Now is the worst time of year to seed. You can lay sod any day of the year in your area, but seed planted now will die next month from the heat. Wait until late August or September when the summer heat breaks for seeding. I would have either St Augustine or Kentucky bluegrass in your area. I realize there is a huge push to make everyone in SoCal into a fescue freak, but there are too many issues with that. St Aug and KBG have the huge benefit of getting more dense quickly while fescue will only get more dense in your children's lifetime. St Aug has wide blades and is a yellower color than the Elite varieties of KBG. St Aug is sod only and will knit together quickly. KBG will sprout and generally get going slowly. It is said the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps. That's a little oversimplified but it give you an idea of what to expect. Other grass choices are bermuda (an aggressive grass that takes a lot of work to look nice) and zoysia (a nice grass unless you have a lot of traffic on it or you get a disease in it). If you look at KBG, look at the Elite varieties for color. They are amazing! If you want good seed, look for 0.00 Other Crop and 0.00 Weed Seed. That jacks the price up but weeds are weeds. Why start out planting weeds? Your soil is too fluffy for roots. Whether you seed or sod you should roll it down with a water fillable roller. The right weight is when your own foot does not make a foot print in the soil after being rolled. Packed down soil and hard soil are two different things. A sponge is not compressed but it gets very hard when it is dry. Your soil should be the same. It should be soft when moist and hard on the surface after a few days of no water. You can do that by watering deeply so the grass roots will grow down to get the water. Shallow watering grows shallow roots that do not resist heat or drought very well.

I'm so sorry to hear about everyone's damage. I hope that spring will prove that it's not as bad as we all think it is. I guess I'm lucky because even though I'm only about 30 miles from Palm Springs we have cold winters here so I was at least somewhat prepared (I think). I've been to chicken to check on them for the last five or six days so I guess I'll cross my fingers and take a little stroll to the shed tomorrow. I hope for those of you who have damage that it will be confined to the tips only and that cutting back will keep you from losing the plant in its entirety. If I had any large enough to cut I would offer to help replace those of yours whose are damaged, but unfortunately with this being my first year I don't even have anything to offer. I hope you guys will keep us updated. Bill if you see this I am feeling much better now. If you need any help let me know and I will be happy to come down and give you a hand. Jerri

Hi Karen, I only have three plumeria with names, Pink Moir, dwarf Yellow and Kimo; the others are with no names so at some point it will be interesting to see what blooms they produce. Supposedly, I have a red one according to the lady I bought it from, but she didn't have it named. I got advice to put my cockatiel's cage outside in case she came back to roost -- didn't happen. I don't think she would know where her home is being that her cage is usually in the laundry room. I am in North Hills. It's bad enough that I live close to a grammar school, let alone living close to the Rose Bowl if that is where the parade will be, lol! Curious, a few years ago I went to a home here in the SFV where the guy was having a party in his backyard. We did potluck, and were given a ticket for a free plumeria cutting. We could also represent a plummie lover who couldn't attend because of distance or whatever. The original invitation was posted here in GW. Do you recall that, and were you there? Eloise

I have black shade cloth on the outside of my greenhouse (I don't grow tomatoes - it's just for cooling) and it has worked well enough. I think you are on the right track heat wise to use a lighter color. I would guess that overhead shade would be best, meaning that morning and late afternoon sun is not blocked. A shade cloth which is several feet above the plants will insure you don't trap a lot of heat. The shade house structures I remember working in at the botanical garden are 8' high or more.