Nothing works as well as lady bugs. I have had 3 infestations of aphids as things were covered with row cover. When I took off the cover and the lady bugs saw the situation they took care of it in a few days. Like you cannot believe! They make tons of babies when there are aphids and they chomp em down. I had a baby lady bug on my hand today. they look like little black and orange alligators. I am also afraid for next year due to cucumber beetles. Nothing kills them!

I'm currently building in upstate SC, and we have a walk-out basement. Due to the slope of the land, we would have wound up with a very tall crawlspace, so a basement made sense. Might as well have usable space! Properly built, basements should NOT be wet! Unless you build in the path of an underground stream, the basement should be dry if it is built right. There should be a perimeter drain system to collect water and conduct it to a sump pump or down hill. In addition to waterproofing, you want a drainage plane (usually referred to as dimple board). Backfilling should be mostly gravel except for at the surface. Add to that properly sloping of the ground around the house, and a good gutter system, and you can have a good, usable basement. If you have a good slope, you should be able to have a walk-out basement, which is kind of halfway between a basement and a ground floor. I love having a basement. A suspended wood floor is much easier on your knees and back than a slab. Accessibility to plumbing and other utilities and mechanicals is a big plus. Around here, there have been a lot of frozen pipes lately in uninsulated crawlspaces. A basement will stay above freezing if it is properly sealed up. It's also cheap square footage should you ever want to convert it to living space.

LOLOLOL...The squirrels have been horrible for me too in area I didn't think to put repellant....They are eating strange things..Mines sit on my fence eating my Lilac leaves and the other day my Roses, stems and all? Did they come from another planet planted by aliens this year? Just NUTS...lol Thank God mine don't touch my Citrus, although one did get stuck in my greenhouse and chomped on my Orchid bulbs...Then drowned in the pond in there...

A few drops of SuperThrive in the water might strengthen what's left of the roots, and encourage more to develop. Roses lined the perimeter of my veggie garden until an underground varmint took up residence. One by one, my roses did exactly as yours did - sat on top of the soil with no roots, so at the slightest touch, they fell over. Or, in some cases, the younger bushes were entirely gone. Pulled right down into the tunnels where they could be eaten at leisure. New home owners near me had their landscaper plant roses all along both sides of their very long driveway. The next morning, they went out to check on the roses, and they were all gone. Pulled right down into the ground, leaving only a hole and a few leaves. I was told it's voles, but I don't know if that's correct. Voles are very small. Hope your bush can be saved.