What a quick jump into spring in Zone 9b! We had my mom out visiting for a few weeks in February which took a bit of my attention away from things, and I’m still trying to balance this new stage of life living with grief while also planning for the future. I’ll explain more as plans unfold but for now Benjamin and I are doing well and I’m so thankful for a great community of friends and as a first-born daughter, having a husband who is also a first-born (it works and I swear it works SO well!) who is so helpful in all areas of life – including the garden!
Benjamin has been wanting to take down the peach cage in the orchard for a while. Well, let me rewind because he actually wanted to lift the height of it. I think he’s gotten tired of the peach tree outgrowing its cage and having to cut it back every spring so he wanted to elevate the corners using brick.
I reached out to the cage tree company Agriframes (beautiful items and some items now in the USA) but they said any extensions would make it unsteady so they didn’t offer an extensions, so we knew if we wanted any height increase, we’d have to DIY it. When we did the math, the cost of that would be $1500+ probably – in labor and materials. The cage itself was already $1500+ from England and I didn’t think it was wise to do that. $3000 on a peach tree? I do love peaches it’s my favorite fruit but I couldn’t justify it. So I text my friend Caroline who has a peach tree to ask how her peaches do without a cage, and she said she manages fine. So… down came the cage and we extended the brick pad.
I felt a little sad because I built it with my mom and dad a few Christmases ago. But, I have to remind myself I cannot keep everything just because I have memories tied to it because memories can’t be taken away.
So down it came, we will repurpose it another way, once we figure that out I’ll let you know but I have ideas. I always have ideas.
We decided to extend the brick patio area so I went to Chat GPT to give me a visual with brick pads…
I wasn’t sold on it. I told Benjamin if I didn’t feel like it was right we should wait. He agreed. We waited a few hours and came up with a new idea because that’s how we are.
Flagstone!
Here it is from a view not often seen, looking back at the house from the end of the orchard. I will have to figure out what furniture to put in that area, probably furniture from my favorite outdoor patio company, Paddy O’ Furniture. I am thinking something that reclines? We also thought about moving the dining table here but it’s too far from the house and carrying food there sounds terrible. I want to sit back and nap in the orchard!
I can’t wait for it to fill in with grass.
I am getting the ball rolling inside too with painting and molding. I’m telling you it’s been really hard to make decisions on anything. I’m quite last minute since dad unexpectedly passed away and my brain is not the same. It’s been quite difficult being a Type B person when I’m usually Type A but I am doing my best!
I hope you are having a lovely spring. I’m also trying to minimize the things I own too, visual clutter is too much for me at the moment too. So your maximalist girl is not so maximalist at the moment. Have a good rest of your week! xx
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