Fresh Squeezed

Lilly Pulitzer Mila Stretch Shift Dress (c/o) wearing size 2

I haven’t had much time to plan for my 3 weeks trip coming up to Asia with my parents, which means I haven’t packed or feel prepared like I did when I left to France last fall. This is so unusual for me because I am usually so beyond excited for an international trip and preparing months in advance – and I am very excited. However, the garage expansion and jumping into front landscaping has really taken up our daily life and consumed our time and thoughts since October. I cannot guarantee it will be done by the time I leave, but I’m trying my best!

When I return mid-March I might have another nursery order to place. Meanwhile, we’ve been doing a citrus exchange with friends around here and juicing! Fresh squeezed orange juice is so amazing, and with the labor involved I realize why fresh squeezed orange juice is pricier –  but worth it!

Also, did you know Lilly Pulitzer’s colorful prints came to fruition because she worked at a juice stand in Palm Beach and wanted to camouflage the juice stains? Such a fun fact!

Our orchard area really filled in, hasn’t it? I am standing where our garden beds used to be all those years! I can’t believe it’s flattened out and now grass is growing as if nothing happened! Benjamin did a great job seeding the area just in time for spring.

I wish we had another orange tree, we have a mandarin orange which finally gave us some love this season, but instead I had to go with my heart – peach! I love stone fruits so I would love plums, cherries, and peaches but those birds will attack the trees and I’m not sure if I’m prepared just yet.

Here’s where we’re at on the to-do list. We had the neighborhood teenage boys come over earlier this week to help move the mulch to the beds and around the garden and I am so thankful for their incredible energy and muscle, as well as their willingness to pitch in and help. I think we’ll be just fine when we’re old peeps LOL. But seriously, it was so helpful and we paid them and fed them a little – I didn’t make enough food expecting it and then thought, wow is this how mom’s with teenage boys feel? You need to make like Thanksgiving every night!

Here’s where we’re at on the to-do list…

1. Sprinklers and irrigation installation
2. Trench and get electrician to install power to front light posts
3. Get custom built gate installed
4. Remove cement between brick
5. Deliver mulch mix
6. Put mulch in the new beds
7. Add garden bed starters
8. Plant other bulbs
9. Back to nursery to get lavender, jasmine 1 gal, peach tree
10. Put up jasmine vine wall
11. Reseed the lawn
12. Plant roses, everything
13. Plant jasmine
14. Repaint white cinderblock wall
15. Figure out what ground cover I want in the garden area. Rock?

Diana Elizabeth has been enjoying the new year and just when it’s about to be done, off she goes across the world. But this is her favorite time of year, planting so she’ll do as much as she can before she takes off.