Katie, One of the things you need to start, and it's practically free, is a compost pile and begin to compost your yard as you go along. As you cut your lawn, set your lawnmower on its highest setting and let the grass clipping remain on the lawn. This is the first step to amending your soil, feeding the worms and building up your soil. As your begin weeding your lawn you have a few choices. I chose the more difficult route, weeding by hand, it's time consuming but in the long run easier on the soil and the health of the critters that grow there and work on your behalf. Using chemicals is a fast and easy way to kill a lot of stuff (weeds) quickly, but it's expensive and the drawbacks are sometimes significant. Instead I took each weed and threw it back onto the lawn and let it get 'mulched' by the lawn mower. The same thing for produce, fruits and vegetables from your kitchen. I built a compost pile in my backyard and put most of my kitchen waste into this pile. I avoid any meats, bones and dairy, it gets rancid quickly and stinks - don't put any in your compost pile. I water the pile lightly once or twice a week and I feel the heat, well over 120 degrees, generating from the pile. In a few weeks, sometimes months, I get good rich compost which smells like rich soil, and put it back on the lawn. Another thing I like to do is to feed the worms. 'Them thar critters' are the real saviors of my lawn, so I feed them. A few times a week I get some kitchen produce, say a banana peel and a few leaves of lettuce which aren't edible and I throw it in a blender, fill it halfway with water and throw the contents onto the lawn. Same thing for potatoes and most fruit. I blend it for at least 30 seconds and the worms love it. Now and then I throw on some corn meal, just as a treat. I've managed to tick off my wife and I take about two cups of rabbit food and run it through a coffee grinder a few times a week, making a nice powder which I throw on my lawn. My worms love it. I picked up a 25 lb bag at WalMart for $7 and it's lasted me a few months. During the fall, when my neighbors rake up their leaves, I collect a bunch of those bags and store them over the winter, taking care to pull out any branches. I spray a little water in there and this makes a heckuva leaf mulch to mow a bag or two into my lawn in late fall. By the time spring rolls around the soil is nicely amended and is overseed ready! If you've saved a few bags and made the leaf mulch, you can sprinkle it over the overseeded parts of the lawn and it will help germinate the seeds, giving a richer, thicker lawn. This approach is relatively inexpensive, the greatest cost to me was the black garbage bags I store the leaves in and then the space to store them. I got some old pallets to build the compost pile, free at my supermarket. Just don't forget to turn the pile about once a week to make a uniform compost pile. If you keep at it, this isn't as much work as it sounds. In my lawn I've also used some more exotic stuff, all organic, avoiding the N-P-K approach as too commercialized (promoted by the seed and fertilizer companies). Take your time, let the worms do most of the work...

Florence, you've had RRD? I'm almost positive you'd get roses from where I used to work. The last year I was there we had 2 cases of it. Pretty sure it was on Blaze. They didn't sell them from what I remember, but who knows what got out that year or the year before. Not sure if you were a member here when I made the post to get it ID'd. Carla, that stinks! I would call who you got the plant from if it's new. We spend so much money on own roots, think it's more painful to lost those

It is a disease caused by fungus. There is more than one kind of Canker. From MSU website: "Brand canker develops while plants are under winter protection. Infected roses have a black sooty appearance when uncovered in the spring. This disease is sporadic and does not directly affect the blossoms or leaves. Destroy infected canes. Brown canker causes cankers with light chestnut brown centers and deep purple margins. Small flecks and purple spots form on the leaves. This disease attacks canes while the roses are under winter protection. Brown canker may be worse on bushes hilled with soil. Common stem canker gains entrance through a wound. Young cankers are pale yellowish or reddish, becoming brown, sunken and cracked. Destroy cankered canes. Black spot sprays usually prevent new infections. Dieback, cane blight canker causes leaves on the cane above the canker to wilt, turn brown and die. Destroy the cankered canes. Sprays for black spot may prevent new infections." Here is a link that might be useful: from Michigan State University website

Hi Melissa: You are right that moisture on a wound cause canker. I posted "A delight blog on pruning Old Garden Rose", which the blogger advised using Elmer Glue to seal the pruning cut. Elmer is the liquid white glue that kids use. Someone asked a question about canker in the Roses Forum. This is what I answered: Die back often result from rose stem canker. U of Illinois Extension has a good article (see below). A few points: 1) use 70% alcohol to sterilize cutting shears 2) cut to 1/4" above a bud, but NOT longer 3) use lime-sulfur spray before putting in winter-protection 4) rose dieback is often caused by WETness, either from poor drainage, or the stuff that piled on top (wet leaves). I get cane dieback from POOR-Drainage indoor plants that sit on a saucer (indoor herbs like basil). I learn to use better drainage potting soil, rather than MiracleGro with too much peat moss and water retention. I get rose dieback from piling wet leaves for winter protection, or putting wet soil in a bucket (bottom cut off) to winter-protect. The roses that are green to tip are protected the dry-way, like piling up bark mulch to 12". David Austin Catalog recommends putting evergreen branches on top to winter-protect. Evergreen needles are very dry and good-insulation. On winter-protection, U of Illinois stated that roses dieback more from rose cane canker (wetness around the stem). Keeping the root moist, but the stems dry is the key to prevent rose dieback from cane canker. Here is a link that might be useful: University of Ilinois on cane canker