My Friend Terri's Comfortable Neptune Beach Ornamental and Food Garden

A couple of weeks back I attend a documentary/fund-raiser on the healing powers of plants with my co-workers at Shakti Life Kitchen. Terri lives in the area, so Jill (the teacher friend who gave photography grad student tips here) and I carpooled over to her house to get a look at her garden before borrowing a couple of her bikes to ride to the Neptune Beach farmers market like proper hippies.

I snapped a few photos with my smart phone before we took off. Her garden's just the inspiration I need to see right now. I have garden lust, bad. I'm dying to dig in the dirt and grow some herbs, veggies, succulents, cacti and ornamentals. The photo above is of two raised beds Terri has in the rear of her garden.

Her beautiful neptune beach abode (wish I'd snapped some shots of the inside, immaculate, light, and airy) had a spacious back yard full of flowers, fruit trees, herbs, veggies and some kitschy details...

Like this guy! Made some years back, the base was harvested from The Cummer Museum during his days working there, it was headed for the trash before they revived it. A tree in their front yard is hilariously adorned with sunglasses they find while walking on the nearby beach.

The siting area is cozy, tucked underneath the shade of a large tree dripping with spanish moss.

And I love the compost pile and fruiting tropicals. She has a banana tree (Terry's pointing to them above).

And she has a papaya tree loaded with fruit! They self-seeded in her compost pile. She gave me six, I have three in pots in front of my apartment to be transplanted and gave three to my mom. I hope we can eat their fruit next season after we baby them through North Florida's temperamental winter.

And I love her sweet garden-exploring kitty. She's dainty and elegant with huge, alert eyes. Pretty creature.

Got any garden plans? Fall is the time to get growing in the south, our summer heat can make greens and other plants go to seed prematurely. At the least, I'd love to grow all of my greens and herbs- that alone would save a bundle! I'm eager to help start more food parks in town, too, but I get to ambitious...

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