We have mature trees but only one (huge) in the back yard is shading out the Bermuda and even then by taking off some lower limbs and improving the soil (the tree wasn't shading as much as it sucks the water out) the Bermuda is coming back. This past winter was a lot colder and we had near record lows late into Spring. Bermuda takes off and begins to dominate the cool season annuals when soil temps get above 65. If you can be patient, that 'scalped' look you get by keeping it very low will pay big dividends later. I train my Bermuda very short - I am 'below' the lowest setting on my mower by just releasing the level adjuster and letting it fall past the last 'pegs'. My bermuda is under .5" as a result. Why? Well it means more sun getting to the ground and you get more Bermuda 'plants' per sqft than if you let it grow long and shade the ground. As a result, it begins choking out a lot of the 'undesirable' grasses and weeds and you get that thick carpet you want. As the weather continues to heat up I will SLOWLY raise the blade and once I do that the little bit of 'brown' no longer shows at all. Couple tips - 1. I spend about 3 minutes before each mow using a Dremel to sharpen the mower blade. THis makes cutting easier and once it gets hot the grass is stressed less by the clean cut insteax of 'ripping' - think about when you cut yourself with a razor vs something dull. Sharper blade equals less bleeding and faster healing. 2. I prefer to cut late in the day when things 'cool off' and the grass is 'firmer' - in the heat of a summer day it wilts a bit and perks up in the evening - that's the time to cut as it cuts more cleanly and has overnight to heal up. Cutting early morning on a 100 degree day means it has a lot more stress an loses more water. 3. Aeration and organic material... you can rent a core aerator at the Lowes/Home Depots that have tool rental. THis works miracles if the soil is a tad compacted. If you run the core aerator around and then spread either some high quality compost (Shades of Green in Frisco usually has good finished compost.... the "Black Kow" composted cow manure is good stuff as well. If you spread that around after core aeration and apply your fertilizer then your lawn will take off after the next rain. 4. I use organic fertilizers or semi-organic like the Milorganite product. Milorganite has a bunch of iron and turns your grass a darker green. Ironite works as well but stains concrete if you are not careful and the natural products feed more slowly. If you prefer the synthetic stuff, Scott's Green Max has a ton of Iron and fast greening Nitrogen. Over the past ten years I have found that the slower feeding natural stuff takes a tad longer but results in steady, uniform greening that lasts longer and it is cheaper. Your lawn can't use all of that nitrogen at one time anyway. 5. Another cheap and easy helper is 'horticultural molasses' - you can get a gallon at Lowes for like ten bucks. Either fill a hose end sprayer and water the yard or add a few ounces in a pump sprayer and spray it around. THis gets the soil microbes going and gets rid of thatch, accelerates the breakdown of stuff like dog poop and about two weeks after doing it your lawn thickens up nicely. It smells good too so why not, lol. 6. Never bag and toss your grass clippings. Use a sharp mower and those nice green tips are spread over the soil to break down and return all that good nitrogen, iron, trace minerals etcetera and helps the soil retain moisture like a thin mulch. I collect and compost neighbor's clippings which may be more trouble than you want but at least save yours. Think about it - why add all those ferts and then have them hauled away in grass? Grass clippings logically make greagt grass food as they contain what grass is made of, right? Level... core aeration and spreading compost should help this naturally as the 'cores' will crumble and fill in low spots. This just means you get an even mow instead of scalped here and 3" there. I have a bad back so no longer lug dirt around to fill holes as much but I will use the blaster nozzle on my hose to flatten bumps. After a while this results in a nice level lawn and makes cutting easier. 8. Alter your cut to prevent 'ruts'. If you cut when soil is damp you get a wheel pattern, especially at the curbs. Try going two direction... up and down then back and forth one time, diagonal one way then the other the next... you avoid patterns and knock down bumps this way too. Probably more info than you asked for by a few thousand words but I'm an OCD lawn guy and keeping that carpet of Bermuda is my think time :-) I like running around in the yard with my 18 month old and having it feel like a perfect carpet. If you ignore everything else, stick with the low mowing height until it gets in the 100s and cut less grass more often. Also, the cool season annuals like water and are less drought tolerant than the Bermuda. You are on watering restrictions anyway but with Bermuda you want to water when it shows stress - footprints stay visible an hour later or grass shows signs of drying out. Then water the hell out of it - more water, less often mens deeper roots (Bermuda roots can go feet deep, annual rye and this $^#%%@* annual bluegrass that is living way past when it should this year have shallow roots - hot and dry kills them faster). Happy Mowing and hang in there. Heat is your friend - train it low now and once the heat comes it will be thick and lush and will require less water to keep it nice.

I live in DFW also and have been concerned about the number of unhealthy or dead trees in our area. I have a live oak that has black knots on the branches, and two bradford pears (2 year old plantings) in the back of the house, one in the front. The two in the back started showing signs of stress in early spring (droopy leaves, slight discoloration, then a few small branches with leaves that looked burnt and brown. I had an arborist come out and look at them (waste of money around here...he was fairly clueless), took samples to local nurseries, and did research myself. If one person would say bugs, the other would say drought, and yet another would say fungus (but none of them knew what kind). All told me to treat the trees with a fungal/insecticide mixture. After treatment, one of the back yard pears browned and died in a week, the other has held on for months but now is browning quickly. The trees in front are starting to show the same pattern of tree death as are many, MANY trees and bushes of all ages, types and sizes in the Arlington/Grand Prairie area. I just cannot figure out what is going on. Apparently, neither can the professionals. I, like many around here, am urgently looking for answers.

5birdy, we went to home depot and got metal pipes to hang them. We had them cut to size there. We hired an electrician. We had our pool builder do the conduit over to the area and then the electrician wired it up along the inside of the sides with metal conduit that you can barely see. Fortunately the area where the front lights are had an area that was not totally solid, so he was able to run the wiring into the top of those cedar columns in front. Then he added an outlet for party lights on one of the top corners. He also ran the conduit very nicely for the chandelier. We added 3 switches...one for each of these lightings so they can be on separately if we wanted. We also added regular outlets on 2 of the back columns. I will take pictures and post this afternoon for you.

Miscanthus sinensis. But there are many different cultivars.