Mar Vista Cottages

We are working toward sustainability at Mar Vista.

We cultivate an organic garden for our guests. They wander in with baskets under arms, and clip and snip chard, lettuces, spinach and kale, pluck tomatoes, hunt for the new tender green beans, delight in a flash of red - that day's ripe strawberries, or a big flower of broccoli. They part the leaves for the sweet peppers, sweep a little dirt aside to check on the size of the beets, ponder the size of the carrot beneath the feathery green.

We eagerly await the garlic, leeks and spring onions, the potatoes, another try at growing corn! There is parsley, thyme, sage, oregano, and much much more. Everything we grow provides food for the stomach and for the soul.

Soon you might sneak tiptoe into the hen house for a warm egg, or over to the duck island for a duck egg. One day you will gather huckleberries along the driveway, and pick fruit and nuts from the orchard. One day, who knows, we may make our own honey from the bee hives by the pond! We're on a roll.

We tried to remember flowers from our youth to plant around the cottages. You will inhale the delicate scents of honeysuckle and sweet pea. One day you may detect a faint hint of our lavender on your sheets.

A lot of this is real now, some is just planted, some will be planted in the fall. It will be ever changing and ever fulfilling. It will always make you feel good, and it will always make you smile, like a rutabaga on your pillow.

Doesn't it always spoil the spontaneity of running off for a getaway when you have to think about provisions and pack. Then it becomes a production. Well, we want to simplify things so you can keep the spontaneity, and get the heck out of Dodge.

The Birdhouse Tree over
the Bunny Garden

Heron feast on Mar Vista's pond frogs from their hidden hunting spot in the
cattails and wild pond iris!

Seeds as Poetry,
a note from a visitor

In addition to the Garden's bounty, upon request we will stock your cottage's larder with your essential treats and necessities, before your arrival. Then all you have to do is grab that toothbrush and run. Forget the toothbrush, we have them, just find your keys. Keep it simple.

Tom Dorn, Cottagekeeper