I was born in Phoenix and have lived in Maricopa County my entire life. When I was a child we lived in Maryvale and everyone had grass lawns, front and back. We would go to visit family and friends that lived twenty miles away in any direction and everyone there had grass lawns front and back. Later we moved to the Moon Valley area and everyone had grass lawns, we did not begin to see desert landscaping or now xeriscaping in a big way until about twenty years ago, it was mostly billed as being low maint. as far as upkeep not, necessarily low water usage. We did learn in school that it was not good to waste water leave the faucet running, wash your car in the driveway, just general wasting of water, but never did that have to do with your lawn you just were not supposed to let the water run into the gutter. It seems funny to me to think that people think having lawns is because of us having a transient population, because as a child the only people that had desert landscaping were the transplants from other states. It also seems funny that people think having a lawn is a waste of water. Is having your garden a waste of water? You could save that water by rolling to the store and purchasing all of your fruits and veggies. No, of course it isn't a waste, you get the benefit of the enjoyment of growing your own food, and growing something that is better than what you can get at the store. People get the same enjoyment out of their lawns, so how can it be a waste. Of course you should be responsible with your water usage as with everything else. I am not sitting here spraying water into the street, I am spraying it on my lawn, have fun walking on and laying around in your rocks. Tell your neighbors to mind their business or give them a little shower next time. This post was edited by CaptainInsano on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 12:09

So I had to search for "spider" to see what ken was talking about....the only thing I found was the OP saying "spider web in the middle of the bush (made me think of spider mites" Is this the point of the snarky comment? Spider mites DO CREATE WEBS....that's why thery're called SPIDER MITES. Or is the big problem that you think the term "spider web" is exclusive to webs created by Araneae? It isn't. "Spider web" is used a lot in architecture. It's used in custom mortorcycles and cars. It's used to describe any web looking structure created by any animal (including humans). The reason for this is because it accurately conveys meaning in very few words. Maybe on a final test for an entomology degree you'd get dinged for saying "spider web". In the rest of the world...pretty sure it's OK to say spider mites create spider webs. Going around the web (world wide...not spider...I mean Araneae) looking for people to correct is a popular hobby. I enjoy it too. But take some pride in your hobby and put in some effort. At least find something that is actually incorrect. When you correct someone who isn't wrong you don't just look like a tool, you look like an ill-informed tool. It's not very impressive. And that is the goal right? To impress us that you know that spider mites are mites? I'm pretty sure if you asked enough people whether a spider mite is a spider or a mite that 50% of people would guess right. So not that informative.

What is BT? I noticed my clumps of hibiscus is actually trying to grow back so I purchased Sevin. I've tried all kinds of products so now I'm caving in and purchasing some serious stuff. There's just too many of these sawflies. Because I have pets, I'm establishing a fence around my hibiscus that I'm going to spray to keep them safe. I'm not concerned about killing bees or butterflies because there's no flowers so nothing is going to attract them. If there were blooms, I'd remove the blooms and wait a bit before I spray.

I have found that hibiscus are heavy eaters and need lots of fertilizer. I use Miracle Gro Bloom Booster and that works well with mine. I have three around three feet high and one that has been trained into a tree and they all seem to like it. All are in pots, however one is taking a long time to bloom this year. Their blooms are lovely but they are tempermental and prone to white flies and sometimes I wonder if they are worth the effort! I usually fertilize twice a month using a tablespoon for each gallon of water. Hope it helps. I'm in exteme southern GA.Flossieann.