Austin’s Fonda San Miguel is considered one the finest interior Mexican restaurants in all the land.  In the Fall of 2008, the restaurant owners invested in converting an unused space at the end of the parking lot into a 100′ x 60′ organic vegetable garden, which caught the attention of Austin news media as one of the largest restaurant gardens in town.  Designed and constructed by Randy Jewart and Austin Green Art, the garden is a beautiful mix of function, art, and reclaimed item fun.

For the past year, the garden has been meticulously maintained by Scott Dubois, local educator, designer, and obviously, talented organic gardener.  Scott is now moving on to teach full time at a local Montessori school, and now we’re making an attempt to fill his big, muddy shoes.

The cobbler and the beautiful Missus, plus the occasional BioGardener crew member, are sprinkling sustainable love all over the Fonda garden starting the first of February, 2010.  We’re hoping to pick up where Scott left off, helping the restaurant grow its own organic produce and herbs year round.  We’ll also be building a compost system, enhancing the garden as a certified wildlife habitat, and experimenting with rare Mexican herbs, edible flowers, and other fun stuff.  The BioGardener blog has a new category devoted to tracking progress of the Fonda Garden, so hang around for weekly or monthly updates on our Fonda follies and Fonda friumps.  Or better yet, make a regular date night visit to the restaurant to enjoy their unique food and drink menu, and stroll through the garden to take notes and tell us how bad we’re doing.

Cuz we’ve gotta lotta work to do.