Thank you Brandon7 and others for commenting on this subject. Speaking of "black plastic", Oregonwoodsmoke, it is even worse material to use, in my opinion. Over years, it tends to become semi-disintegrated, so if you pull it, it falls into pieces. Oh, it was such a mess, such un-sighting! We gardeners like to dig around, try around, move things around from time to time, and it was such a sinking feeling to put a forceful dig into the ground and felt a sturdy fabric underneath it. Basically, we are tangling the unnutrual material with the natural soil, and that makes it very un-natural to gardening with it even if it works somewhat. But I think I had said enough on this point.

"Clippings ,make a slimy, green, rotting mess in my garden" Yeah, I read that all the time, never seen it though. One of the people I mentioned used to just pile up all the grass clippings each year, never added anything else to the pile, never turned it. The next year it was worked into the garden bed. Never got slimy. They never fertilized their lawn, maybe that has something to do with it. Before I learned it was better to mulch mow I used to just spread the clipping in the garden as mulch. Never had an issue. Even now I'll bag clippings once in a while to use for that purpose without any problems. Odd. You sure it was slime and not blood or brain matter? I saw the photos with the crime scene tape on your lawn.

The moss traps moisture, debris, dirt, insects and disease spores. I'm not sure if it can actually feed from a rose, but if sufficiently dense, it can shade out new growth like weedy ground covers can and it can help to trap the moisture around the canes and foliage which can make the conditions more favorable to insects and diseases. You should probably check whether you have a cane borer in your area. We have the Pacific Flat Headed Apple Borer here in the West. You can see other sites about ithere , here and here. It attacks virtually anything and is attracted to sun burned wood. It lays its eggs around the scalded/burned area. The maggots hatch and burrow themselves under the bark where they eat the cambium layer, the circulatory system of the plant. They work their way downward, toward the bud union or roots. Once they hit that level and work their way around the cane or plant, the only remaining living part is the root system. It's entirely possible your standard damage is due to this type of issue, combined with the sun scald. If the bark is split and black, try prying into it with a knife. If you find dried powdery tissue resembling cocoa powder, it's the "frash" or excrement of the borer maggots and used to be living circulatory system, cambium layer. Once the cambium is dead, for whatever reason (freezing, burning, physical damage from borers, girdling, bending, breaking, etc.) the tissue above it is doomed to die. Intense, direct sun shining on a point on the cane can cook the cambium layer under the bark, attracting the borers to do their jobs, or simply killing the tissue above it by starving it for sap. Humidity has nothing to do with it. In my old Newhall garden, the humidity was often single digit and the Flat Head borers were legion. The best defense against them is to keep a good foliage cover on the plants to prevent too extreme exposure to the direct sun. For standards, using the trunk protections used by orchardists for the trunks of their trees can help. White wash the trunks or wrap them in protective coverings to shield them from the direct sun. For the heads, just maintain as good a foliage cover as possible.

How many seams are you willing to live with? Lower yardage means more seams. Higher yardage means fewer. Carpet only comes in 12' or 15' widths. If you have wide rooms, look for a carpet that comes in 15' widths. There is an art and a science to a cut chart for carpet. Unless you want a gazillion seams everywhere.