Dream Garden

 (Note: I tried to publish this last week but had technical difficulties.)

This is a little restaurant in Yountville, California called The French Laundry. It's somewhat well known; maybe you've heard of it? (Dad: Google what Anthony Bourdain has to say about it.) We've never eaten here and don't expect to eat here anytime soon (it has three Michelin stars; enough said), but we admired the elegant and simple grounds of this restaurant when we stayed in Yountville about 10 years ago. Last week when we were in the Napa/Sonoma area, we drove through Yountville again and noticed something we hadn't noticed 10 years ago.

Directly across the street from The French Laundry is its culinary garden. Above is a map of the garden, which as you can see has a lot of beds. It's simply amazing: a large vegetable garden (chickens and bees too), just for the restaurant, and in its simplicity (as "simple" as a garden that is maintained by five full-time gardeners can be) it knocked our socks off.

While admiring the garden from the sidewalk (above), we were told by one of the gardeners that it's open to the public and we were welcome to walk through. So that's what we did. Each and every bed. Each and every pathway.

While walking the garden we talked to the gardeners (they were all super friendly) and got some ideas for our own garden. For example, we saw them pulling out weeds with a simple tool, while standing. These are the same weeds we'd normally pull out by hand, while on our knees. It was a really simple looking tool and neither of us could believe we'd never seen one before, but the gardener told us they have them at Home Depot. Needless to say, it'll be in our garage soon!

We also strolled behind the scenes to look at their composting and seed starting activities.

The beds are beautifully maintained and appear to always be changing. We saw plants with ripe fruit/vegetables, plants in the process of being taken out after harvest, and new plants in the ground.

The garden is on the street and easy to access. There are a few tables on the grounds for picnics, and the gardeners told us anyone can have a picnic. While we were there we saw a group having a fun picnic with lots of food and wine. So while I don't think we'll eat at The French Laundry anytime soon, we plan to have a picnic in its garden the next time we're there!