Sarah Trimble

You wanted more height in this corner, and a small fruit tree fits well. Rounding out the corner gives you a bigger planting pocket. Aim for at least 4 feet by 4 feet of open soil so the roots have somewhere to go and the trunk isn't jammed against the wall.

This is where I'd put a mango. The corner gives it more room to grow, and whatever you plant to the west of it along the same wall will give it a little protection. It may struggle some its first summer, but once it's rooted in it should settle. Guava works in the same corner and takes the heat a little better. Fig and pomegranate are good choices here too.

Taking care of what you have

Healthy grass starts with the soil underneath it. Topdress with a thin layer of quality compost once or twice a year, spring and fall, and rake it down into the turf. Pair that with an organic liquid feed during the growing season and you're building the soil biology that keeps grass thick and green without synthetic fertilizer.

Water deeply and less often rather than a little every day, so the roots chase the water down. Mow on the higher side in summer, which shades the soil and holds moisture.

Converting to St. Augustine

St. Augustine is a thicker, softer-looking grass that handles shade better than Bermuda. You don't have to tear out the whole lawn to switch. Lay down a few rolls in the corners of the yard and let it grow. It spreads by runners and will slowly take over the Bermuda. If you're patient, it will win out. The one rule is no winter rye overseeding once you start, since the rye competes with the St. Augustine while it's trying to spread.

Lay the rolls from late spring through summer when the soil is warm. Evergreen Turf and West Coast Turf are the places to buy it.

Clover

Clover stays green, feels soft underfoot, and pulls nitrogen out of the air to feed itself and the soil. It seeds best in fall, which is right now, and can be mixed into your existing lawn. The two things to know: it flowers and draws bees, which matters with bare feet around a pool, and it thins out under heavy traffic and in full summer sun without some shade.

A citrus hedge will absolutely work here, as long as you're willing to keep up with trimming to hold it small. Plant the trees every 5 to 6 feet. That's tighter than you'd space citrus in an orchard, which is what lets the canopies grow together into a hedge.

• Set it back. Keep the trunks at least 3 feet off the sidewalk so you aren't cutting the hedge back constantly.
• Pick compact varieties. Meyer lemon, kumquat, Satsuma mandarin, and Bearss lime all stay smaller and respond well to shaping. You can use one variety for a uniform look or mix them for a harvest spread across the year.
• Trim lightly, often. A light shaping after each harvest keeps it tight. Avoid cutting the lower branches up high, since that skirt shades the trunks from sunburn.
• Timing. Fall works well now, with frost cloth on freeze nights the first winter, or wait until February or March.

Grapes fruit on new growth that comes off last year's wood, so a hard winter prune is what keeps them producing. It feels like a lot, but you'll typically remove 80 to 90 percent of last year's growth.

• When: mid-January to mid-February, while the vine is fully dormant and before the buds swell.
• Keep the main arms. Leave the trunk and the permanent horizontal arms (cordons) that run along the wall.
• Spur pruning (most common): cut each of last season's canes back to a short spur with 2 buds, spacing spurs about 6 inches apart along the arms. Each bud sends out a new shoot that fruits.
• Cane pruning: some varieties, like Thompson Seedless, fruit poorly from spurs. For those, keep 2 to 4 healthy canes with 10 to 15 buds each, plus a short renewal spur next to each, and remove the rest.
• Clean up: remove dead, crossing, and weak wood, and anything growing off the trunk below the arms.

If you're not sure which method your variety needs, spur prune the first year and watch how it fruits. In summer, go easy on thinning leaves, since that canopy shades the grapes from sunburn. Add compost around the base in late winter after pruning.

With the patio extension, you'll have a garden bed about 3 feet deep. The goal is something that gives you privacy from the street and looks good right off the patio, without getting so big it swallows the bed. Plant down the middle so there's room on both sides.

You can't fit all of these, so pick your favorites. Mixing two or three gives you more color and interest than one solid hedge.

Even on the established trees, it's still worth finding the root flares and digging them back out. Mulch and soil piled against the trunk hold moisture on bark that's meant to stay dry, and over time that weakens the tree. October, November, and December are a good window for this work, while the trees are under less stress.

Same approach as the back wall bed: clear the soil and mulch back until the flare shows, and keep mulch a foot away from the trunk.

Everything in this yard does better when the soil underneath it is alive. Compost brings in the fungi, bacteria, and other organisms that break down organic matter, hold water, and hand nutrients to the roots. That matters even more with tropicals like mango, bananas, and star fruit, which are hungry plants in alkaline desert soil. Arizona Worm Farm is my go-to for compost and mulch.

If you'd like us to take care of it, our monthly fertilizing program covers the whole landscape with an organic liquid feed every month and compost three times a year, and you get a recap video after each visit.

As a consult client, you're already in the Garden Nerd Club, so you have direct access to me there for questions as you work through any of this. If you'd rather have us do the planting, let me know which pieces you want and I'll put together a planting proposal with pricing.

For irrigation to the new trees and beds, or help with a lawn conversion, reach out to Garrett, the irrigation guy I work with, at 480-678-9121.

You can read more about how we plant at thegardennerd.org.