The only real option, if you want a dense stand of turf, considering all the wear/traffic is to cut down some trees and use bermudagrass. Bermudagrass is most aggressive and wear/traffic tolerant turfgrass. You will also have to maintain the bermuda at a high level. This means core aerification a couple of times during the growing season and keeping the fertility relatively high. The other turfgrasses mentioned, St. Augustine will not hold up to concentrated traffic, fine fescue will never hold up to the traffic, zoysia is a slow grower and probably won't be able to recover fast enough. Tall fescue maybe an option it will most likely look terrible by the end of the summer, but if you can keep the boys off the lawn for three weeks in the early fall. You can reseed the worn areas and anything that gets taken out by disease and have your yard looking good by the end of the fall. Just read your last post jdawg, the reason why fescue is not ideal is the amount of traffic your yard is getting. Tall fescue is a cool season bunch type grass. That means when you lose some grass from traffic or disease the tall fescue is not going to fill in the area, and over time that leads to bare ground.

Anything in the mint or basil family... both families are full of heavy re-seeding perrenials that will come back year after year. Mints: List Basils: List Lemon Balm (in the mint family also) Oregano (there are a few varieties ranging in scent/taste) Sage Lavender Thymes (i suggest regular thyme and 'lemon thyme', latter of which is amazing, but there are many, ex: Caraway Thyme, Italian Oregano Thyme, Orange Balsam Thyme, Lemon Thyme, etc.) Tarragon Anise (great re-seeder, great smell, not many practical uses I've found, good bee attractor!) Shiso --- if you want purple shiso seeds, please let me know, i have five million of them and will spend the postage to send you some, this goes for other GA GW members as well! reseeds profusely! Lemongrass Chives, garlic, scallions PEPPERS! I would also consider peppers, if you're a pepper fan. so many different varieties are available, in all types of heats. i just got turned onto using fresh peppers. there are a lot of things you can do to reduce the heat on peppers that would otherwise be "inedible" to most, such as jalapenos - take out the seeds, saute in a frying pan with oil, then add salt, and you can all but kill the heat. some light-heat/no-heat peppers i would recommend trying: poblano, sweet banana, anaheim, ancho, pimento. some medium-to-higher-heat peppers that are good to give a kick to your food: chipotle, jalapeno, serrano, guajillo I could probably go on and on, but you've only got so many pots! As all of this has been said, consider getting some long, rectangular planters (the 18" x 6" ones) and planting various salad greens. You can find nice hangers for these and easily dedicate a tall skinny section of fence to nothing but salad growing. they make drip trays for them also that will hold water. greens are pretty easy to take care of, especially on an east facing area where they're not bombarded by sun all day long (dries out the soil). consider using a "moisture control" potting mix and lightlight mulching the salad planters once they've gotten an inch or two of shoots showing.

Thanks - glad you like it. Our design was a bit different then the norm, kind of more contemporary without being "modern." Even our PB was uncertain about our vision but gamely jumped in. (as you can see from his post above!) We attempted to keep costs for the pool under $32, but that doesn't include the deck or other elements, like lighting, landscape, sprinkeler fixes, painting and arbor. We are doing alot DIY so that saves on labor costs at least. Our PB was really helpful in letting us know where to spend extra money for quality equipment/ features and where we could save some. Our goal from the beginning was to keep it simple so we could stay on budget. We did add a lot more concrete then we originally planned and with the stamped overlay, that really hurt from a dollars standpoint. I think we poured the equivalent of a small house!

Hot Prince is a creation of Hot Princess (one of the best hot house roses to ever escape into the everyday garden) and Gemini. Like it's parents, it carries a nice mild scent. I like the bush habit better then either parents. Not tall and leggy. More rounded and nice and bushy. The blooms seem to glow from the inside and hold well on the bush and in a vase.