Now is the worst time of year to seed. You can lay sod any day of the year in your area, but seed planted now will die next month from the heat. Wait until late August or September when the summer heat breaks for seeding. I would have either St Augustine or Kentucky bluegrass in your area. I realize there is a huge push to make everyone in SoCal into a fescue freak, but there are too many issues with that. St Aug and KBG have the huge benefit of getting more dense quickly while fescue will only get more dense in your children's lifetime. St Aug has wide blades and is a yellower color than the Elite varieties of KBG. St Aug is sod only and will knit together quickly. KBG will sprout and generally get going slowly. It is said the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps. That's a little oversimplified but it give you an idea of what to expect. Other grass choices are bermuda (an aggressive grass that takes a lot of work to look nice) and zoysia (a nice grass unless you have a lot of traffic on it or you get a disease in it). If you look at KBG, look at the Elite varieties for color. They are amazing! If you want good seed, look for 0.00 Other Crop and 0.00 Weed Seed. That jacks the price up but weeds are weeds. Why start out planting weeds? Your soil is too fluffy for roots. Whether you seed or sod you should roll it down with a water fillable roller. The right weight is when your own foot does not make a foot print in the soil after being rolled. Packed down soil and hard soil are two different things. A sponge is not compressed but it gets very hard when it is dry. Your soil should be the same. It should be soft when moist and hard on the surface after a few days of no water. You can do that by watering deeply so the grass roots will grow down to get the water. Shallow watering grows shallow roots that do not resist heat or drought very well.

Bambusa oldhamii or B. beecheyana might fit, but has no lower leaves, but you could plant smaller bamboos in between or next to the larger, taller plants. Some of the Guaduas or Dendrocalamus' would also work, although their min temps for leaf damage is around 23 to 25F. Kt

Thanks for all the responses so far! I went by reseda pottery today. You're right, tons of pots and fountains, all working. My wife and I had never seen anything like it that's for sure! Our 8 month old didn't know what to think. Prices for pots weren't that "discount" though so we didn't get what we were looking for. Gardena is too far for just a couple smaller pots, but if I'm ever down that way... I'll check Home goods. Anywhere else?

Great choice on the solandra, Lars. We have a 2-year-old one climbing our chimney right now and we love it. Only problem for the fence is that they want to get a bit taller than we have space for back there. In two years, it's already halfway up our chimney I think we've decided on the fruit-scented sage as a rough hedge, with a lower border of salvia arizonica. Or at least until I change my mind again