Velvet & Linen

mano farm...

 

Every Sunday, Steve and I take our wicker shopping basket to the Ojai Farmer's Market. A couple of months ago, I stopped at one of the booths to admire this lovely herb bouquet.

 

 Shawn Fulbright, the woman at the booth, introduced herself as one of the owners of Mano Farm, a local organic produce and seed farm. I recognized the charming graphics on the seed packages. I've seen them in several garden stores. It was such a nice surprise to meet the farmer behind the seeds!

 

 I mentioned to Shawn that I was new to the process of growing vegetables from seed, and she was kind enough to invite me to visit Mano Farm so I could learn about the process. I enthusiastically responded "Absolutely!!!"

Last Thursday, I drove to Mano Farm to get my hands dirty planting seeds! 

I have to say that there is nothing better than "hands on" learning.

Shawn and I planted a couple of trays of pepper seeds before heading to the greenhouse, where Shawn watered our newly planted seeds.

 

Shawn uses these plastic trays divided into small cells for seed planting. We placed two seeds in each cell and covered them with a thin layer of seed starting mix.

The greenhouse was full of trays filled with seedlings of varying sizes.

These lettuces are almost ready to be transplanted into the garden....

Mano Farm is so charming and serene... the perfect place to grow vegetables and flowers.

 

All of the vegetables were thriving under the warm sun in the fertile soil.

 

I loved how they mixed flowers and vegetables in the same area.

 

Sweet peas were starting their ascent...

 

Hints of Spring color were popping up in the fields.

 

It was a pleasure to meet Kim, Robert, and Hester (pictured here with Shawn), a few of the wonderful people who help to grow everything at Mano Farm.

 

If you happen to find yourself at the Ojai Farmer's Market, please visit the Mano Farm booth and support this local farm.

 

You can pick up some produce and herbs, or some seeds for your own garden....

 

or a bouquet of flowers for your home!

To learn more about Mano Farm and their mission, please visit their website.

In light of my garden obsession, I've decided to celebrate my birthday in June with a garden tour in England! I've just started my research, but our flight is booked. I plan to document the trip here on Velvet and Linen as well as on Instagram. I'm so excited!!! 

During my research, I found this book, The English Country House Garden,  by George Plumptre to be very helpful... 

If you have any recommendations for "must see" gardens while Steve and I are in England, I'd really appreciate if you would share them in the comment section of this post. 

xo

Brooke

 

a weekend in the garden at patina farm...

 

Here at Patina Farm, the weekend started with some much needed rain!

 

 On Sunday morning we woke to crisp blue skies over the new potager.

  

Hopefully the rain will jumpstart the growth of the lavender along the circular paths.

 

 Inside the potager, the rain washed the dust off of the new Hanley Gold gravel .

 

My poor little citrus trees are in shock from the cold spell we had a few weeks ago. I am hopeful that they will recover this Spring.

 

I've filled my raised beds with Winter lettuce, beets, brussels sprouts, snap peas, and carrots.

 

 Someone was nibbling on the beet greens, so we decided to cover some of the beds with these willow pyramids.

 

If you like the pyramids, you can purchase them on the Terrain website.

 My potager sits below the house. We situated it so that we can view it from all of the rooms in the back of the house. 

 

The trellis is on axis with the little garden shed. The iron will eventually be covered in white roses.

 

Before all of the foliage was removed from the rose vines, the donkeys and goats enjoyed this area more than anyone else!

 

Won't you come into the green house? I've placed some olive topiaries, basil and some vintage garden cloches at the end as a pretty focal point.

 

The light inside the greenhouse makes everything glow.

 

 

I've never had a greenhouse before, so I'm conducting quite a few experiments. I'm growing onions from seed...

 

 

and carrots too...

 

I'm trying out some flowers as well. These little sprouts will hopefully become Bachelor Buttons in a few months.

 

 

I found these wonderful vintage crates for harvest time.

 

As we leave the potager, I thought you might enjoy a walk around the lavender pathway...
 

 

It's a great place to watch the donkeys graze... but where are the goats?

 

Apparently the goats are getting into some mischief!

 

So that's who is pulling my succulents out of their pot! Naughty Dot!

 

I think it's time to get off the table!

 

The swing is a much better toy!

 

Little Louise enjoys a good swing...

 

and a good neck rub! Oh Louise!

 

I hope you enjoyed your time with us in the garden! Thank you to Ricardo Gutierrez and his fantastic crew for helping us create our new garden!

 

 

To see more images in between blog posts, you can follow me on Instagram (velvetandlinen) 

xo

Brooke