15 minutes twice per week is not enough water for anything in the garden to survive. What corner of hell do you live in? Please be specific. Fescue might not be the right grass or it might be the only grass. Need to know where you are. Can you use soaker hoses, buckets, or hand-held devices to water outside of the 15-minute window? I'm in San Antonio where we are limited to watering one day per week, but we have 7 hours available to us. In some neighborhoods we can use soakers any time of the week. Toward the end of last summer we were restricted to one day every other week but for the same 7 hours. That was enough time if your soil was prepared for it. If you had any runoff at all, then you were going to have a dead lawn. One thing that will help is compost on the lawn. I'm not big on compost but this is one situation where it can help to provide a micro-mulching effect that should conserve moisture. The application rate for compost is 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet. Another thing that will help water penetrate deeper into your soil is shampoo. I know, sounds crazy. And I know people here on this forum that fight the notion of putting shampoo on the lawn, but all they have to do is try it. The universities will tell you it doesn't work, but they turn around and use a very similar chemical to make their RoundUp work, so I don't get it. The application rate is at least 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. That means if you have 3,000 square feet of grass, then put at least 9 ounces of any clear shampoo into a hose end sprayer. I like to dilute it with plenty of water to make this flow easier. Spray it at any dial rate, as evenly as you can, until the spray bottle is empty. The amount of dilution makes no difference - just get the stuff on the soil. Then follow that spray job up with a full inch of water (while you can). Use cat food or tuna cans to measure 1 inch. A week after you spray the shampoo, water another full inch. Two weeks later, repeat the shampoo and inch of water. That is all you need. If you really want to go crazy, one of the gurus on another forum spray his yard every week with the equivalent of 50 ounces per 1,000. He was trying to soften his soil very deeply. Don't know how that worked but the report is that the heavy soap treatment did not harm the lawn, so we learn a little bit every time someone tries something. Another one of the gurus on that forum posted a picture where a limb had fallen from a tree and embedded itself 27 inches deep into his soil...after he had been using the shampoo. At first I thought it was a bunch of hooey until the tree incident. Then I tried it. That was 2 years ago and my soil still gets very soft when I water it. It is so soft you have to be careful not to turn your ankle when you walk on it. I'm talkin' soft! Then when it dries out it gets hard again. And then soft when I water, so it's back to being normal soil. This shampoo treatment, by the way, takes the place of core aeration if you had been thinking of doing that. Shampoo actually works (all the time??) where core aeration seldom works to soften the soil. There are many (MANY) alternatives to having grass. If this is a one-year thing, mulching the lawn area is a perfect alternative. Find a tree trimmer with one of those pull behind chipper shredders and see if they will dump a load on your lawn. 3 inches of mulch will keep your underlying soil as healthy as it can be while everyone else's soil dries out and becomes unhealthy. Then next year when the rains return, you can pull back the mulch and sod or seed immediately. Mulch really does cure all the ills of the soil. Other alternatives are more permanent. Let us know if you might want to do something else. Also, how many square feet or acres are you talking about?

It's been nearly twenty years since I noticed a distinct change in our local weather patterns. I've been involved in an agricultural trade for quarter of a century, and dependent on my own water system, and the whims of nature where energy for environmental control is concerned. It impacted the success of a season and my profit margins. First I noticed the increased electrical displays in storms, then I noticed now the hot nights of summer were no more. I am still waiting for the water level to improve here and thankfully it is. Nearly daily rains are misleading to anyone other than farmers or gardening nerds. It has been months since the inch of overnight rain we got last week happened. Fractions of an inch daily simply kept the hounds at bay. Whether global climate change is man made or not is a moot point to me, because I know that more locally induced situations are.......and I think parties on both sides need to keep an open mind and begin to address it in those areas where we can have some impact. We are using our subterranean aquifers faster than they're being recharged. We have centralized our agricultural production for profit motives and not necessity. Even the current trend for 'garden tubs for soaking or a bathroom for each bedroom' in the housing market makes me cringe when the simplest measures like conservation aren't encouraged. We are just gonna have to buckle up for the ride, because whether it's anthropogenic or not we need to start addressing it and being more proactive about water's availability, use and distribution.

Oh, yes, instant gratification is good. I justify it to myself by remembering that I'd ordinarily be spending for annuals, ferts, amendments, and other spring garden prep needs. But I can definitely see the joy in growing from leaves...if all goes well with the "family" this summer, I might venture into serious leaf growing during the winter. I always have something started indoors in those months, as it is. For now, I'll practice with leaves from these plants. I learned about Jo, from someone on this board, when I was doing my crash course in mini-care. I think the site is www.josviolets.com She has a great list, though no photos, and offers 8 plants, for $35.00, including shipping. You can order all of one size, or a mix of them. I ordered minis and semi-minis. Have you grown any trailing minis? What do you have them in? I'm wondering how they would do in small bonsai pots. They are 2 and 3 inches across, but shallow. ( I guess I can' insert links here, and can't delete them once they are in the message, so that link below that says josviolets.cothese is actually 2 links.) The seller, Greers Gardens, is closing in July, and no other supplier sells them as cheaply. I think I'm done with my mass purchases now, at least until the younguns are grown and I see how much space this forest of young plants is really going to need. I can see that I'm going to need to improve my photo skills for this forum. I just hope I have some pretties to photo! Jan

I've found that almost any rose in a hot climate is happiest with morning sun and afternoon, and especially late afternoon, shade. I had to move some roses that were slowly declining in an area with afternoon sun and they're now sprouting new growth in their improved location. Another thing I've found is that they do best when planted below the level of the surrounding soil with a large area around them that will hold quite a bit of water, and then deep-watering them at least twice a week. One rose that is excellent for me, and should do equally well for you, is Souvenir de la Malmaison, which seems to like it warm and dry. I had one and have now added two more since they bloom more than any other rose I have and are really beautiful. I also favor tea roses but personally don't care for many Chinas (although other people adore them) with the huge exception of Mutabilis, which is one of my favorite roses. Of the Austins the ones that do best for me are Bishop's Castle and Carding Mill, although they are two of the roses that I moved to a shadier afternoon location. I would utilize every location in your garden that does not have brutal afternoon heat for your roses. If your soil has some clay in it all the better, since it retains water, which my decomposed granite does not do well. Hope this helps!