bizbu2000, you're going to have to unlearn the bad watering habit. If people in Phoenix only need to water once a week, then one inch, all at once, is all you should need for a week or more. Seriously! Put out some cans and time how long it takes to fill them. That day is day zero. Then watch the grass for signs of wilting. You can't know how deep your roots are at this point so watch the grass. Completely ignore how the soil feels. It can dry up all the way and the grass can remain nice and fresh looking for many more days. As soon as any part of the lawn looks wilted, water again for the same length of time you timed with the tuna cans. That time is going to be your guide from now on, so memorize it. My time is 8 hours. Your time will likely be less than that. Some people can fill the cans in 20 minutes in a high flow system. Anyway, go back and watch the grass again. It should go longer without wilting the next time and longer still the next time. When you water if you get runoff before the time is up, stop watering and allow the water to soak in for 30 minutes. Then resume watering. You might have to stop and start several times to get the full inch into the soil. If that happens, write back. Then you would be dealing with hard or hydrophobic soil which is a different issue. That lawn looks a heckofalot better than most lawns we see here. Once you get the watering right, and once Mother Nature stops helping you out, your weed pressure will subside considerably. Weed seed needs continual surface moisture to germinate. When you stop giving continual surface moisture to them, they stop germinating. Again, water only once a week in the heat of summer. As the temps cool down, back off to watering once every 2 weeks and then 3 and 4. And always water for your memorized time. If you get help from rain, then reset your calendar to day zero and watch it. If you got 3 inches of rain, the grass might go for a month not needing more water. If you got 1/4-inch of rain, you might need to supplement with 3/4-inches of your own.

I live in Zone 9 and I just finished seeding a week ago and will be taking cuttings all this week. Seeds germinate quite quickly in these warm zones and as heathen1 says, it depends on what your sowing. There are many herbs in your zone that actually thrive in the winters because they have great warm days and cool/cold nights. Certain annuals will struggle with frost, ie Basils, but some others like Cilantro, chives, burnet, parsley, thyme, dill should do fine dpending on how low your freezes go. I feel getting these in the ground in Fall allows them to establish a good root system over the winter and be ready for a spring flush. Here is a link that might be useful: The Herb Garden

what zone are you in? i'm in zone 5 and i'm still taking cuttings, putting them in a cold frame type thing in dappled shade, till deep fall,or early winter, when i'll mulch well and walk away!!ashdown's last newsletter, (zone 7,i think), said they'll be taking cuttings right through october...an unheated greenhouse is just a big coldframe, right? as long as they have the humidity somehow, they'll be fine, and if you have a cold winter, mulch well...the little buggers will still grow roots when you're not looking!! good luck, donna

Dave, I don't know orangehero's goal, but I've overwintered various hot pepper varieties that take a loooong time to mature. The first season I harvested only a few pods from them...some not until they ripened inside for two months. These plants had been started very early but still did not mature in my cooler weather conditions. The next year they produced much earlier and yielded alot more. However....I hate fighting aphids all winter and NO peppers are coming inside this year! If I really loved the long season super hots for eating I probably would continue to bring plants inside and try more aphid fighting plans, though. BTW I only took in peppers I grew in containers so it wasn't too hard to do. The same varieties growing in the ground did not mature any earlier.