To call this garden just a Butterfly - Hummingbird Garden (referred to as "main garden") is not entirely correct. Due to the limited portion of the lawn which receives full sun and in order to grow the many species of plants and vegetables I wanted, I had to re-plan my landscape garden designs. If it were up to me, I would have plowed the entire front yard planting mostly fruit/vegetable producing plants, however I live in suburbia and that would not be acceptable. The main garden located at the corner interesection of N. Leighton Drive and Rosedown Drive is a multiple use garden.

Prior to construction, the corner of the garden next to the pictured street lamp and stop sign (See Top Photo) contained an overgrown bed of nandina, water oak saplings, eastern poison ivy, and other undesireable plants. The first object was to make this area wildlife and plant friendly removing the undesireable shurbs. Once the shrubs were removed, I recycled two old antique railings that I found in the back yard, creating trellises. The railings were cleaned, re-painted, and concreted into place providing habitat for vining species such as maypop (Passiflora incarnata), a kiwi vine (Actinindia arguta), cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit), and yellow jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens).

Portions of the Baton Rouge area are not known for fertile, well drained soils condusive to growing wildflowers, fruit trees, and vegetables. According to the 1968 Soil Survey of East Baton Rouge Parish Louisiana (Soil Survey), the soils in Melrose Place Subdivision are predominantly mapped as Deerfield-Oliver silt loams (DfA), 0 to 1% slopes and Essen and Lafe silt loams (Es). My home is located in the DfA series. The Soil Survey describes the DfA series soils are low in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Runoff is slow in most areas and permeability is slow to very slow. The moisture supply is adequate for cultivated crops except during the drier periods in summer and fall. Water stands in some places for a few days after heavy rains. Drainage is neeed in some areas for cultivated crops. These soils are fairly well suited for most crops grown in East Baton Rouge Parish. The chief limiting factors for Deerfield soils for gardening and landscaping are moderate wetness and a high sodium content and fair topsoil. The chief limiting factors for Oliver soils include moderate wetness and fair top soil.

In order have healthy, lush gardens, you have to have fertile, well-drained soil with lots of earthworms as well as organic matter. In the interest of saving money, I decided to manually dig out at least 12 inches of the native clay soil, incorporating the dug clay in some other future manner in another portion of the landscape. I purchased approximately 15 cubic yards of fertile soil (12 cubic yards garden mix and 3 cubic yards of compost) from Nature's Organics in Baton Rouge. Over the course of approximately 5 months, each weekend I dug an approximate 5 to 10 square foot area of clay and St. Augustine grass filling the resulting hole with the purchased fertile soil. Compost and earthworms from my compost pile were incorporated into the new soil.

Close-up Views of Main Garden
June 1, 2005

The majority of the garden contains perennial flowering plants with scattered annuals for color in order to attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and honey bees. As the annuals die or stop flowering, they are composted and new plants added where they once grew. Vegetables were planted at the center and outer edges of the garden, nearest the home. Types of vegetables include German Stripe and Patio tomatoes, Georgia Jet sweet potatoes, chili, bell, and jalapeno peppers, African winter squash, zucchini, cucumbers, muskmelon, watermelon, carrots, radishes, beets, and stawberries as well as a variety of mints and culinary herbs. A Robinson flowering crabapple in the back portion of the garden near the home will eventually provide brillant flowers and fruits for making jelly. Between the main garden and the home is a series of trellises with a male and female kiwi.

The periphery of the yard along Rosedown Drive and N. Leighton Drive are planted with Turkish quince, pawpaw, Japanese and native plums, blueberries, pineapple guava, azeleas, camellias, red and Ohio buckeyes, French mulberry, and strawberry bush.

Close-up View of Main Garden
June 25, 2005

A smaller flower/culinary herb garden established in a raised bed is located adjacent to the house opposite Rosedown Drive. A Chinese flowering banana and a night-blooming jasmine are recent additions. The raised bed contains a variety of mints, a native persimmon sapling, rosemary, oregano, basils, dill, tomatoes, onions, pineapple guava and soon will be planted with gingers and other tropical and flowering plants. A native wildflower garden is located under a 60 year old water oak near the side door and the garage opposite Rosedown Drive. The bed was originally overrun with mondo grass and asiatic jasmine. Half of the bed has been cleared of these species and planted with yellowroot (), foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia), various pholox species (Phlox spp.), partridge berry (Mitchella repens), two creeping raspberries (Rubus calcynoides), and Allegheny-spurge (Pachysandra procumbens), and Harper's ginger (Hexastylis shuttleworthii var. harperi).

The southwest portion of the lawn along Rosedown Drive contains a raised bed garden complete with one native plum, one Danson plum, tomatoes, peppers, maypops, vining and bush tomatoes, wild bergmont, and cucumbers. Shrubs planted nearby include blueberry, pawpaw, pineapple guava, Japanese plum - Ozark Beauty, French mulberry, mandevilla, spicebush, and an Austin blackberry.

Southwest Garden
June 1, 2005

Future plans for the lawn include a small water garden in the front next to the main garden, a tropical garden on the eastern side of the house, and a large garden emphisizing perdominantly native shrubs, ferns, and wildflowers in the back yard along with a water garden and small waterfall. A small bee hive will be installed in the back yard to provide a dependable pollinator source and to produce honey. Arbors and trellises will be installed for flowering vines and roses. Prior to landscaping the backyard, one of three overstory Melrose variety pecans will be removed to provide increased sunlight to the highly shaded back yard. French drains will need to be installed to increase drainage and a large concrete slab will need to be removed using sweat, muscle, and a sledge hammer.