Wilsocn, I did an overseed on my 1/2 acre and a complete reno on my parents 1,500 square foot back lawn on Monday. Last night we got a torrential downpour so my lawn will need some spots touched up and my parents lawn was completely wiped out so I now have more seed on the way. Guess I'm trying to say be careful what you wish for on rain. :) I would much prefer watering 3 to 4 times per day during the first few weeks. Miko R, as long as the seeds have good contact with the soil and you keep them moist you will have germination. In the past I have used compost, peat moss, straw, and nothing to cover the seed and germination has been very good either way. Just make sure whatever you use isn't too thick on top of the seed. About 1/4" is as much as you want. Covering the seed will help with moisture retention but if you're watering 4 to 5 times per day that shouldn't be an issue for you.

I disagree on the pic being nice. The over saturated picture above makes the plants look like plastic. The post is not relevant to the question as as far as I'm concerned it's nothing more than an advertisement, and a poor one at that. I doubt sun and drought tolerant plants are a primary concern in this case. It's the north side of a house in New Hampshire. The placement of the plants shows me a case of 'even space-itis', more common with rock positioning than plants. Why are all the rocks in the 'stream bed' the same size? Why are plants placed in front of the boulders? Do they need to be hidden?! Pros should be able to do much better, even in Poway. Kaitlin, The first thing I would do is enlarge the bed, it's too small proportionally to the house and limits your choices as to what can be used. I would also pretty much stick with evergreens next to the house and deck. Deciduous plants used in a foundation situation don't do the job in winter. The gaps, when used with evergreens looks like missing teeth to me, snow or otherwise. I used to design and install a lot of yard makeovers as well as new garden construction. As a landscaper, I would kill the lawn, till it in, throw the edges in toward the back of the middle and cover the whole area with trucked in topsoil, leaving it low around the edges to make room for the mulch. Now you can plant, and the digging is fast and easy! I would have evergreen plants about waist high around most of the deck with something taller where it meets the sidewalk. Those plants can act as a railing for the deck on the deck side. On the side facing the driveway I would plant those 'railing plants' several deep so as to appear as a drift instead of a hedge. That gives the bed some visual flow and can be enhanced from there by adding different plants to enlarge the drift and conform to the shape of the bed. In front of the glassed in area I would take a different approach and design the area looking at it from the inside. Lower evergreen shrubs next to the glass in the middle and a little taller on the edges. There's room for a small deciduous tree out in front of the glass a ways and another on either side, one being on the other side of the walk. Those trees should have an interesting branching form for Winter interest and good Fall color too. Japanese maples come to mind. :-) You don't want something that looks like a brush pile when the leaves are gone. (Lilac, Quince, etc. An evergreen groundcover that can handle shade is a must in my book. It ties it together. The small leaved deciduous trees gives it shade further out in the sun in the summertime and the groundcover swallows the leaves in the Fall. I'm not too familiar with what you can grow in your Zone, but I'm sure the people that are can help with plant selection. It's the concept is what I'm communicating. Mike

I'm west of you in Martinsville, VA and also had awesome results from overseeding last fall, but made 2 mistakes which I will remedy this year: 1. No pre-M in fall, which resulted in massive Chickweed bloom that I had to battle into late spring. I'm adding Tenacity at overseeding and a pre-M 6-8 weeks later as well. 2. No fungicide in spring, which resulted in large Brown Spot outbreak in May and killed a lot of my new grass in the back yard. So, next April-May (when nightly temps hit 70F), I'll be putting down a fungicide. I like your plan and agree with the above posts. Good luck and pray for rain soon!!

TFitz, when you say "gas meter," that's what I think you're talking about. The higher meter is electric. Sky Pencil Holly is a possibility. Regardless of what you plant, it would be good to paint the conduits, box and wires white in the meanwhile so it doesn't stand out as much. Be careful of planting something that will grow too large or fast or you'll end up regretting it.