A tall fescue lawn in a northern California winter is going to look a bit bedraggled, and hardly grow much. The thinning of the grass is probably due to lack of sufficient irrigation suitable for best growth in the hotter months, in combination with insufficient top soil with organic content added before you sodded it, and not fertilizing often enough to encourage better health and growth of grass. How many inches of topsoil did you add before rototilling, and how often and which months do you fertilize, and what is the N-P-K ratio of the fertilizer you are using? As to whether 20 minutes of spray irrigation is sufficient for a lawn in northern California conditions, especially if applied 4 times a week on a flat site, if anything this is overwatering, even with heavy root competition from the redwoods and oaks across the fence. It looks to me that you need to build up soil fertility in both the lawn, and particularly for the citrus tree, which shows signs of nitrogen deficiency in particular, and is probably also not getting water in summer sufficient to get rooting deeper. Just adding a mulch with chicken manure in it, or mushroom compost or similar as a 4 inch mulch, ought to help the citrus tremendously. I'd also suggest adding some time release fertilizer such as osmocote and work into the soil in March, for longer term/slow release of nutrients, and check with a soil auger how deep your irrigation is penetrating with the irrigation you are giving it. The lawn can also be top dressed with a light screened mulch after having it aerated with a core type aerator, and the top dressing raked in to help fill the holes, but it might be better to simply use a sod cutter to skim it all off, add a healthy 6 inches of organic compost to the lawn area, and resod. Lawns here typically benefit from several fertilizing periods, at least once in mid spring and again in summer and early fall, or refer to the web site referred to previously for recommendations. You might also consider using a mulching lawn mower that chops up the grass blades so that they return to the soil, and preserve the nitrogen that is otherwise thrown away with each clipping. As to Ink's complaint about "cliche" eyebrow plantings around the edge of the lawn, I don't think you are really looking at other solutions if you mean to keep the existing lawn size and layout, but I do second Ink's opinion that the narrowness of the planting areas against the fence is rather dull and static. Planting of vines to cover the fence, and widening the borders to allow at least some layering of shrubs and herbaceous plantings is entirely possible if borders were widened to minimum 4 to 8 feet wide if you can give up some lawn space. The proximity of those large redwoods and oaks across your fence is definitely tapping into the irrigation you are supplying. The vigor of the trees, and even some of the plants in your own backyard indicates to me that yours isn't so much a soil fertility problem, as it is poorly timed fertilizing and no ongoing attempts to increase organic content of your clay soils via mulching with compost, as well as not checking to see if your irrigation schedule is adequately wetting the soil to sufficient depth to encourage better growth and plant health under drought/heat stress of summer. Having dealt with many California gardens under or adjacent to redwoods and live oaks, the soil ph is unlikely to be the problem, as I am willing to bet your soil is only mildly acidic or even close to neutral. We just don't have moist enough conditions year round to create acidic soils from dropped leaves in a suburban garden setting. The problem is the root competition of water, and any plantings you add will greatly benefit from adding tons of organic component, mulching with compost on a yearly basis, selecting plants that tolerate root competition with redwood tree roots, shade and constant debris, and closely monitoring your irrigation cycles to see that the plants are getting what they need. Beyond a soils test and a landscape design, you need some help from a good horticulturist who can advise you what you are doing wrong/right in your particular circumstances. I'd also make darn sure the natives you have on your plans are compatible with redwood tree competition, as well as potential overspray from the lawn irrigation. Fertilizing more frequently for plantings below/adjacent redwoods is extremely helpful, and if you prefer the organic route, stick with a good organic mulch that has some manure in it, and reapply a couple of inches every year.

ibuzzard - yes, constantly adding organic matter after harvest before the next crop. To speed things up bring in a lot of organic matter as manure + bedding to compost in piles set aside from the current gardening beds. Then after harvest rake those on to the beds if you let some lay fallow or put what is crumbling & dark brown on beds you plan to replant right away. It takes awhile to build enough compost to cover all the beds at all times, but with diligence you can do it. The small animal manures like chicken & rabbits are potent, but not the quantity you'd need. Get a hold of some horse manures and you'll be able to speed up the process. Ten years of using chicken, duck & rabbit manures from our backyard animals (Plus liberal amounts of used coffee grounds + shredded leaves mown over on the lawn in fall. Plus our kitchen waste compost bin contents.)... didn't up the soil organic matter content as much as when we started adding horse manure as well composting first in piles or spreading in fall on fallow beds. Volume made a huge difference though I was quite skeptical in the beginning, afraid of weeds & then learned about the herbicide residue in some hay fed to livestock. I made sure we used manure from horses fed alfalfa hay instead. Now after at least 3 years of horse manures we no longer need 6-12 inches of it added in the fall to break down. The soil is light, fluffy and diggable with hands rather than pickaxe like before.

My handyman, Sean Dyar “screwed” (sorry for the language) me out of $3,000. Long story but I want everyone to know. He lives in Canterbury Courts in Carrollton, TX. He is a proud dad of 3 & enjoys everyday like it is his last. He is known as Sean, the main Grunt & passed out flyers in my neighborhood. He did some smaller handyman things for me & it was great. Then he suggested I paint the exterior of my house. I took his advice & paid him $1500 to start. Then he complained that he needed Hernia surgery & bc he was a friend now & met my children, I felt sorry for him & paid him the entire $3000 he quoted for the job. I have waiting since April 2021. His Fiancé, Beverly even called me (no caller ID) & asked if he & I were having “relations” bc she couldn’t believe I paid him in advance for the job. (Never, never). I was not interested in him that way. NEVER.......Yuck. Shame on me for being a nice person trying to help their fellow man. Because I paid him “cash”, I have no way to retaliate or sue him. Super stupid on my part, I know so.... I just don’t want anyone else to be taken advantage of like he “screwed” me. TMI & I shouldn’t post, but I have to bc he took advantage of me in such a bad way, I have to do something...... What comes around, goes a around. He will receive his in another way. I believe in God & being a good person. Thank you if you read this post & sorry so long. Melinda B Walker. 😡

1) Better search. The current search is not only limited, but buggy (it doesn't return all matching results, even if the posts are recent, for example). 2) Ability to search multiple areas at the same time without searching the entire forum (for example, just Home Decorating and Paint, or Bathrooms and Plumbing, or Building a Home and Remodeling, or Appliances and Laundry Room, etc.) 3) If you're on That Home Site, search should default to THS, not to GardenWeb (this should be a trivial fix). 4) Additional subject areas for topics that always get a lot of questions (Fences and Walls, Roofing, Contractor Disputes, etc.). 5) GW should host its own photos so they don't disappear later -- it's so frustrating to read a thread and not be able to see the photos that go with it, or to have to create yet another account to log into a separate photo site. 6) A simpler way to add a link to a post 7) The ability to add multiple links to a post 8) The ability to designate certain posters as favorites so you could easily see their recent posts (your favorites list should be private, though). 9) A dashboard where you could see your recent activity (threads that you've started, threads in which you've recently posted messages, your watched threads, postings by your favorites, your clippings, etc.) so that you don't have to use search or go to your profile to find this information each time you log in The ability to set up rules for alerts. For example, you could set a rule that sends you an alert whenever mythreedogs (one of the Home Decorating rock stars) posts a photo. No limit on saved clippings Very often, posts aren't very helpful because the reader doesn't know where the poster is located. (This is also true on THS, not just on GardenWeb.) To solve this problem, GW should require all members to provide their zip code, which members could keep hidden if they choose. No matter whether a member's zip code is hidden or visible, GW should ALWAYS display that member's hardiness zone on their profile and posts, as well as a GENERAL description of their location. Members should be able to control just how specific the geographical description is (Greater Boston, Massachusetts, or New England, for example). Ability to edit your own posts and to delete posts that no one has clipped Please recruit forum moderators who would have to the power to delete inappropriate posts and to edit other people's posts (for example, to correct misspelled words in the subject line that would prevent readers from finding that thread The ability to tag threads as helpful or inappropriate The ability to select a font. The ability to control how GW appears on mobile devices