My friend Leesa, who happens to be a fantastic REALTOR in Wake Forest, NC, posted about a new site that emails you discounts from local businesses each day.  Surprisingly enough, when I went to check out Living Social, I found that they are also offering deals in New Orleans.

Past daily deals have included restaurants, pilates classes, wine, teeth whitening and more.  It’s an easy way to try a new place without spending a fortune and you can purchase deals as gifts too.  Signing up is as easy as providing your email address and daily deals will be sent directly to your inbox.  You can share them with friends via Facebook, Twitter or email – wouldn’t that make for a fun and inexpensive get together with friends? 

When you order, you are given your own private link to share with friends.  If 3 or more of them buy the same deal, yours is FREE!  Pretty darn cool, right?

Living Social is currently operating in the following cities:

• Atlanta
• Austin
• Boston
• Charlotte
• Chicago
• Cleveland
• Dallas
• Denver
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Minneapolis-Saint Paul
• New Orleans
• New York
• Oklahoma City
• Orange County
• Philadelphia
• Portland
• Raleigh-Durham
• San Antonio
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• San Fernando Valley
• St Louis
• Tampa
• Washington, D.C.

Hmmm…discounts while on vacation, anyone? 

Anyway, it’s fun, free and easy – give it a whirl!  If you’ve used Living Social, feel free to share with us how you like it.

It’s that time of year (before the heat sets in) that everyone is out in their yards and gardens, sprucing things up and showing off their curb appeal. The petunias I planted earlier in the year are in full bloom and I’m enjoying them while they last…soon it will be time to replace them with something a little more heat tolerant.  The black eyed Susans came back on their own, the salvia gave me a little surprise when it started sprouting up too and the first of the irises bloomed this week.

Are you ready to start working in your West Bank garden? Here are some recommendations for local nurseries that can not only provide you with a selection of plants and flowers that will grow well in our zone, but can usually give you a little free planting advice to go along with them.  You won’t get that at a big box store.

• New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape in Algiers
• Rose Garden Center in Marrero
• Banting’s Nursery in Bridge City
• Patio Gardens and Landscape in Marrero
• Nine Mile Point Nursery Farm in Westwego

No space for a garden? Plenty of plants do well in containers that can fit in even the smallest of spaces.  Or, you could search for homes for sale on the West Bank of New Orleans and find the perfect place to plant your own roots.

For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please

It’s not a plantation that you’ll find on the tour list, because over the years it has been a house of ill repute, a restaurant and now is the scene of weddings and parties throughout the year.

We recently had the opportunity to attend a wedding and rehearsal at the Plantation and I was so impressed with the facility and the grounds. The wedding guests all remarked what a beautiful setting it provided and the majority had never even heard of the place before, much less peeked behind the scenes to the gorgeous grounds that surround the house.

The front yard is filled with shade trees, including oaks dripping with spanish moss, and the front porch provides a respite from not only the heat, but from the noise of a crowded party as well.

Every where I walked, there were flowers and statues tucked into corners and into the landscaping. Anyone that has ever met me knows that I’m a sucker for flowers, so I couldn’t resist taking photos along the way.

I tried to do some research on the property, but had very little luck digging up anything of substance.  The current owners do have a Facebook fan page, where I found this:

A Little History: In the early 1950′s a madam named Norma Wallace was chased out of New Orleans. She “set up shop” in Waggaman at Cedar Grove Plantation. In 1963 she went to jail for her “dating service”. In 1964 she wanted to become an “honest” women. She opened a steak house at the same location. Feeling that the name Cedar Grove was boring, she named the restaurant Tchoupitoualas. She actually “stole” this name from the plantation across the river now called Colonial Country Club. Today we honor both names to represent all of the plantation’s 220 year history. We also still have the Red Room where the ladies of the evening were introduced to their dates.

Weddings can be held in the parlor or under the covered outdoor pavilion that offers a bucolic view. Don’t worry about the menu for your event, either.  We were stuffed to the gills with entrees, salads and passed hors d’ouevres and the staff was still making their way through the room offering more food.  According to the bride, the prices were very reasonable and the management was easy to work with when planning the wedding and reception.

The Cedar Grove Tchoupitoulas Plantation is located at 6533 River Road in Waggaman, LA.  For more information about holding a party, wedding, reception or other event, visit the website or contact Jill Mercer at (504) 431-5743.

See this mean looking little guy?  That’s a Buck Moth caterpillar. Not only will he munch on the leaves of your oak trees, he packs a punch in those little spines.  Touch one and you’ll quickly find yourself in pain and probably with a whelp to show for it too.  If they stayed in the trees it might not be so bad (for me anyway – the tree might disagree), but they have a tendency to drop right out…into the yard and onto unsuspecting people.

flickr photo credit: mullica

If you’ve been stung before, you’ll understand why I was happy when the guys from Tree Man Inc showed up today. In the past, they have sprayed our trees each spring.  The downside to spraying is that we would worry about overspray onto vehicles and pets AND it could only be done once the caterpillars were present.  Each year, I’d bring the dogs inside and move my car down the street while they were using huge spray wands to coat the leaves (and caterpillars).  If my neighbors didn’t spray as well, then we would still see some of the critters as they migrated over to our trees after the spray wore off in about 3 or 4 days.

Starting this year, they have a very cool new injection application and they were kind enough to explain it to me when I interrupted their work.

First, several small holes are punched in the tree, leaving behind little grommets.  I was a little concerned about this at first, but was informed that it’s not a deep hole and doesn’t do any harm to the tree at all.

Next, the tree is injected with the magical stuff that makes caterpillars disappear.  (OK, that’s not the scientific explanation, but it’s the end result).  Because it’s not a topical application, the tree is resistant to the caterpillars for a much longer time and it can be treated before they make their first appearance.

Now, even if some of those bad boys migrate from a neighboring yard over to our trees we are still protected.  While nothing is 100%, I feel better knowing that it won’t be raining creepy, crawly, stingy bugs in my yard.

If you want to get your trees treated, now is the time to do it. Contact the Tree Man and tell him West Bank Living sent you

 

 

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

• Find out what’s going on in your neighborhood with a free Market Snapshot
• West Bank Homes for Sale

With door prizes, free health screenings, free drinks and over 60 local businesses and organizations participating, it’s a great opportunity for the community to get more information about local businesses and what they have to offer and even do a little shopping.  Since I’m a member of the StayLocal! organization, I always prefer to do business with someone who is truly invested in our community.  Well, here’s your chance to find one.

I’ll be there and I’d love to see you there too.

Copyright 2008.  Lisa Heindel and West Bank Living.  All rights reserved.