Ok, in your original post, the first line of the 2nd paragraph says up against a wall. I know how it is trying to decide where to compost in a tight area, frustrating decision. Just didn't want you to get a bug problem in your home because of a compost pile too close. It doesn't have to be in the sun. Sounds like an awesome start to me! There's no reason to add more soil, unless you just prefer the look of it. I used to do that too when I lived where the houses were closer together. No need to make the neighbors more nervous. Once you get some rot going, it will just look like a pile of dead leaves, especially if you bury new additions as you described. Keep up the good work!

The word is "Hugelkultur". That's what my mom used to practice, on a small scale. When preparing a vegetable bed, she would strip the area of all the top vegetation - weeds, ferns, shrubs, saplings. She then strips the layer of top soil and put this aside. Next she would dig a trench in the ground - orientated north-south lengthwise. How deep this trench is depends on how difficult the soil is to work on. In this trench, she would throw in all the woody twigs, small trunks, and rotten debris. Next, she would cover this with the weeds/ferns/saplings that she collected from clearing the area. She compacts this down with a "hoe". She uses the top soil she had previously set aside to complete the final layer. The final result is a long mound on which she would grow her spring onions, pak choi, chilli, etc. The mound usually ends up about 20 feet long, about 3-4 feet wide, and approximately 2 feet high. It often ends up not looking all that pretty - it would be crooked, and the height and width would vary. But, boy didn't it produce good crops!! (She would grow sun/heat loving crops n the west side of the mound, and the less sun tolerant types on the east side.). She uses fern leaves to mulch the soil. A heavy tropical down pour would easily wash away the top layer of good soil if left unmulched. I did not know, until recently, that this technique of vegetable growing that my mom used to practise more than 40 years ago actually has a more fancy name "Hugelkultur", done on a much larger scale. Now-a-days, in addition to maintaining a compose bin, I collect the larger chunks of organic waste by setting them aside in a pile through the growing season. In the winter, I trench the beds, throw in all the organic materials, together with any kitchen wastes that may be sitting around, and build up my "Hugelkultur" bed - albeit on a small scale.

It's impossible to know for sure with the given information, but I would strongly suspect a soil moisture problem. Watering a potted shrub "every week" is not gonna work! If you watch what nurseries do, they are watering their plants EVERY day in hot weather like we are having. You might get by with watering every other day, but not once a week! If you are using water retaining gel, or something like that to extend the time between watering, then you almost certainly have a serious drainage issue, even if the top of your soil appears to dry out quickly.

You don't have to test for nematodes. You have them. We all have them. They will eventually kill your roses if they aren't grafted, and even roses grafted onto the best rootstocks will die eventually. This is a technique for planting that will hold them off for awhile, but not forever. It really is best to plant Fortuniana grafted roses in FL, though, and even they don't live forever. Your own-root roses have about 5 years before they will die. I hate to be harsh, but that's my experience and that of many northerners who move down here and plant their favorite northern roses on their own roots. Dig a hole 3x the diameter of the pot you're transplanting from, or about 20 inches for bare roots. Dig it 3 inches deeper than you want the plant to sit. Fill the bottom three inches with straight organic peat, put your rose in and add peat until you get it to the right height, then fill the entire rest of the hole with organic peat. (Organic peat is not the same as peat moss). Nematodes hate organic matter, so this will keep them away from the roots, but not forever. It will stave them off for a few years, though, until the organic peat breaks down. I don't know any more about growing roses, just this. I'm sure someone will come along and help you who knows more. I do know some OGRs (Old Garden Roses) will grow on their own roots here.