I wouldn't fertilize fescue on July 4. You want it to grow slowly if at all during the heat of the summer. If you aerate the lawn, do that in the spring or fall when the grass is growing the best. Aerating now will stress it and not give it a chance to recover. Watering at night in the desert is different from watering at night in other areas. In most places, watering at night is a bad idea because it leads to fungus, but in desert climates, night time is the best time to water. too much is lost to evaporation before the water even hits the ground if you water during the day. And winds tend to be higher during daytime, too. I'm going to guess that fescue is the most common because the winters are too harsh for Bermuda to thrive. Fescue can survive the heat, but will need water to get through the summer. What kind of soil do you have? You should try to water less often, but more deeply. That will help the grass develop deep roots. I would immediately switch to once a day watering, maybe watering for 15 minutes at a time. If the grass does well with that, switch to every other day, stretching the time to 20-25 minutes. After a few weeks at that, switch to twice a week for 30 minutes. If that works, stick with that. You'll notice that you've cut your water to less than half what it was before and your grass will probably be healthier, to boot.

Thank you very much for your info. I have bad BS problem and I don't spray so I want to avoid any that might be a disaster later. The pictures of Gold Glow look so pretty that I am very tempted. April, do you have Julia Child? If you do, how does Gold Glow compare to JC? Many seem to think Julia Child is the best yellow. GG seems to have larger flower from info on helpmefind. I got a Sonia from S&W greenhouse last month. I saw a body bag last night and bought it. The canes looked very good and it hasn't broke dormacy. I planted it this morning in a pot. One striking difference between the two is definetely the roots. I have planted body bags before but never noticed how badly the roots were prunned to fit the bag. The two Sonia actually have very similar tops, but the one from S&W definetely has larger roots. I had no problem soaking the body bag rose but some of the ones I got from S&W have such big roots that I had problem fitting the whole plant into the containers that I use for soaking.

I checked Calflora.org for plants native to that area and noticed these particularly desirable plants listed: Achillea millefolium (common yarrow) Brodiaea minor (dwarf brodiaea) Calochortus kennedyi (desert mariposa lily) Calochortus splendens (splendid mariposa lily) Calochortus striatus (alkali mariposa lily) Calochortus venustus (butterfly mariposa lily) Cupressus arizonica (Arizona cypress) Dichelostemma capitatum (blue dicks) Eriogonum fasciculatum (Eastern Mojave buckwheat) Fremontodendron californicum (California flannelbush) Iris missouriensis (Rocky Mountain iris) Keckiella breviflora (gaping bush beardtongue) Lupinus excubitus (grape soda lupine) Lupinus formosus (summer lupine) Lupinus grayi (Sierra lupine) Lupinus latifolius (broadleaf lupine) Mirabilis laevis (wishbone bush) Mirabilis multiflora (desert four o'clock) Oenothera californica (California evening-primrose) Penstemon grinnellii (Grinnell's beardtongue) Penstemon incertus (Mojave beardtongue) Penstemon laetus (mountain blue beardtongue) Penstemon rostriflorus (beaked beardtongue) Penstemon speciosus (showy beardtongue) Ribes cereum (Squaw currant) Stanleya pinnata (desert prince's plume) Since my garden's conditions are very different from those of the Mojave desert, I can't grow most of these. But I do grow the common yarrow and the Eastern Mojave buckwheat, and I like them both very much. I would grow all the plants on this list if they would grow where I live!

If only that Lilac looked and smelled so good all year !