I hear you. Last winter I practically hibernated from December to March. Even my lawn went partially dormant, but single digit temperatures aren't something you can do much about. >>So is the concern with using super green and freezing temps that, when the ground freezes, the slow release nitrogen will run off into streams? And with any slow release formula. It's also why I don't recommend heavy organics after October 1st anywhere in the northern part of the nation. Most years, they'll have at least six weeks to decay, minimum. >>What do you do to actively discourage soil freezing? :-D Raise organic matter levels. OM has a spongy, open, and more airy structure, so even if the surrounding soil freezes, the OM maintains channels into the soil where moisture and resources can penetrate without running off. OM's also happy to bind most resources for you. Doing the above encourages worms, which also drill channels in your soil. Same effect. Increase potassium levels to about 5% saturation. Like any ion, it turns down the freeze temperature slightly. Plus it armors the grass to tolerate cold temperatures quite nicely. Proper calcium and magnesium levels also help with freeze temps, but don't assist the plant in surviving cold weather. OK, sit down for this one. Spray raw milk (pasteurized whole milk if that's all you can get) at 4 ounces per thousand square feet on your lawn once a year (more is just fine). Why does it work? Nobody has any friggin' idea. But it must be an enzyme as the effect lasts a year. In a well-tuned soil, the effect is to increase grass' and gardens performance a little bit. It's obvious, but nothing extreme. In poorly tuned soils, tune the soil first before bothering. But it also does something to decrease the freeze temperature. Soils maintain a flexible, spongy structure much colder than they would without it. Why? Clueless. But it works.

Kim, Cynthia, Nik, Kippy, Lyn, and Anne, thanks for all the comments on watering and irrigation woes. I feel well supported! It is good to know that others have gone through the same thing and come through successfully -- or did not, and have good advice to offer. Sammy, Buford, Jackie, and FloridaRose, if you are reading this, now you know it is a drought issue combined with gardener error. I'd rather have it be that, because there is something I can do, at least about the gardener error part. And Jackie, I checked the rose you gave me. It was in a different area but it, too, seemed to need more water. I have fixed that. Jeri, I had temporarily gotten rid of the gophers inside the fence and was dealing instead with ground squirrels. I see that at least one gopher is now back, but not near the affected roses. Now I have ground squirrels and gophers. Sigh. We need a new dog. Well, we are planning to get one this fall. I will leave the ribes in place until fall brings rain. I hope it brings rain! However, I did have a ribes die on me last year in an earlier round of native shrub planting. The replacement did fine, but the two more I added do not look good at all. The Las Pilitas website is a favorite of mine, too. I have bought a number of plants from there, and my DH and I stopped at the nursery once and met Bert Wilson. We were sad to hear about his sudden death this past spring. Last night my knitting/quilting group came over and I enjoyed sitting down and relaxing with a completely different activity. It was very restorative. I may knit some more today. I may even read! I think the garden can get by with only brief attention from me today, perhaps an hour or two of deadheading. Rosefolly This post was edited by rosefolly on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 11:33

I so enjoyed each reply and am so glad I raised this question. I wanted to give a "like" for each post, but after a few I wasn't able to. Sometimes houzz is so weird! Decomposed granite, very few worms, none in some places, drought, scorching sun, no fertilizer - it sounds ideal for growing cacti rather than roses. I believe that for the first five of the ten years I've gardened here there was definitely less intense solar radiation and we had adequate winter rains. I fertilized with alfalfa meal and hand watered in the dry season and it all worked reasonably well. Then came the drought and stronger sun. I can remember in the winter season being able to be in the sun any time of the day; now if it is sunny even in the morning my skin begins to burn in a few minutes. I live in the same place but the garden changed drastically. Drip watering helped but it was too late for some of the roses. One thing I have done for the last two or three years is to have a large bowl in the kitchen sink to catch water from washing fruits and vegetables, rinsing dishes etc. Coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, overripe fruit etc also go in there and that's poured around the roses and for mulch I use leaf litter from garden trees, and any garden litter, except for large, thorny canes, is left to lie on the ground. Fortunately we've finally had some wonderful winter rains that have soaked the ground deeply. I can see that I'm not the only one with physical limitations, for whatever reason, but I believe that we've found ways to still have satisfactory gardens that give us great pleasure. The prima donna roses no longer reside in our gardens and fussy plants of any kind have committed suicide. That's okay, there are stalwarts that hang in there with us. I hope there will be more responses. It's so fascinating to learn the different ways that you all cope with the challenges of soil, climate, drought and other problems. There is no perfect environment but I've seen many gardens here that are still incredibly beautiful.

I spray 50 roses with the $25.00, Solo sprayer, available on Amazon, which Texas Ben recommended, and kindly provided a link to it in his earlier post. Many sprayers have passed through my hands over the years. None worked better for me than my Solo sprayer. No sprayer is perfect, but the Solo comes very close to it. Easy to use, easy to clean, efficiently delivers its contents ranging from a stream spray to an extremely fine spray. The fine spray comes out in a low force, slower, misty manner, which is ideal in that very little spray is wasted. You use less spray and the environment is less impacted. There is no harsh, forceful air flow behind the spray. A forceful air flow behind a fine mist PUSHES the leaves out the way of the spray. I hate sprayers that do that. The leaves are not effectively sprayed, nor are both leaf surfaces reached easily with a forceful air flow spray. The Solo sprayer is not like this, it just releases a gentle force of fine mist reaching exactly where you want it to. The leaves hardly rustle as they are being fine sprayed. The tank of the Solo is in one hand with the wand at the end of the tank. The other hand is free. There are no stiff, hard to maneuver, rose cane-breaking hoses to deal with. No clumsy, heavy tank has to be dragged around. Those tanks are unstable because the pressurized stiff hose frequently causes them to fall over, get stuck in, and damage bushes. When you need to stop to repump up the pressure, often in awkward places on the ground, in or near your rose bed, you start to go on a slow burn. The Solo is repumped right in your hand. Your free hand pumps the tank right where you are standing. I highly recommend the Solo sprayer, seconding Ben's recommendation. Moses