Hi mendicino! Thank you for your reply. I do have deer, but this particular stretch of fence line is immediately in front of the house, near the driveway. The deer seem to a) avoid the house, b)avoid the cars in the driveway, and c) avoid the dogs inside the fence! I think it's the dogs that are the most effective; even though they aren't outside all the time, they have marked up the property pretty well (HA!) I have hostas and fruit trees inside the fence line that are untouched; now my raspberries and blackberries outside the fence line? Fair game! So we'll see. It's all an experiment in this garden and I'm trying to be zen about the inevitable future plant losses, not just roses, but all the plants I plan on experimenting with in the next few years. I did discover that the vineyard up the road has a beautiful rose garden; luckily we're good friends with the owners so I am going to head up there and start asking questions, too.

I think the "gritty mix" was more meant for potted roses than planted-in-the-ground roses. I can tell you what worked for me when I started new beds. First, section off the area you intend to plant with whatever edging you'll be using. Then spread some composted manure, mushroom compost, garden compost, or whatever rich organic matter you have, about 2" thick (or more, if you have enough). Grass or no grass on the ground, doesn't matter -- ignore it. If you have very heavy soil, you can also add peat moss or gypsum. Cover the bed with cardboard -- this will keep any germinating weed seeds in the compost from being able to reach the light, and they'll die off. This will also kill any grass or weeds already growing in the area. Then top the cardboard with 2"-3" of some kind of organic mulch (the cheapest I found at Home Depot was mixed hardwood mulch). Soak it well when finished, and leave the area for two months or more before planting in it. The best is to do this in the Autumn and leave it until Spring. If you are in an area that doesn't get a lot of rain/snow, you'll have to water the area to help the cardboard break down. You want it to last long enough to kill any plants or weeds underneath, but break apart enough to dig through at planting time. When it's time to replenish mulch, first put an inch or more of compost or manure on top of the old mulch (plus any organic granular fertilizer or other amendments you may use) before adding new. If you continue this yearly, you'll be feeding the critters in the soil, and they'll break it down and mix it around for you. :-) ~Christopher This post was edited by AquaEyes on Tue, Jul 9, 13 at 21:16

Google Scholar will tell one about scientific tests with milk and mildew. I will just post one review (2007) as the links to the individual scientific papers are often long and cause problems with reading on this forum. Here is a link that might be useful: one literature review 2007

Hello Lin Most of what I have read says to wait about 1-2 months before planting another rose in that spot. That info is corroborated by roserosette.org (which has USDA and other backing) here: https://roserosette.org/control/ I share your RRD woes and experience. I had a rose Mohana, that I didn’t care so much about, contract RRD. I pruned the infected cane down to the base. Not only did the RRD re-surface on Mohana, but it also infected one of my prized big climbers next to it, Lavender Crush. A hard lesson learned, but now whenever I see the 1st sight of RRD, I remove the entire plant. Many locals ask me about rose advice , RRD and otherwise, and I unfailing advise them to remove the entire plant ASAP. It’s advice that no one wants to hear and few will follow, unfortunately. I’ve not seen any RRD so far this season in my garden...fingers crossed.