The butterflies that visit the garden at Jason and Jessica Vasseur’s Destrehan home are swallowtail, gulf fritillary and skipper butterflies. Nine monarch butterflies sit in a special butterfly enclosure, where they will soon hatch. There are honeybee and bumblebee visitors, too.
Jason and Jessica have called these visitors to the garden with native plants, grown with much care and attention, including spot treatment with organic pesticides and hand-removal of pesky pests, like aphids, fire ants, squash bugs and slugs.
The plants – coneflowers, goldenrods, swamp mallows, Indian blankets, liatris, rattlesnake masters and guaras – make up 25 percent of the Vasseur’s landscape, which qualifies the garden as the first certified native habitat in the parish. Jason and Jessica received their certification from the Native Plant Initiative of Greater New Orleans.
“Our kids though we were nuts that we got so excited about getting a plaque for our yard,” Jessica said.
But for Jessica and Jason, the certification means they are helping spread the word about native plants, and, maybe, inspiring others to plant them.
“There’s so much potential in St. Charles Parish to be a centerpiece for native landscapes,” Jessica said. “All of those beautiful butterflies, moths, birds that you see around the parish all depend on plants native to the area. The more host plants that you have on your property that butterflies need to lay their eggs and raise their young on, the more of these beautiful creatures you’ll see around.”
The Native Plant Initiative of Greater New Orleans and the Louisiana Native Plant Society encourage residents, businesses, schools and public intuitions with outdoor spaces to grow habitats rich in native plants. More than 300 properties have been certified statewide with over 100 in the Great New Orleans area. To apply for a certification, residents can fill out an application online and pay a $45 fee. An NIP representative will then visit the property and consider it for certification. Once certified, residents can add their native habitats to the Louisiana Certified Habitat Program map.
The NIP says that using native plants is one of the most impactful ways to support local ecosystems, improve biodiversity and create sustainable habitats. Native habitats can also reduce resource consumption, conserve water, and create habitats for pollinators and wildlife, according to the NIP.
Jessica, who works as an area manager of the Child Nutrition Program for St. Charles Parish Public Schools, said her and Jason, a business systems analyst at Laitram Machinery, have always planted flowers, herbs or vegetables in their home gardens. But recently, they learned about the Native Plant Initiative of Greater New Orleans through social media.
“We’ve never been much aware of just how little the large garden centers focus on providing plants native to the area or even the United States,” she said. “We’ve always just planted whatever was available at the big box stores. As we learned about the benefits that come with including native area plants in your landscape, we became more and more enthralled about how we could incorporate these into our home gardens.”
Once they had finally completed the renovations to their home, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Ida, they turned their focus to their landscape.
Their native garden is grown on raised beds and ground level beds.
“Since we have a very clay type soil down here, we focus a lot on raised containers that allow for better drainage,” Jesscia said. “You also have better control over the type of soil properties that certain plants require.”
She said the biggest misconception about native plants is that they require little maintenance or watering.
“Sure, natives are more acclimated to our environment and many varieties are drought and disease resistant, but that does not mean they are ‘maintenance free’ and won’t require any type of upkeep,” she said. “You will come across those natives that seem to grow no matter what, like Indian blanket, but you will definitely come across those that will require some TLC to be beautiful in your garden.”
She said finding native plants has also been a challenge.
“But thankfully some smaller garden centers are bringing in more and more of these to have available, like Jefferson Feed, Rose Garden, and local farmers markets,” she said.
Jason and Jessica’s kids may have laughed at their excitement over their plaque, but they’ve also shown a growing interest in the garden.
“They come out to water the plants with us, cut flowers to share with neighbors, learn about how and what to fertilize, and really enjoying seeing the butterflies and insects coming to visit,” Jessica said.
