Garden woes

There was a time when I was passionate about gardening but these days the once green fingers, when they can be bothered at all, only seem able to rear twigs.  Truly, we have a garden full of twigs.  We seemed to hit a big problem a few years ago when a number of mature shrubs and a couple of trees started dying off.  It was probably to do with the combination, at the time, of having a large, boisterous dog with destructive tendencies and houses being built, at a higher level, in the adjoining field  (which seems to have had a devastating effect on the soil's water balance.  Or something like that).   Planting replacements hasn't worked, other well established shrubs have given up and so I've lost interest.  But at least this rose is defying all the odds and actually looks like what its meant to look like.