The rose bushes are exploding color, their thorny stocks lurching to the sun, green stems zigzagging into the air. This spring bounty, a front-yard abundance popping in to say hello, is really saying “thank you.”

They’d been mistreated, cruising on autopilot, self-tending through the seasons and sometimes wretched and spindly in appearance. When I learned that rocky desert ground-covers are unfriendly to non-indigenous plants—that such plants fare better with soil or bark because rocks boost temperature by 15 degrees—it all made sense.

By making circles around the base of the bushes, scooping out rocks to create little soil beds and filling them with peat moss, everything changed. I could feel it. Because it was spring, I gave them food. Eventually there came shiny, healthy leaves, full-bodied bushes. The buds followed, and flourished, prepared to handle a Las Vegas summer.