Joe Willis, Anna Timmerman and Christopher R. Dunaway

More than 200 active Master Gardeners in the Greater New Orleans area work to educate and inspire the residents of the four-parish metropolitan area along with visitors to one of the nation’s great tourism hubs. These highly trained volunteers plant and maintain public gardens; teach classes; visit schools, nursing homes and juvenile detention centers; and raise funds to perpetuate the Master Gardeners’ work. Master Gardener volunteers are in the community every day acting as the hands and feet — and the voice — of the LSU AgCenter.

Education

Education is an important aspect of the Master Gardener mission. One of the most prominent examples of Master Gardeners teaching in the community is the New Orleans Spring Garden Show the first week of April each year. The show attracts from 5,000 to 9,000 visitors and would be a shadow of itself without Master Gardeners. More than 100 volunteers help garden staff prepare the beautiful 12-acre New Orleans Botanical Garden in City Park for the show and aid vendors, staff entrances, give educational talks and set up booths while also serving as greeters, guides and gurus.

The southeastern Louisiana Master Gardeners are also constantly requested to speak to civic organizations and schools. They maintain an active list of speakers, and anyone may visit online to schedule a presentation on any of the 50 available talks, including “Basics on Raising Backyard Chickens,” “Home Citrus Tips,” or “Vegetable Gardening.” To learn more, visit http://www.mggno.com/speakers.

Each May, AgMagic on the River is one of four annual AgMagic events in Louisiana. At Docville Farm in Violet, school children get the opportunity to explore and learn about agriculture, the environment, and the important role farms play in our lives. For many students, this is their first visit to a real farm. The Meraux Foundation donates the use of the farm, and more than 60 Master Gardeners work as tour guides and educators. In 2018, more than 2,192 children visited during the nearly weeklong event, watching baby chicks hatch, learning about farm animals, discovering facts about and touching Louisiana crops, and seeing Louisiana crawfish production. They also saw Mississippi River traffic from an observation tower and touched real fish that swim our waters.

Beautification and inspiration

Across the four-parish New Orleans metropolitan area, Master Gardeners plant and maintain gardens in a variety of locations. In the historic French Quarter, they have designed and revitalized gardens and planters, often using historical plants that colonial New Orleanians used for cooking, medicines, decoration, dyes and scents. These plantings are found at National Park Service sites and other historic locations. Tour guides, the Master Gardeners of Greater New Orleans (MGGNO) speakers bureau, and National Park Service rangers are using the plantings as part of their narratives for tours and presentations.

Another location where Master Gardeners have contributed is the Lake Pontchartrain Lighthouse, where they planted erosion-controlling grasses and self-propagating native species to show visitors how people can work with the environment and still be aesthetically pleasing.

The Garden on Marais in New Orleans’ Upper 9^th Ward brings both the Master Gardener and 4-H programs together. This garden is a wonderland of chickens, garden plots, children’s craft projects and even a large greenhouse. Master Gardener project leader Kayla Wilson leads a team of dedicated Master Gardener volunteers each Saturday when 4-H’ers gather to learn about urban gardening, animal husbandry, entomology, healthy lifestyles, and land stewardship. 4-H’ers make crafts and other items from the produce they have grown and sell these items at a Christmas market to raise funds to support the garden projects for the year ahead.

The Federal City Community Garden in Algiers is a community garden project in every sense. Constructed in raised beds on top of the abandoned tennis courts of the old Federal City U.S. Navy base, the garden was built in 2013 by community volunteers as a nonprofit garden helping to promote healthy eating and local produce. Master Gardeners Charlotte Baham and Miranda Bashaw started the garden and continue to oversee it. The garden even boasts a vermicompost system, where worms break down the garden organic waste to recycle back into the garden, and a honeybee hive. Seeds are swapped and friendships are formed, building community through a shared love of gardening.

Master Gardeners and the Greater New Orleans Iris Society install and maintain Louisiana iris display and propagation beds at four different sites in and around New Orleans. Started and spearheaded by longtime Master Gardener Eileen Hollander, they lead tours and educate visitors about the unique beauty of our native irises. This work has also helped to preserve and revive the five native species that are “the Louisianans” — Iris brevicaulis, Iris fulva, Iris giganticaerulea, Iris hexagona and Iris nelsonii.

At LaSalle Park in Metairie, the entrance walkway to the LaSalle Demonstration Garden is lined with satsuma trees growing in the native soil along with blueberry bushes in pots, kumquat trees in raised beds and, finally, an ornamental garden featuring Louisiana Super Plants. The main garden uses a mixture of raised and in-ground growing beds primarily devoted to growing seasonal vegetables. There is also an herb garden, a pomegranate tree, two fig trees, and two forms of composting on display. Master Gardener volunteers led by Greg Maurer are the driving force behind the success of the garden.

Joe Willis, Anna Timmerman and Christopher R. Dunaway are all extension agents in horticulture who work with Master Gardeners in the New Orleans area.

(This article appears in the winter 2019 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.)

Master Gardener Rosalind Rowell with students at the demonstration garden in LaSalle Park in Metairie, Louisiana. The garden, started in 2013, includes about 1,000 square feet of raised beds with fruit trees planted in the surrounding area and along the walkway. The main garden uses a mixture of raised and in-ground growing beds for seasonal vegetables. The Master Gardeners do all the planting and maintenance and lead tour groups.

The Federal City Community Garden in Algiers, Louisiana, built in 2013, is a nonprofit community garden helping to promote healthy eating. The garden was started and is overseen by Master Gardeners Charlotte Baham and Miranda Bashaw. The raised beds of this project are built right on top of the abandoned tennis courts of the old Federal City Naval Base. Several vegetable and herb demonstration beds show residents that it is possible to produce a lot of healthy, homegrown food in a small space. The garden even boasts a vermicompost system where worms break down the garden organic waste to recycle back into the garden and a honeybee hive. Master Gardener volunteers meet twice a year for a large garden cleanup and celebration event in the garden as well. Seeds are swapped and friendships are formed, building community through a shared love of gardening.

Volunteers and resident gardeners at the Federal City Community Garden in Algiers. Residents from the surrounding Westbank and Algiers neighborhoods can participate as growers in the community garden and have access to the knowledge and guidance of the Master Gardeners who volunteer at the site.

Master Gardeners Nell Howard and Joan Doyle complete plantings of marsh plants at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Master Gardeners have designed and revitalized gardens and planters in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Master Gardener Glen LaBorde replanting some of the neglected containers along Dutch Alley in the New Orleans French Quarter.

The first week of April is busy time for the Master Gardeners in New Orleans because that weekend is the annual, two-day New Orleans Spring Garden Show. The event has been taking place for more thanb 30 years and has from 5,000-9,000 visitors annually. About 100 volunteers aid vendors, staff entrances, give educational talks and set up educational booths, and serve as greeters and guides. The event held in the beautiful 12-acre Botanical Garden in City Park.