Your dad will love Magnificent 3 Midnight II Bedazzled Moonlight Equal parts by weight 3-4 (no more) pounds/1000 If you'd like, you can consult the list for where to purchase. I suggest comparing prices and shipping cost between Williams and Seedsuperstore. 1. Get a soil test. Call your nearest county extension service for a test kit and details. It will likely take two weeks for results. If you need to apply sulfur, lime, or any other amendment per test recommendation (that is not applied in Step 6), you can do it after seeding if you don't get results back in time. 2. Apply that "R" word stuff again one week after the first application. You can seed the lawn one week after the second app. 3. Scalp it down 4. Rake it up 5. Core aerate 6. Fertilize 7. Sow seeds 8. Topdress 1/4 inch layer compost, peat moss, or clean straw (weed-free). 9. water 15-20 minutes twice a day for two weeks water 20-30 minutes once a day for one week water 30-45 minutes once a day every other day for one week water 30-45 minutes once a day twice a week for one week move into deep irrigation, increasing the time to provide 1 inch of water all over and decreasing the frequency to just once a week. Starting off, the schedule supplies roughly 1/4 inch of water, then increases that amount while decreasing frequency of application at the same time. Like practically everything that concerns lawn care, this schedule is a general guideline and should be modified to accomodate your specific conditions. The lengths of time should be modified if you have an automatic sprinkler system since that will not take as long to provide adequate moisture. So, decrease amount of water (time) but maintain frequency as is. The tuna cans test is recommended. If it is still especially warm, you may want to irrigate 3 times a day (10-15 minutes if necessary) for that first couple weeks. Your objective is to keep the upper 1 inch of soil moist and not let the seeds dry out. Baby the grass for the rest of year. Once the seeds begin to sprout, don't walk on it if at all possible. According to your plan, it will be pretty difficult to both core aerate and slit seed, so you want to decide which you prefer. My suggestion is to slit seed (1/4 inch deep) for optimum success. I only say that because you can cheat on aerating with Nitron.

I can't directly say whether the camphor mulch will be problematic for you, but if it is going in around existing larger plants, it probably won't be a problem. If you are intending to plant new plantings from small sizes within the area to be mulched, you might get some alleopathic effects on the establishment of the new plants, but less so if they are drip irrigated rather than spray irrigated. As to a walk on ground cover to replace the lawn, one of my personal favorites is Dymondia margaritae. If it doesn't need to handle regular foot traffic, Myoporum parvifolium 'Dwarf Pink Form' is also a fast growing, low height and rather drought tolerant choice that is also good at smothering out weeds. Chamomile and Creeping Thyme in my opinion are better for smaller areas, and not as reliable to replace a larger lawn area without more time/effort spent on regular weeding. You might also consider replacing the lawn with a walk-on meadow using Carex praegacilis or Buffalo Grass.

There are many small leaved sedum that spread pretty good and tolerate some shade and look good with pretty much no maintenance...the only maintenance would be removing it from where you didn't want it to spread. One sedum of this type that I have is blue, but I have no idea of the name of the variety. I'm near you in Los Altos. I'm sure if you went to a SummerWinds nursery they would have various flats of sedums to look at. There are many ice plant types, both large leaved and the small leaved types, and the small leaved types are very nice when they flower, almost blinding, but they don't flower for long and they prefer maximum sun. Another low maintenance option would be ornamental grasses instead of the lawn. There are many varieties that look real interesting for most of the year. If you are near a library, there are several newer books about succulents or ornamental grasses with lots of pictures that you couild look at for ideas. Some bookstores might also have them and you could just take a look but not buy.

Well Im from the other side of the country, but im in zone 7 also. Don't know much about your tree, but I grow corsicon mint here in my garden. It is high traffic tollerant and it smells great, stays green and is very compact matted little tiny leaves. You probably could try irish moss also. Hope this helps, good luck!