.... and, it doesn't work in the dark! JodiK is right - more reliable & less open to interpretation is a method that allows one to see or feel the actual presence of water (or lack of it) in the plant's immediate environment. But Joe, who knows... maybe with some tandem leaf feeling + skewer poking, you can in time develop some correlations for your plants? The quote does give some insight to why dry winter homes can be so difficult for tropicals. Evaporation via leaves is the mechanism which pulls water & minerals up from the roots through the shoots & if the air is much, much drier than the leaf, the water gets pulled through more quickly. Some types of plants even close stomata & shut down photosynthesis if conditions get too hot & dry; they rely on photorespiration instead, which makes less sugar/energy for the plant. My understanding is that most tropicals have evolved as plants that can carry on a regular rate of photosynthesis even with stomata half closed to conserve water (meaning less CO2 coming in to make sugars) due to an additional enzyme that fixes CO2 but not oxygen - it just uses a little additional energy.

You have all the expected issues from neglect. Proper watering is your answer. Generally you want to get to the point where you can water once a week during the hottest part of summer and once a month the rest of the year. To do that you have to apply all the water the grass needs at one time. In our drought I got behind and had to recover with extra long water of 7 hours, two weeks in a row. But for you, you are going to have to develop deeper roots before you can get to that amount of water being helpful. I would start by watering for 20 minutes and see how long your grass can go without wilting. At the first sign of wilting in any part of the yard, immediately water for 30 minutes. Then see how long it can go. Work your way up like that. The roots will soon grow deeper to get to the water deeper in the soil. If, when you are watering longer, you see the water running off the surface, stop immediately and let the water soak in for 10 minutes (minimum). Then resume watering until you get up to your time for that week. In the areas where you have puddling, do you need more soil or do you already have enough soil...just in the wrong places? If you need more soil, then now is the time to do that. Do not rototill. Just lay the soil in and level it off. Water to make it settle and add more if you need to. Keep watering and adding until you have the soil profile you want. The areas where it cracks and clods has no soil life left. If you want grass this year, you should probably dust lightly with compost, seed, and water it like you were before (10 minutes 3x per day for 2-3 weeks). Once you get grass growing, the soil biology will mostly take care of itself unless you apply fungicide. You could speed things up with compost but I would not go to that expense right away. See how it grows first. Once the grass comes in, get going to reduce the watering frequency and up the duration as you are doing in the front yard. It will help a lot for you to be mowing at your mower's highest setting for most grasses and lowest setting if you have bermuda. With your heat you might end up with a bermuda lawn whether you like it or not.

I agree with Sandy Eggo. Last April we landscaped a 250' x 30' very steep hillside with Calif. natives (also mostly purchased from Las Pilitas). From small 1-gal plants some are now fully 6' across and 4' tall - and on water once a week or less. Amazing! This year we've only watered it twice since January 1st, and I'm cutting back the water to twice a month (or less) once our rainy season is over. For a lawn substitute please consider Dymondia. It's very low water and virtually maintenance free; tough enough to play and walk on (we even park our vehicles on ours sometimes), and does great in full sun. Other good suggestions are in the Sunset Western Garden Book. I would definitely steer clear of California sycamore - I've never seen a nice one in anyone's garden, and the leaves make a big mess. There are plenty of other choices in native trees, including many that are evergreen. Some of the larger shrubs can even be trained to be tree-like. In our area you can get FREE shade trees from the local utility - check in your area for similar offers. You could also check with the nearest chapter of the California Native Plant Society for suggestions. There are also several gardens in Calif. devoted to native plants - Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden is one and the Theodore Payne Foundation is another. Many other botanic gardens also have areas planted in natives. Look for local garden tours in your area in April and May, as some of those may well include gardens with natives, too. Good luck - and get some of those 8 grandkids hooked on gardening, too! Here is a link that might be useful: California Native Plant Society

Assuming you have a 9x48 resin tank which should have 1 cu ft of resin and you use a medium salt dose of 9 lbs you get 26,000 grains of hardness removal. Using the formula at the above link that results in a setting of 660 gallons because I find 60 gpd per person more realistic than 75 gpd. That includes a reserve calculated in. Ideally you want a softener to regenerate every 6 to 7 days unless there is iron and then more frequently. I think your small 1 cu ft softener will regen every 4 to 5 days. You could increase the hardness removal capacity of your 1 cu ft of resin by increasing the salt dose at the expense of salt efficiency. At a high salt dose of 12 lbs you'd set the gallons at 750 using 60gpd per person.