Garden Notes

We recently spent a few days in New Orleans on vacation. I loved the vibrancy of the French Quarter. The food was amazing and music was wonderful. There was so much to do that it was difficult to choose what to do first.

However for me, one of the best things were all of the beautiful hanging gardens. Most of the buildings had balconies and the residents had various containers filled with flowers on those porches to provide a bit of green. Since most of the buildings in the French Quarter are old and the buildings close together, there is very little space for gardening. The New Orleans answer seemed to be – just plant anywhere you have sunshine or at least some decent light. I saw plants tucked into passageways, hanging from porches and spilling out of flower boxes. It was very inspiring to see what could be grown in such small spaces.

Our visit was in the last week of February in 2012 and since we live in Wisconsin, the land of ice and snow, it was especially nice to see all those flowers blooming. Our trip proved to be a great way to escape winter for a couple of weeks, sit in the sunshine and just smell the flowers.