Oh my! I hate to say this but your lawn guy is better at negotiating and getting out of work than he is at lawn care. Anyone who is unwilling to learn the simple (and I emphasize SIMPLE) elements and methods to his chosen profession should not be coddled. He needs to be cut loose. And if you think he does not understand you now, he will really not understand you when you try to fire him. You need to find someone who can fire him in Spanish so that he understands to never mow your lawn or touch your water again and he will never again be paid by you. Usted no puede trabajar aqu ¿entiende, señor? And he should be nodding his head. When he asks you why, the only answer that will work is to tell him you are going to do all the work yourself (Voy a hacer todo el trabajo yo mismo). If you don't tell him that he will beg and plead and promise to do exactly what you want, but you have already seen that he does not keep his word (about the seeding for example). But if you tell him you are going to do it, he should understand you want to save the money. By letting him go you have bought yourself some time to learn to do it yourself (it is embarrassingly easy) or find someone more in tune with you and your ability to communicate. Here is the combined wisdom of the lawn forum accumulated over the years. There are lots of other things to discuss, but hardly anyone disagrees with these simple principles. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. Not only does this apply in Phoenix, it happens that I learned it from a Phoenix based lawn professional on this very forum many years ago. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Now to contradict myself, I would suggest mowing the rye short toward the end of March. Your bermuda needs all the sunlight it can get and tall ryegrass will provide too much shade. Next year see if you can get through the winter without ryegrass. Just because the neighbors do it does not make it right. Believe it or not in Iowa many people burn their grass every year - doesn't make it right. Your lawn guy broke several rules. He mowed too short at one time taking more than 1/3 of the grass down. If your bermuda was tall, it should have been brought down gradually with multiple mowings during the week. He should know how to do that but apparently not. He waters WAAAAAAAAY to frequently. That water schedule is okay for getting new seeds to sprout but as soon as they establish roots, watering needs to be cut back. And I'm going to say that seeding rye over bermuda in the winter is a rule he broke. Sure everyone does it, but it's not good for the bermuda. Oh and weed-b-gone spray is the classic way to get rid of the weeds you have and not hurt the grass. Round-Up must advertise on all the sports channels or something. I hate that stuff.

So no flowers for me? That is quite alright as I have my hands full trying to get my Jades to flower... not sure if I could take on another "project" :) Good idea, Costarico, I have been looking into that after seeing pics of much fuller ones. The single stem look of mine is nice, however, I do admire the bushier ones. I would propagate the top part if pruned but I'm not sure if now is the best time to be doing so? When you say "cut down" about how far do you mean as I wouldn't want to cut down more than half. Thanks to you both.

Vzz-- Thanks for the detailed information and intelligent questions. York Rose is correct about rose slugs on the mini rose. If you don't find the worms underneath, they have already been picked off by wasps. The Double Delight looks fine to me. The gnarly new leaves may have been injured by aphids or another small insect-- this is probably trivial damage. Get some web images of aphids; those on eastern roses are usually green or peach colored. Just wipe them off with your fingers, or you can ignore them short of total encrustation. The dark shading on the left side may be spray burn from the soap. Using soap or oil on roses in hot weather is iffy. I don't see any signs of waterlogging. I would fill the pot to within 1" of the rim with more soil and a bark mulch of 1-1/2". The rose will appreciate the increased rooting depth. The bottom 1-2" in pots tends to stay too wet for roots to use. I would water pots as soon as there is slight drying under the mulch. The soil needs to be quite moist. When you irrigate, water until there is drainage from the holes, possibly two gallons at a time depending on the pot size. Don't use a pot saucer. Pots here don't need daily watering, but I can't say about your conditions with hot all-day sun. It's good that your pot is a pale color. Possibly your rose might use 5 gal. per week in hot weather, less in spring or fall. After you use up the Bloom Buster, switch to regular, rose, or acid Miracle Gro or a cheaper equivalent. Roses use 3x as much nitrogen as phosphate, so the BB formula makes no sense.

The trunk wound in the top photo appears to be old since you can see woundwood forming on the right margin. The borer likely is secondary. The wound appears to extend around a lot of the trunk circumference and is probably responsible for the stress symptoms in the foliage. With as much damage as has occurred, I think it would be hard to get this tree to recover fully and you would be better off replacing it.