The Magic of Building a Tree Bench

In my new book, The House of Many Gardens, Feng Shui Secrets for Home Landscaping, I talk about the importance of creating relationships with trees. Trees are the main symbol of wealth in Feng Shui, and are considered the “people” of the vegetable kingdom. When you understand the essence of trees, you understand the essence of wealth.

A Tree Bench

One way our family fosters a relationship with the grand red maple tree in our front yard is with a tree bench. Having a tree bench encourages one to go sit under a tree, which is super beneficial in many ways.

We had had a really nice tree bench, but the tree had outgrown it. As it got thicker, it broke some pieces in the bench — it needed replacement fast.

This time I wanted a larger, more sturdy bench, but when I looked up prices locally and online, they were a few thousand dollars. Fortunately, our younger son, Zaffar, is very handy and loves to build things. So I bought a blueprint on Etsy and we got to work. Wonderful things happened at every stage of this building project.

For the whole story, watch the video.

The Emotions Around Building a Tree Bench

Dealing with an Emergency

In the midst of working on this project, my husband had to have an emergency surgery (I tell you about it here), and when he came home, he was able to lie down on the bench to get some sunshine, as soon as he was able to get out of bed.

Wonderful things happen when you start seeing the outside of your home as part of your living space. Building a tree bench is just one way to create a living space outside.

In the end, even after paying our son for his labor (he wanted to do it as a gift to us, but we felt we needed to pay him a fair fee, as it was a lot of work!) the bench cost a fraction of what it would have cost to buy it. And, even if we had bought it, we would still have had to put it together and extend the height of the legs, because one side of the yard is lower than the other.

In the end, we saved a lot of money, and built many beautiful memories in the process.

Next, we’ll talk about fire pits!