Paint It Before You Have To

Repainted a stretch of the cottage facade this weekend — nothing dramatic, just the panel that catches the most sun and was starting to grey.

It’s such a small thing to do in the moment, and such an easy thing to keep putting off. But this is exactly the maintenance mindset I keep coming back to: a bit of paint now, while the wood is still sound, costs an afternoon and a half-used tin. Wait five more years and it’s a plank replacement — more money, more time, more waste.

I think about this the same way with things well outside the garden. Whatever you own, if it’s worth keeping at all, it’s worth the small, boring upkeep that keeps it from becoming a bigger job later. That’s really the whole idea behind the guide I’m writing on sunk cost versus what’s worth nurturing — this wall is a pretty literal example of it.