Moril: I appreciate your raising question about how much nitrogen tree bark robs compared to others. There's this government website http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn091.pdf which makes a big issue out of tree bark and nitrogen deficiency by suggesting addition of 25 ammonia, or 80 lb. of urea, or 100 lbs. of ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate. On the other hand, there's this Colorado University Extension that says tree bark doesn't rob the soil that much nitrogen, since it's a very slow decomposition. Then there's another University Extension that recommends stable owners to add nitrogen to their horse manure mixed with hay, so that they can get rid of their manure easier to the farmers. My take: Horse manure on hay breaks down faster that big chunk of tree bark, so nitrogen deficiency is more of an urgent issue with aged horse manure. My main concern with tree bark is NOT the nitrogen issue (I have to supplement NO MATTER what with my poor-nitrogen alkaline clay). My concern is the fungus issue. Check out this website from Pen. State University: http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/d/ddd2/ The above links is about artillery fungus on decayed wood bark that gets on white cars parked nearby. That's the same concern that the British paper wrote about tree bark mulch contributing to blackspot in roses. I take www.greenharvest.com recommendations of using number choice 1) oat straw and 2) pine park with a grain of salt: I used pine bark in the past with my 15 roses and had the worst blackspot, despite chemical spray. This website makes a good point about potassium deficiency as making the rose more prone to blackspot.

Ann's idea to contact your county agricultural extension agent sounds like just the ticket to me. We contacted our county extension agent once a long, long time ago, in trying to find out why we were having a problem with growing azaleas and rhododendrons in one particular area of the yard but not in others. With all the budget cutbacks they might not still do that, but it's a wonderful service. Someone actually came out to see the problem here onsite and didn't charge us anything to do it. The fellow who came out was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with. He almost instantly guessed what the problem was, semi-confirmed it by shifting a few plants within the ground from pushing gently on their stems, and sent some soil samples off to the state lab for confirmation: a moderately heavy infestation of nematodes (the bad kind of nematodes) that were eating away at the roots of the plants. I know this isn't your problem, but your roses might have something that a local county agricultural agent can diagnose just as quickly there. Our service was free, and I assume yours would be too, or at least not too expensive. Even if your agent isn't quite so sharp as ours was, you still probably wouldn't lose anything by spending a few minutes with him/her. We've had two (very mild) cases of downy mildew here. I double-checked those photos and the roses didn't have any ridges on the canes. But perhaps ridges might have appeared if the disease had gotten worse, so telling you this might not be especially helpful--unless you can look or have pictures of the plants in different stages of coming down with the disease. If the ridges are there from the very start of noticeable symptoms, then it likely isn't downy mildew. Your county extension agent is just the right contact for checking out Ann's other ideas regarding the potential for verticillium wilt and sudden oak death. Since they affect plants other than roses too, he might have had a better chance of hearing first about the presence in your area of those diseases before someone mainly concerned with growing roses would have. (I hope it's neither of those diseases. Fingers crossed for you.) One other obvious thing to think about that I didn't think to mention earlier... Try analyzing in every respect the locations of each of the plants that have come down with the disease, and be sure to tell your extension agent about the locations of the goners and whatever connections you might be able to come up with from an analysis of those locations. Example: You have your 180 plants spread among 6 different beds, but all the plants but one that died recently were located in the front beds as opposed to from the back of the house (maybe more likely something like a gradual spreading of chili thrips?). Or, you have losses in all your beds, but they all are located near the new stone edging you've given your beds (maybe too much reflected heat added now?). Or, your losses are in front and in the back, but started out only in those beds that you added some extra bags of ___ to last winter to improve the soil (maybe the bags' contents weren't insect/disease free). Or, your losses are all in places less protected from an especially cold winter that might have set up the roses for succumbing to the first disease to come along. Or, the losses are all close to the swimming pool (spilled some chemicals intended for a pool there?). One other suggestion that might help would be adding mycorrhiza, though it's some trouble when you already have the rose planted, and if it's something like verticillium wilt it might not help enough anyway. I once added mycorrhiza to two ailing established plants and I don't think I'd ever bother with that again, though I do still think mycorrhiza is overall a good idea and we use it when planting a new rose, when it's relatively easy to use. Those two roses I was hoping to help were virused and no amount of adding anything would have changed that. With this kind of (extensive and serious) problem that your roses are having, it might amount to a situation such as ours was. Or maybe not; it's hard to know, especially since the problem is still unidentified. In favor of adding mycorrhiza... would be the firm conviction of someone very knowledgeable in organic gardening circles that plants with this added boost actually can more easily repel disease, and that it's not simply a matter of additional pathways for more water and nutrients (that's a good hedge during droughts and also especiaally severe winters). You can't know whether or not a plant thus reinforced can repel something as serious as verticillium wilt, but if you are willing to go to the trouble, it's unlikely to cause harm. At least what I did in adding it to our already-planted roses caused no harm at all that I could see. For adding to established plants, use something like an especially large and long pencil for punching holes in the ground. (I had an extra knife sharpening steel that was about the diameter of two and a half pencils and it worked perfectly.) You want to punch 4-6 holes in the ground all around the rose, starting from maybe 6 inches out from the center of the plant and directed at the center of the plant maybe a foot down. Pour a small amount of mycorrhiza into each hole, and then spread the dirt back into and over the holes. You're counting on at least one root making contact with some mycorriza, either directly from the hole placement or soon as it grows some more to that spot. If you do decide to try mycorrhiza, be sure to never use any fertilizer that is higher than 1 or 2% in phosphate, as this will harm the mycorrhiza and might end up killing the plant that will have become somewhat dependent on the mycorrhiza working for much of its water and nutrients. One last thought: I still think it's a good idea to water very deeply every now and then if you can, because of the potential for a soil PH that is too high in a low-rainfall climate. This would be true even if your roses have enough water available for takeup; what you want is a flushing of the soil downward to get rid of any salt buildup, if one might exist (though it sounds as if you're giving a good bit of water). In a desert climate, there ought to be plenty of dry soil underneath the plant to take up the excess coming from a heavy watering, and a system flush is unlikely to make matters worse. If this summer was a bit hotter there than in the previous years where you've not had these problems, a higher-than-ideal PH might combine with the main problem, whatever it is, and make it worse by creating extra stress overall. If you are able to fill some watering cans for spreading water around while doing some deep watering, it wouldn't hurt to add a tiny bit of cider vinegar to the watering can, just on a guess that your soil's PH is very unlikely to be too low already and that adding a tiny bit of extra acidity probably won't do any harm. Big beautiful roots likely means no severe root-eating nematode problem. That's all I can think of. In spite of lots of people thinking about your problem from afar, I doubt that you are going to figure this out via internet suggestions. But if possible, do post pictures. The county extension agent idea is probably by far the most important suggestion to try. Best wishes, Mary

My construction is very similar to our main office at work. I don't have a dog in this fight, so I really don't give a crap whether your house lives like your office or like my home. However, I can tell you that we have a couple of commercial buildings just like this on the farm and your building looks similar to my father's warehouse which has an office. Those are not homes. I don't care how it is usually done, I care about the marginal cost of doing it better and, in fact, the marginal cost of doing it better is low enough that not doing it better is shortsighted and wasteful. There is little point in trying to build those to the same standards as my home, the amount of air passing in and out through openings necessary for business make many of those things moot. However, when you attempt to tighten those openings up you don't simply get a tighter house, you get a moldy and/or uncomfortable space. Is it livable? Sure it is, people make due with a lot worse. Is it optimal? No! Is it even suboptimal in any practical way? No! Are you going to believe me or even use the device you are typing your response on to actually investigate whether or not good enough is really good enough? Probably not. I wish you all the best. Enjoy.

Thanks guys! Your comments warm my heart. Yes, deer are a big problem. There are woods at the end of the street so they have an easy path to walk up to our house. We hope the fence will deter them. I read that they won’t jump if they can’t see where they’ll land so, we will see. We’re going to stain the fence white once the humidity drops in the fall. We were promised a white picket fence when we moved here, lol. I’m also working on getting a railing for the steps. They’re bluestone so I don’t want them drilled into. They’d have to somehow mount in the ground, which they don’t like to do. Any advice would be appreciated. We are thinking of this style railing, made out of welded steel: