Funky, Festive and Fabulous Christmas Trees on the West Bank
December 3, 2009 by Lisa Heindel
Filed under Around Town, Blog, Family Fun, Local businesses
While shopping over the weekend, my husband and I were driving down Manhattan Blvd., headed to Chez Target. I darn near got whiplash turning around to take a second look at the neutral ground, since it was lined with the most unique Christmas trees I’ve ever seen. So today, I went back to take a closer look at the hues that caught my eye….
Take heart Who Dats, there are black and gold trees as well. Wouldn’t it be a hoot to keep the tree up and decorated for the Saints all the way through the Super Bowl?
A tree this bold is not for the faint of heart or the traditionalist, but imagine how much fun it would be! They seem like the perfect choice for stores, bars, restaurants. What about in your garden or front yard? That would definitely stop traffic 
Pssst…if you decide that this is a holiday statement you want to make, be sure to ask for Kelly when choosing your tree. And if you get one, send us a picture – we’d love to see what your imagination comes up with!
Creative Gardens and Landscaping is located at:
2232 Manhattan Blvd. Harvey, Louisiana
Phone: (504)367-9099
Business Hours: Monday – Saturday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
The West Bank Living Team provides professional real estate services on the West Bank of New Orleans and believes that buying or selling a home can be fun. Are you ready? Contact us today!
Winter Gardening in New Orleans
November 6, 2009 by Lisa Heindel
Filed under Around Town, Blog, Local businesses
Living in a sub-tropical climate is a definite plus if you love to spend a lot of time in your garden or yard. Despite the fact that it is November, there are still blooming flowers throughout my West Bank garden.
However, the periwinkles are starting to get leggy, the coneflowers are gone and the basil has started to flower and is done for the year. Before the holiday madness starts, I need to find time to get outside in the gorgeous weather we’ve been having and start the winter garden.
I stopped in to visit my favorite Algiers nursery this week – New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape on Huntlee Drive, just off of General Meyer. The fall and winter plants have arrived and wherever you decide to buy them (although I hope it’s from someone local) there is a profusion of color that can quickly take your garden from the end of summer blahs to the winter aaaaahhhhhs.
What I’m Planting This Winter
Pansies are probably the most traditional of the winter flowers, although we have to be careful not to plant them too early in New Orleans. They will survive the coldest of winters with ease, but our climate can be a little more challenging for them. The lovely ladies at the garden center shared this tip with me: if you want show stopping pansies, they love blood meal as a soil additive.
Most people think of petunias as a spring time flower, but in the south they are a perfect addition to your garden after the long hot days of summer have ended. Cool days and nights allow them to flourish and they can provide blankets of color for the next few months that will make all of the neighbors jealous
Snapdragons are one of my favorite winter flowers. A few years ago, I replanted my entire front garden in white – white petunias, white snapdragons and white pansies. I threw in a few sparkly Christmas lights and voila! A winter paradise, right in my own front yard.
I plan to finish off my winter garden with ornamental cabbage. The colors range from almost white to deep green to purple and the texture they bring to the space is fantastic.
Some other winter gardening tips from New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape
- Roses need to be pruned in January, but how much depends on the type of rose. If you are a novice rose grower (like me), check with a professional before you start chopping off branches!
- It’s time to winterize your lawn whether you have St. Augustine sod, centipede grass or even if you’ve seeded with winter rye
- Mulch is just as important in the winter as in the summer and can help protect the roots of your plants during those rare freezes on the south shore
- Once you’ve watered your plants in well, there is no need to water as much as in the summer. Of course, common sense rules and if they are looking a little droopy, give them a drink!
Hopefully, I can get all of this work done before the Thanksgiving holiday, because after that it will be time for a return visit to pick up poinsettias in every color for Christmas. Whew…I better get to work.
Happy gardening!
New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape is located at 210 Huntlee Drive in Algiers. Call (504) 366-2017 for winter operating hours or more information and tell Blair HELLO for us!
Think You Can’t Paint? Everyone is an Artist at Painting With A Twist
November 4, 2009 by Lisa Heindel
Filed under Around Town, Blog, Local businesses
I’m not talking about painting your house. I’m talking about one of the newest hot spots for West Bank ladies (and a few gentlemen too) to get together for a few hours and share food, drinks and definitely a few laughs.
Painting With A Twist recently opened in Gretna LA, just a couple of blocks off the West Bank Expressway. One of my friends decided that painting and drinking would be a fun way to spend an evening, so we rounded up a group and headed over there last night.
We all arrived toting trays of goodies to share, bottles of wine and even a few daiquiris. I figured the drinking was so that we wouldn’t cry if we hated our pictures. The entire premise is that anyone can be at least a novice artist. Bring your own snacks, drinks and $35 and Painting With a Twist provides the bottle openers, the cups, the space, the canvas, the paints, the brushes and the most patient instructors you’ll ever meet.
Each night of the week, there are open classes that anyone can attend. 2 hours classes are $35 and 3 hour classes are $45. Walk ins are welcome, but it’s preferred that you either call ahead or sign up online, since there are a minimum of 4 people to hold a class. A different picture is featured each night (see the schedule on their website) for the open classes or you can book a private party for 15 or more people and choose your own painting from a large gallery selection.
If you have company coming to visit over the holidays, wouldn’t this be a fantastic way to get out of the house and spend an evening as a group or a family?
Step by step, we were led through the process of turning a blank canvas into our own little piece of art. Rule number one from our fabulous teacher, Jason, was….relax! It’s supposed to be fun, not stressful and a room full of type A, perfectionist personalities promptly did just that. Music played in the background as we made those first hesitant strokes onto the canvas. I don’t know why we were worried to begin with. If we ran into a little trouble, Jason and another of the resident artists were on hand to help us out, encouraging us to put our own interpretation on the guide pictures we were trying to recreate and giving us how-to tips to fix our little mistakes along the way.
Now, I’m not creative or the least bit artistic by any stretch of the imagination. I can’t even draw a straight line, much less paint a picture, but I’m pretty proud of my first attempt and figure it’s at least a step up from what my mom used to hang on the refrigerator.
Painting With A Twist is located at 1900 Lafayette Street, in the Village Shopping Center in Gretna LA. Visit them on the web at www.paintingwithatwist.com or call (504) 361-0574.
A Sunday Surprise on the West Bank: Taking The Road Less Traveled to Nine Mile Point Nursery
July 12, 2009 by Lisa Heindel
Filed under Around Town, Blog, Local businesses
Sometimes a split second decision can turn into a pleasant surprise, and that’s what happened today. I’ve been working in my garden for the last few days and was down to the finishing touches. There were some spots left that were just crying for something special to be planted in them, so after a lazy morning, the hubby and I set out to Bridge City, intent on going to a large local nursery that has lots of garden ornaments and native plants. We were disappointed to find them closed.
But as we drove down River Road, we saw a sign for Nine Mile Point Nursery and figured we would stop in and just take a quick look around. The small sign at the road leading in said that their hours were “When the gate is open”.
Well, the gate was wide open, so we swung in and began creeping down a winding dirt and gravel road that cut through the trees. Had it not been for more signs that let us know we were on the right path, we wouldn’t have believed that there was anything more to see than sun dappled trees.
At the end of the road, we came into a clearing with 4 greenhouses, a pickup truck and a single man weeding out potted palms. I didn’t expect much when we got out of the car, but it would have been rude to just turn around and leave without taking a look at what they had to offer. So, we climbed out and were greeted by the owner of the nursery, Brad Naberschnig, who told us that he specializes in gingers and exotic palms.
I initially was a little disappointed, thinking that I wouldn’t find anything that I really liked. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Those 4 greenhouses were filled with some of the most beautiful tropical plants I’ve ever seen, including types that I had never laid eyes on before.
As we began to wander through and ask questions about the variety of plants, Brad fell into step with us, guiding us through the different species, explaining how to propagate pineapple plants and giving us the names and care instructions for each one we considered purchasing.
The beautiful blooms were just breathtaking and so different from anything you’ll ever find at one of those do it yourself stores where they don’t know how to care for the plants, much less explain them to a customer.
Some of the specimens were even a little scary looking! This big one below, that I cannot remember the name of, had a trunk covered in little spiky thorns, designed to protect it in the wild from animals that think it’s a good lunch in it’s native habitat.
What I originally thought was just vegetation on the property turned out to have a purpose with a closer look. Brad, who is a licensed horticulturalist and landscape contractor, grows his own banana trees, palm trees and other large tropical plants on the grounds, using them in his landscaping business.
The more we walked and talked, the more I oohed and aahed over it all. Imagine my surprise when I asked how long the nursery had been there and the answer was the late 1800s!
It turns out that the nursery sits on the grounds of the Magnolia Lane Plantation, which has been owned by the Naberschnig family since 1867. Brad’s great-grandfather, Frances Quinette, purchased the plantation and shortly afterwards established the first plant nursery in Jefferson Parish. During this same time, he introduced the first St. Augustine sod, strawberries and citrus plants to Louisiana. Brad told me that the old timers at the Strawberry Festival in Pontchatoula scoff at the strawberry claim, but that’s the story that has been handed down for generations. The plantation was completely self-sufficient, with the first school in Jefferson Parish, it’s own church and even a small grocery store.
Remnants of original buildings still stand on the plantation grounds today.
Frances Quinette’s nursery was the supplier of the oak trees that now line St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. They were dug up from the grounds of the plantation, hauled by mule to the river and then shipped on barges to the East Bank. There still exists a 350 year old oak tree on the property that became known as The Hanging Tree during the Civil War. In the course of the war, the plantation was taken over by troops from the North, but luckily escaped from being burned like so many others were.
Continuing to walk and talk, Brad brought us up to the grounds of the house and allowed us to look around and experience a little of the history that he gets to live every day. Although the roof was replaced after Katrina and air conditioning has been added, the majority of the interior is original.
The plantation has been the set of many movies, most recently The Bad Lieutenant starring Nicholas Cage, along with a string of horror movies that sought to take advantage of the mystique that comes from a southern home surrounded by trees dripping with Spanish moss.
Although Brad’s grandmother used to allow tours of the home, today it is a private residence, where the family still sleeps in mosquito netted beds in rooms with walls made from mud moss and deer hair. The view of their acres of land comes through one of the 880 original hand blown glass window panes that remain in the house.
The bottle tree is said to ward away evil spirits
The original kitchen building still houses the fireplace and many of the items used by cooks in the late 1800s. With a dust covered wood floor and one single window, I can only imagine how hot it must have been to prepare meals in this little room. 
As we made our way back towards the nursery, we passed what I thought was a well, but it turned out to be the original plantation refrigerator – a deep, underground storage space that kept foods cool. Someone (someone small, I would think) was lowered into the room to store and retrieve food as needed.
We continued our walk through a clearing behind the house and got a peek into one of the best hiding places on the grounds…a clearing inside the walls of a bamboo stand that has soared towards the clouds for at least 3 generations. When the wind is blowing, the clack clack sounds of bamboo ring out across the property.
Finally making our way back to our car, we decided on our two favorite plants and loaded them into the back of the car, with a promise for a return visit when we are ready to add to the landscape.
Who would have thought that a simple sign on the road would have led us to an afternoon filled with Louisiana history? Thank you, Brad, for a delightful visit and tour and for sharing your family’s history with us.
Taking the road less traveled certainly has benefits.
Nine Mile Point Nursery Farm is located at 2141 River Road in Nine Mile Point. Usually open after 4pm in the evenings and all day on the weekends, you can call ahead (504-436-4915) to be sure.
Magnolia Lane Plantation is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is closed to the public.
Has Spring Sprung in New Orleans?
February 26, 2009 by Lisa Heindel
Filed under Around Town, Local businesses
With average high temperatures hitting the upper 60’s, the itch to dig in the dirt has hit folks all over the New Orleans West Bank. I’ve seen tons of homeowners out working in their yards…clearing out dead plants, cutting back overgrown shrubs, and putting in fresh new flowers and mulch.
I love spring in New Orleans! The Japanese magnolias have already been blooming, letting me know that it’s about time to get out there and work in my own yard.
One of my favorite places for locally hardy plants and some expert advice on where to place them is New Orleans Garden Center & Landscape. Located right in Algiers, for years it was known as DeBattista’s Nursery. Nicky DeBattista was my go-to guy for decades and when he retired his godson, Blair, took over the business. Blair has done a great job of updating the center, with a wonderful spot full of garden decorations and flair to dress up your landscape with. There is a wide selection of annuals, trees, shrubs and indoor plants as well.
The last time I visited was right before Christmas, when the snapdragons and pansies were in full bloom. Hmmm….I wonder what the weather forecast is for this weekend?
Feeling the urge to dig in your own dirt? Or maybe you need some professional help with your landscaping? Stop in at New Orleans Garden Center & Landscape and take a stroll around…you won’t be sorry and (yay!) it’s another way to continue to support our neighborhood businesses and StayLocal!
All photos copyright 2008-2009 Lisa Heindel
Are you sprucing up your West Bank home in preparation for the spring selling season? Don’t forget to contact the West Bank Living Team for local, expert real estate advice. It would be our pleasure to assist you.
