Generally, swarming bees do not attack, because they have nothing to defend (no honey, no children). However, I wouldn't try to remove them without a beesuit. I am really surprised that none of the local beekeepers want to help you. Geez, that's a real drag--certatinly wouldn't happen in our neighborhood. The bees won't stay in a clump on a branch for very long--they will try to find a real home within a day or two, so you can just wait until they leave. Unfortunately, they may decide to move from the tree to somewhere in your house, which would make the problem go from bad to worse. So, what's to do? Well, by any chance do you have a bee supply place locally? If so, you could purchase a standard beehive box, and put them in there. Or, you could put them in a box of some sort, and take them out of town. To move them at all, however, you'll need to either buy a beesuit, or figure out some way to cover yourself completely. Some form of netting over the head is essential--if bees are going to attack (not likely in this case, but there's no sense taking a chance), plus long overalls, leather gloves, workboots and trousers with the cuffs taped shut. That ought to keep you save. Hope this helps.

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!

I have too much lawn to get rid of, besides I like the green altho I know why many of you would rather not spend all your time mowing. As far as new beds in grass, I tried bringing back the annual borders in the orchard - started three years ago. Ugh. This Spring I give up. I'm letting them go back to grass and weeds, I haven't the patience for all that weeding and such. Instead I did plant a few new flowering shrubs in place of the annuals and am allowing the perennials to stay. Some of the perennials are part of the original borders of many years ago. However, I do love seeing flower borders in other people's gardens

That makes perfect sense. Moss doesn't care about sun (I have patches in full sun), but it does care about moist (whoops, $0.25 in the swear jar!) Where you have less than 6 hours of sun per day, grasses generally won't thrive very well. You can seed in red fescue, which will tolerate down to about 3 hours of sun per day pretty well (it's green, not red). You'll end up with bands of grasses; red fescue in the 3-6 hours of sun a day zones, fescues in the 6-8 hours of sun a day zones, and whatever you want in the 8 hours plus zones (you can use fescues and even rye and KBG there if you want). There are plenty of cultivars of KBG that do quite well in WA, even near the coast. Just not as well as they'd do elsewhere. And given that it's the only self-repairing grass you can use, even if it only did "meh," it would still be worth it if you can get it to grow. While fall seeding is superior, where you are you're just as likely to be able to get away with a spring seeding. Just mind it over the summer and, on the off chance that you actually have a real summer, water it in dry spells. Always, always, keep seed moist during planting. It really should be watered three times a day, but if your back is always wet, that can be relaxed a bit. Only you can call that one. Your lawn is not an exception to the feeding rules--Memorial Day, Labor Day, October 1, and the last mow, which is still likely to be in November sometime. The lawn may continue to grow slowly through your winter (mine does), but that can be ignored in terms of the feeding. Just use any good high-nitrogen fertilizer (high first number), low everything else (low other numbers) fertilizer with nothing else added. That covers the basics. :-)