also seen it choke, cough, and sputter in even partial shade. It could be that it just won't work in your shade. I am experimenting with a type of zoysia called Shadow Turf in my yard. It is a fairly aggressive form of zoysia. It filled in very quickly after an initial 2-month period where it spent its energy sending out rhizomes instead of green tops. Then suddenly I had it everywhere. My application has much (MUCH) more sun than I anticipated (we removed a tree), so the grass is doing extremely well. I have also seen it in an application ranging from full sun to no sun under an English walnut tree. It looked incredible everywhere except in the no-sun area. There, after two years of trying to get established, it is still trying. At least the grass is winning, just at a much slower pace. The one-inch plug is now 1 square foot of dense grass after 2 seasons. But elsewhere it is very plush, dense, and a very nice color of green. This grass is surprising me. They said it was shade tolerant, but this is more than tolerant. Where in SoCal do you live? I don't need the nearest two intersections but the name of the city/town would help pin you down. For example if you lived in Blythe the suggestions might be different than if you lived in Big Bear or Newport.

The date of the initial post is shown. It is there in the list of posts before you open it (at least in my view). And it is at the top next to the initial poster's name, just below the title of the post. i don't think this is solely a houzz issue, though perhaps it is worse now. One of my very early gardenweb posts was on a garden forum about ground cover and I had it set to email me follow ups. I got continued inquiries bumping that post to the top for years. I answered questions but eventually we moved away from that house and people kept asking how my ground cover was doing. I eventually turned off the notifications so for all I know it's still popping up a decade later. Some people hate it when an old post pops up, but others see it as a legitimate continuation of the conversation. When it's spammers, I think it is annoying. But when some one is asking how a kitchen countertop material has held up, it doesn't seem irrational to me to reply to an old post. It potentially notifies the orginal poster of your question and it allows others to give input too. I have seen posters scolded for not searching before they post many times. So some people may be posting to relevant old threads after searching to avoid being scolded Trying to sort out forum etiquette can feel like damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I wonder if Allegra shows up on the Landscape Design forum. Dare I try to post a 5th time? If that doesn't work, I think I'll attach the photos to the Gallica thread I started. Peculiar is the word! Is this the other side of the looking glass? Sheila, care to attend a tea party? We can paint our roses red! Carol

I finally figured out (I think) that if Houzz sends me an email indicating that someone has posted on one of the threads that I have, if I type a response on it, it disappears. I have to go to the topic (Kitchens), then go to the thread, then post from there. My problem is that I can't get rid of any topics I no longer want on my "Topics" list when I go to Edit, and one of the Topics I checked doesn't seem to send me any threads. Anne