Kitchen Garden

My Hobby Farm would not be complete without a dedicated space for growing vegetables and fruits, and since we mapped out the Kitchen Garden in 2015 I have dreamed of the day when my vision would be brought to life.  At long last, that happy day has arrived.  It took a lot of effort, mostly on the part of my hardworking hubby, and the expense was not insignificant.  It feels great to finally check-the-box on this project, and I am excited for the months and years to come.  

Monticello Plantation

Before the Memorial Day Weekend got fully underway, I day-tripped down to Charlottesville on Thursday with my family to tour another piece of Historic Virginia. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Estate is well-preserved, the gardens are historically accurate, and the guided-tours very effectively provided added-value to the experience. It was a massive enterprise keeping a plantation going, and I find it interesting to learn about the day-to-day routines and rhythms of life in past times. Of course, like most wealthy plantation owners of the era, Thomas Jefferson held hundreds of men, women and children in bondage, stealing their entire lives and the entire product of their life's work. I cannot think of his life without considering theirs, and imaging their experiences of actually working the land. Beneath the romanticized surface presentation, beyond the beautifully restored mansion and quaint vegetable and display gardens, there was the unspeakable brutality of SLAVERY, and this cannot be forgotten nor forgiven.

Main House



Flower Walk






Vegetable Garden

Pass the Peas Please

My veggie patch wasn't looking like much, and I even contemplated filling this area with Perennials such as Columbine, Heuchera and Brunnera marcrophylla 'Jack Frost' in the Fall...


but then today I spotted these Sugar Ann Snap Peas.


Growing food makes gardening 10x more delightful, it adds a whole other dimension to a garden. Seeing the pea pods reassured me that this is a worthwhile endeavor. I wish my salad patch was more productive, but I will not give up on growing edibles. Can't wait till harvest time, YUM-O!

Sensational Salad

I started a small salad patch two months ago, which has now yielded the first salad of the season! The lettuce mixture tasted divine and I only wish there were more. Overall, I have not had a positive experience growing from seed, with the exception of those that can be direct sown outdoors such as Sweet Allysum, Zinnias and Lettuce/Spinach. My interest in starting plants from seeds began to fade when I realized that I simply did not have the desire to spend time in the basement watering them and tending to them under lights. I have now accepted that it works best for me to purchase veggie seedlings from the nursery for such items as tomatoes/peppers/zuchinni, but I definitely hope to continue growing salad greens from seed in the future.

Spring Awakening

We were greeted with the lovliest weather imaginable to kick off the Spring gardening season, and I spent my entire weekend taking advantage of it by edging and prepping my borders. I sprinkled Columbine seeds around the large Oak tree on the right-side of the deck...



...and I also dug up a patch of grass next to the deck to make way for a salad garden. I planted bunching onions, sugar snap peas, and a lettuce blend to get it started.



The exquisite Pieris Japonica is now completely covered in creamy pearl-like buds (the bees love it)...



...and the Forsythia has become the 2nd shrub in my garden to bloom.



The newly created woodland border, centered with 3 'Forest Pansy' Redbuds and containing multiple shrubs, is underplanted with Daffodils. The early bloomers have already opened, and in a few more weeks this area should be filled with flowers.

Growing from Seed

Another snowfall just hit the ground today, but that hasn't discouraged me from believing that Spring is just around the corner. I'm gearing up for seed-sowing season, and once I have successfully mastered growing annuals & vegetables/greens from seed, I'll truly feel like I've "arrived" as an experienced gardener. I've set up a light garden in the basement, and hope to get going over the next few weeks. Below is a listing of the seeds I've ordered or received thus far:

Gurney's Seed Catalog
Big Beef Hybrid (VFFNT) Tomato
Buttercrunch Lettuce
Early Contender Bush Beans
Evergreen White Bunching Onion
Fairy Lilies
Lettuce Blend
Lucullus Swiss Chard Greens
Mammoth Dill Herbs
Sugar Ann Snap Pea
Sweet Banana Sweet Pepper
Sweet Bell Pepper Hybrid Mix
Vital Green Spinach

Washington Gardener's Seed Exchange
Barlow Columbine
Black Cherry Tomato
Campanula trachelium
Chervil
Columbine Mix
Cup Flower, Nierembergia 'White Robe'
Garden Babies Butterhead lettuce
Larkspur
Poppy 'Laurens Grape'
Red Pepper
Rose Mallow (Lavetera trimestris)
Sumpter Cucumber
Tondina Maremmano
Zucchini