I'm a gardening fanatic. One of the things I regret most is not spending more time with my maternal grandmother (another gardening fanatic) when she was able to garden. It always sounds like a fishing tale when someone says this, but she could probably have planted toothpicks and grown pine trees. She never really had the finances to go "crazy" with her plant purchases, but her small garden was magnificent.
Before Hurricane Katrina, we lived in Lakeview, near Lake Pontchartrain (and near UNO). There, the house had a fairly large lot. Grass was completely eliminated and the whole area "dripped" garden. Hurricane Katrina completely destroyed that garden. Now, post-Katrina, I live in the Garden District with my wife Daryl and son G4, in a bigger house with a much smaller lot. There is no "yard"; instead, there's a French Quarter-style brick patio. A lot of the garden must be in pots, both on the patio and hanging. It's a new style, has a different feel, and is lots of fun. It also necessitated an automatic drip sprinkler system, because monitoring a garden with a hundred pots so it doesn't dry out isn't fun at all. Thanks to my friend Scott for teaching me drip sprinkler-fu.
I've moved the pre-Katrina garden pictures here in case you want to have a look.
From here, it's the new garden. This is a bandwidth busting paper--go get a tasty beverage and return for viewing. All of the pictures shot since May 2008 were taken with a Nikon D300 w/ a 16-85mm Nikkor lens. Click on a picture for a larger view.
It's been a long time since I've posted any new pictures, but the new garden is now fully spread out!
Partial view of the patio garden.
Another view.
A view toward the street.
Lemongrass. Our breakfast table peeks through a tangle of lemongrass and ginger toward the front of the house.
A beautiful (but evil) critter eats the water lily...
...and also munches on a ginger.
Pitcher plant, hanging in a holly.
Another critter, hanging inside a ginger flower.
Pink hibiscus growing in the front of the house.
Blossom on a dwarf magnolia.
White "tree" hibiscus growing in front.
Papaya. Thanks, Tracy Davenport! It's a strange tree because it freezes to a bare stick (even in New Orleans) in Winter, but comes back better than ever in Spring.
4-o-clocks. Ah, the smell!
Sunflower in front.
Star Gazer lily. Short-lived, but worth it...
Passion flower growing on the iron fence in front.
Another passion flower, shaded. There's no shortage...
Water lily blossom in a whiskey barrel that sits next to the house. The overhanging plant is a kumquat tree.
Pitcher plant.
