I'm working on replacing my traditional (mostly KBG with some tall fescue) lawn into a low water use lawn, using mostly native grasses. My front lawn is a mixture of western and streambank wheatgrass with some blue grama in the hellstrip. My back lawn is a mixture of sheep fescue and creeping red fescue. I've also planted strawberry clover (similar to Dutch white, but does better in alkaline soils). I've got culinary water and spend less money on water than my neighbors who have the unmetered irrigation water.

New this year are Reliance (red) grapes, a Moonglow and a Starking Delicious Pear (keep meaning to post a picture and ask what is the blackness on the edges of the pear leaves and why they aren't growing much), Honeycrisp apple, and a Chinese apricot (again, meaning to post a picture to ask why the leaves are so small and not growing very vigorously).

Lost this year: Fuji apple I planted two years ago was lost to some type of borer by the looks of the holes in the trunk, Gala apple - weak tree planted by prior owners suffered from shade of the neighbor's tree and fire blight last season (which has me worried about the new pears, but the other apple trees (Golden Delicious, crabapple, and a second Gala) show no signs of fire blight this year). Black Tartarian cherry (sweet) - planted by prior owners, never produced cherries, noticed sap oozing from the trunk last fall, blossomed, leafed out, and then I thought maybe someone/thing pulled/ate the leaves off, and it hasn't produced any more leaves and the ones left are wilting.

Favorite tree - July Elberta peach. Produced lots of amazing peaches in the second year, the Intrepid peach is a more vigorous grower, but not nearly as many peaches, although it's doing better this year.

Stretching the zone - I bought a valencia orange three years ago, first orange is about an inch diameter so I've transplanted to a larger pot. Also brought a lemon and a lime back from a trip to California last summer, along with some citrus fertilizer. Yes, this was a road trip! I opted not to try to pack fertilizer on a plane during previous trips. They sort of frown on that for some reason... Three limes on one tree, but the lemon, although it keeps flowering and filling the air with the amazing smell of lemon blossoms, hasn't formed any lemons. It also suffered the worst from repeated scale attacks while indoors during the winter.

Fell for the hype - I got a goji berry last year. It was pretty expensive and I feared it wouldn't survive last year, but a couple of shoots came out this spring and we'll see if it matures enough to start producing the much-hyped berries this year or next, or is vigorous enough to take over a section of my yard.

On the comeback - BlackGold Cherry (sweet)was severely "pruned" by deer after it's first season, but appears to be recovering this spring with it's first two cherries. It's a self pollinator, so the Black Tartarian will probably not be replaced with another cherry.

Vegetables
New this year - I tried to start asparagus, but didn't get the starts in the ground soon enough with all the rains. Now three ferns are up, so I bought a fourth last weekend. I'll have to see how this goes before I try to add to it. They say to plant 20 per family member, so I don't plan on eating it too often next year, or maybe the year after, when I can start harvesting.

Artichoke - I read that there are two types that do well in Utah (Imperial Star and Green Globe), unfortunately, I have no idea which I have. If it flowers in 90 days, it's Imperial Star. Either way, I will have to dig it up and store it indoors over the winter.

Tons and tons of tomatoes this year since last year was such a bad year for me. I cut back on the tomatillos (primary ingredient in salsa verde) since they are heavy on the volunteers and are usually so crowded that they are hard to harvest, leading to more volunteers the following season.

I tried many more peppers this year, we'll see how they last. A couple of yellow from a pepper my wife cooked with, some Anaheim, California Wonder, Bannana and hopefully there's still a jalapeno in there. My seed tracking skills are sort of lacking. Usually it's pretty obvious, but peppers are a different story.

I started the onions (red and yellow) and leeks much earlier this year, and they appear to be doing better with all the rains.

I also started broccoli early. Didn't quite get it out in the garden early enough. I still struggle with hardening off first, but there are three strong plants growing now. I am trying not to remember how many I started with...

The banananut squash is also getting better established, the watermelons have started coming out, but I don't think the cantelope or honeydew are looking so good.

The pumpkin volunteers are making a strong comeback. I forgot to plant the crazy large ones, I'll have to check on maturity dates to see if there's still time.

I also bought a couple of yellow squash starts since I hadn't gotten them going early enough myself.

Lastly, I need to figure out a place for some bush beans, they usually do well, but space is getting limited.... I think there's a patch of grass that no one would miss.......

The most challenging part of all is time. The MS Bike tour is the week after next, and it's sort of important to get on the bike at least a couple of times before you start a 100 mile ride!

Whew, glad I finally got all of this off my chest!