Garden Tour

Last weekend the Ruston Garden Club presented Jolis Jardins, their annual garden tour. Three local gardens were opened to the public, each with its own personality.

The first garden we toured was a lovely wooded two acre lot in a traditional neighborhood. Shady and serene, the garden included a beautiful trickling stream winding its way beneath a quaint foot bridge and flowing over a waterfall into a quiet pond.  

 

This garden also included a Katrina Rose, one of only two plants surviving twenty feet of salt water over the garden of Mrs. Peggy Martin of Plaquemines Parish after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.  

Since then it has been introduced into commerce in the United Sates and has become a symbol among gardeners and rose lovers of a tenacious plant associated with a spirit of renewal and regrowth in the aftermath of a devastating blow of Nature against those living and gardening in the Gulf Coast. The Katrina Rose is a vigorous climber that can easily reach 15 plus feet.  It bears clusters of pink flowers from spring through fall. 

(Special thanks to Cheryl Maxwell, the Master Gardener posted at this garden in order to furnish information to visitors. She provided this information when I asked, "What exactly is a Katrina Rose?" )

The next garden on the tour was located in what we could call Ruston's Garden District, This garden has the distinction of being a pesticide free garden, a rigorous standard many gardeners shrink away from (me included).  But this gardener is reminding us that we can't love Mother Nature and destroy her at the same time. 

This beautiful garden also showcases many interesting succulent plants.  Wikkipedia states that  in botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents or sometimes fat plants, are plants having some parts that are more than normally thickened and fleshy, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word "succulent" comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning juice, or sap.

This garden also contained raised beds where organic herbs and vegetables were being grown.

The final garden on the tour was located in a wide open sunny area that allowed the gardener to design a lovely country potager. Again wikkipedia comes to our rescue by telling us that a potager is a French term for an ornamental vegetable or kitchen garden. The historical design precedent is from the Gardens of the French Renaissance and Baroque Garden à la française eras. Often flowers (edible and non-edible) and herbs are planted with the vegetables to enhance the garden's beauty.

This garden included a rustic, yet elegant garden shed as well as quirky, recycled planters.

After we had toured the gardens, we zipped over to Convention and Visitor's Bureau to enjoy a complementary lunch provided by First National Bank. Vendors were on hand to share their garden themed wares.

  The tour was great fun and seeing other gardeners' ideas inspired us to go home and work in our own gardens, our personal pallets where we paint with the flowers we love while sharing in the camaraderie of the Ruston community of gardeners.

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

I say, if your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. 

~Bill Watterson,Calvin & Hobbes