As much as I would like to think I would like a small little cottage house by the sea, I would probably get very cold and bored with it's short growing season, I'm somewhat of a southerner like that. Also, as much as I gripe about humidity and heat I probably couldn't live without it. I could never imagine living in California where it is constantly perfect. So, if anything I'd probably want to live somewhere in the East Coast and perhaps somewhere in the Rhine Valley in France or Germany. I am terribly nostalgic and love all old styles, so cottage style gardening appeals to me the most. Formal gardens with certain degrees of whimsy or strangeness a la Alice in Wonderland or Ladew Topiary Gardens. I like the idea of old world homesteads somewhat cut off from the world. If I ever amount to money after college I'd love to have either like an old Victorian or some sort of farmhouse that can just be a retreat. Homes seem far too disposable these days, I like a place that will last me a lifetime. I must be a reincarnate of some stuffy nobleman, my tastes are so OLD.

It looks like it rarely goes below 32f here, but will be prepared in case. More so than a freeze is my concern for nights under 40f, as those seem potentially more frequent than I'm used to. For anyone else that comes across this, it looks like Im in Zone 10A, with 9B close by. I'm not sure what the root stock is on this tree, but it looks like it produced flowers last season, and the trunk is quite thick. From doing a little internet research, it looks like Valencia Pride are a little bit more cold hardy then a Glenn or some other similar varieties. Will keep this thread posted on the progress of this tree.

Skybird, I did some research before I bought it last year. Believe I got the 60% cloth. It is the commercial grade greenhouse cloth. I put it up last year with a 52" cattle panel along the bottom and then the top part with no support except a T post every 4' and a wire stretched along the top to tie it too between the posts. It worked great even in the hard 50 mph winds. It doesn't stop it all but sure makes a big difference. I have used the shade cloth on my cold frame this spring as I move new plants to it. Makes hardening off easier and it stays put there also with no problem. I got this chain link fence for taking it down from and old gas plant. It is the commercial grade and have seen it piled to the top with tumble weeds and never bend or go down. So feel good about it. But then again I've been surprised before when my "great plans" went awry. Thanks for the concern and I'll knock on wood as I know it can happen but feel good about it at this time. That is why I only did the south side last year was to see if I could hold it and how the fabric would hold up and how much support I might need. Will see how it performs this year. I know others that have put wood, tin or sheet metal up as high as 6' high for wind breaks for their gardens but really don't want to go to that extreme if I don't have too. Jay

No big leaves on mine this year either. I did have anthracnose, though, and pretty bad for awhile: I had the tree inside a round plastic greenhouse and leaving the door open during the daytime was not enough. There were I think eight velcroed openings above but I'm too short to reach them. I think my 6'8" husband's almost too short: you have to lean over the curve of the thing and the velcro was so strong that the one time we tried, the handle you pull on for it tore off. To be fair, it was a few years old then. The problem was that water condensed on the inside of it enough to soak towels as I wiped it down every day, and the tree took a hit in that humidity. And yet you had to water it in winter because rain didn't make it in. The door tore and the company replaced the whole thing but then the pandemic hit; the whole reason for buying it was so I could go off and visit my small grandkids, but since we weren't going anywhere we took it down and I went back to my old method of multiple layers of frost covers on cold nights. So those were the drawbacks of that greenhouse--and yet. It made it so we could travel and not worry about losing fruit or the tree itself to the cold while we were gone. It's across the yard from the house, so, no radiant heat to help out there, and incandescent Christmas lights help a lot but you have to hold that heat in. The tree gradually recovered. We still have the unopened replacement greenhouse at the ready.