I'm probably the laziest person on earth, but my damned ego pushes me into more than I can handle sometimes. All my teas are at least 5-yrs by now, so I don't expect much more attrition. If they ever settle in anywhere, they're generally good to go after that. Still, knockout roses are the best choice for most people.
We should get snow tomorrow; it will be 13 degrees tonight. Glad I finally got the yard put to bed for the winter today. Well, there's one more minor task left but it could wait for spring if necessary. I like to prune now because in the spring I'm too busy for it. Until Brigid came along, I used to take clear contractor bags and slip them over the big clay pots like cozies. But Brigid would never let anything that enticing survive, so this year I stapled long boards to 3' wide strips of green tarp; hope she leaves that alone. Ha ha - who am I kidding? At least the rose beds are fenced off so she can't romp through them or scatter the leaves or dig for moles or all the other ways she has fun. When one of the original maple trees someone planted way too close to the house dropped a huge limb that almost landed on the house, I had to have it cut down; but I had a few feet of stump left to use as a platform for my big school bell. Since she's still nowhere grown, Brigid has started to tear the bark off - it makes wonderful toys - and now she's clawing and chewing around the base like a little beaver.
In the vegetable and fruit department I try to grow things that are too pricey for me in the store, such as bell peppers and tomatoes. So economy drives me to a great extent. Since the price of a 2-lb jar of peanut butter shot up over $11, I've decided to grow the original African giant groundnuts next year. I give about half a teaspoon of PB to each dog with their breakfast, and I have to have some too. So it adds up over the month. If I can grow it myself, so much the better. All organic, too. I want to make rose petal jelly someday.