sandigodude, The first thing I noticed from your pictures was the extremely steep angle of your planting area - what is that, at least a 30 degree slope?!! Then, couple that with the fact that you have very infrequent rains, plus have a clay underlayer that turns to something akin to brick in SoCal's dessert conditions - I definitely think watering issues are your main problem here! I can actually picture in my mind the minimal water you're giving each week just sheeting down that slope. And don't think that running the water longer will help, either - it'll just continue to flow downhill. Also, applying mulch (on that degree of slope) will be useless, since the water that seeps below the mulch will only sheet once it hits that dry clay layer. I know this, since I too live on a hill (though mine is probably closer to only a 20 degree slope) and I have a clay soil as well! Only difference is, here in the Bay Area, we get a little more rain than you (and I was still getting the sheeting problem I mentioned using MY drip system!). You mention that you have a neighbor that can grow citrus. Are they similarly situated on a steep incline/decline? How old are their trees? I don't think clay is the issue here (you can be certain that if you have clay, they have it too!). If theirs are more established/older trees on the same/similar grade yard, I suspect they were planted correctly to begin with. How do you do this? If you look towards the end of the Sunset Western Gardening book, there's an illustration/instructions on planting on steep slopes. As a few people above have alluded, you'll want to create a horizontal/level terrace on which to plant each citrus tree (I would actually recommend digging up the ones you have in the ground now and start over). From looking at your pictures, you can either dig back into the hill or place soil on the down-slope side of the planting - just make sure it's big enough. I'd say a 4 ft. LEVEL/horizontal diameter should do. Also, don't forget to mound up the edges so as to create a basin that can hold the water, slow it down, and allow it to seep downwards into the roots (as opposed to down the slope!). If you're worried about the clay being too slow to drain water, when digging your level terrace, you can amend the clay with compost that's mounded just a bit higher than the clay underlayer, and this should help very well with any draining issues you might have. Finally, you'll want to heavily mulch (at least a 2-3 inch layer) the entire basin you've created up to about 6-12 inches from the tree's trunk to additionally help hold water (this is what I've done for my trees). Remember, the key is that citrus like periodic deep watering (and they obtain water/nutrients from the first 18 inches of soil), so you'll have to guage how much that is based on your local environment (I previously watered my new trees 2x/week at 5 gal/watering for the first year, for example) - I like Susan's dowel idea! Best of luck, and let us know how it goes! Tim

Did you do a soil test? I'm not far from you and when we checked our soil, we had a ton of potassium, and no nitrogen. None. Not even a drop. We've also faced some challenges with cucurbits. I've been spraying with a combination of Neem Oil and Copper (about 1/2 tblspn each in a dollar-store hand sprayer) to fight the squash bugs and powdery mildew, respectively. We've mixed it up with a baking soda, garlic, dish soap and onion spray, too, when the stinkbugs and aphids came out. Also, compost heavily. Cucurbits are hungry, and in new soil, and the poor soil we have, there's no such thing as too much compost. Every iota of kitchen scrap goes to a cucurbit. We've had mixed results, in West San Antonio. Our pumpkins are HUGE, and the zucchini are prolific, but the watermelons are struggling and I've only had one cucumber, so far. One thing that I think has helped, for us, as I look at what's succeeded and what hasn't, is companion planting. I've got a whole mess of borage and sunflowers digging into that hard clay. I'll yank leaves off them, and throw them down as mulch sometimes. The plants where I've done that have done better.The successful zucchini are surrounded by radishes and snow peas and borage and sunflowers. I'd be able to experiment more, but volunteer pumpkins came up from a composted mustard bed after Halloween, and we managed to keep them alive all winter. Now we're getting these massive pumpkin vines that have completely dominated a huge swath of our garden real estate, unplanned. Huge pumpkins, too! With a mild enough winter and kloaches of a big enough size, I suspect that any long-season cucurbits ought to be planted in the late fall, around here. I've got more pumpkin vine than I know what to do with! If I had tried the same trick with Watermelons, I'd be eating them already! My ten cents... I know this topic is a little old and you've solved your own problems. Your raised beds look awesome! I always overplant for high-density practices and things quickly become a jungle.

Hi Jessica Can you that another photo of the top knockout. On the left side about 18 inches up where the bunching growth is located. I'm not sure whats going on there. Other than that a good pruning is called for. When pruning cut back to where the center of the cane (pith) is white. As mentioned above check how much sunlight they receive and may be a covering of mulch just keep it back a bit from the rose canes. Paul Zimmerman does have some of the best pruning videos out there and it is much easier to see him prune and explain at the same time. Try if you can to post that additional photo. So we can be sure your knockout does not have a disease.

Easy - seriously. Your lawn is in rather good shape compared to mine. I moved to a weed patch with about 10 square feet of real grass in 2014. Now there's upwards of 1,000 square feet of real grass. I'm going to give you the plan to convert this to 100% St Augustine over time. If you want something in a hurry, let us know and we can get you on a different plan. If you want an immediate lawn for a January wedding or something, the best grass is grown on grass farms in Wharton - just a hop, skip, and a jump from you, so it will be as fresh as can be if you want to go that way. Water it deeply about once a month starting now. Put out some cat food or tuna cans and time how long it takes your sprinklers to fill the cans. That's how long you will be watering from now on, so write down that time. My time is 8 hours, but I use extremely slow sprinklers (turbo oscillator). Yours might be as little as 20 minutes, so keep an eye on the cans. I'll put more about watering at the bottom of this reply. Proper watering is the most important part of having a good looking turf, so pay attention to this. If you want to have a St Augustine lawn, then raise your mower all the way to the highest setting. You have it on the lowest now. You can mow the weeds off in March and the St Augustine will catch up in April. For next spring I would not spray any weed control. Just having something green is much better than bare spots where the herbicide killed off the weeds. Some time about late March the grass will awaken. Once that happens it will leap out of the ground like it's on rocket fuel. Let that happen. Keep after the mowing on a weekly basis. After a few weeks it will slow down to normal growth. At that point, I usually back off to mowing St Augustine every 2 weeks. That allows it to get taller than the surrounding grasses. The tall coarse bladed St Aug will provide too much shade for the grassy weeds like bermuda to take hold. By July the parts where the St Aug is doing will will become very dense. St Augustine will spread about 15 feet per year in all directions, and uou have enough now for it to take over in one season. At this point I would use an organic fertilizer. I'm assuming you have not been on an organic program. Call your local feed stores to get their prices on corn meal, corn gluten meal, and alfalfa pellets. If they have corn meal for less than $10, use that. If they have corn gluten meal for less than $20, use that. If they have alfalfa pellets for less than $12, use that. Those come in 50-pound bags. The application rate is 15 to 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I would apply by hand rather than a spreader. If you miss some spots you can always add more with organics. You likely won't see anything happen this year no matter what kind of fertilizer you use. This application is for next spring, but do it now. In the spring don't fertilize until Memorial Day. Trust me on this. It will cause more issues if you fertilize early. Really after this fertilizer drop now you don't have to do anything but water and mow in the spring until Memorial Day. On Memorial Day you can use just about any fertilizer you want. I like organic, but it's up to you. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.