Hammond Garden Club on Container Gardening and Nurturing Plants
paulette madrigal, spring 2025 intern, had the pleasure of interviewing members of the hammond garden club where she was able to learn the history of the group, the importance of nurturing a garden and how renters in the downtown area can get into container gardening.
Hammond is privileged to have one of the oldest garden clubs in the state of Louisiana. The Hammond Garden Club was organized in 1931 and meets at 11 am on the second Wednesday of each month at the Oak Knoll Country Club from August through May. Each meeting is highlighted by a guest speaker who offers their experience and expertise, pushing the club’s goals forward.
The club’s constitutionally designated purpose, as Pat Graves, the current Club President, explained, is to “have every yard a garden, to protect and conserve our natural resources, to promote gardening among amateurs, to further our knowledge of gardening and horticulture, to encourage civic beauty and roadside beautification and to apply garden therapy”.
Over the past decades, The Hammond Garden Club has been dedicated to making gardening both accessible and inviting for gardeners with all levels of experience through learning about gardening, horticulture, and floral design. In addition to the availability of information, the organization has collaborated with the Hammond Branch of the Tangipahoa Parish Library System to improve their catalogue and to create the Rosenblum Seed Library with the hopes of making gardening more accessible.
The Hammond Garden Club is open and inviting younger community members who would like to take the opportunity to learn and be active in their local community.
Gardeners Downtown
There are a variety of different gardening styles that can be found downtown.
Container Gardening and Floral Arrangements with Mona Crapanzano
Mona Crapanzano is an active member of Hammond’s Downtown. She started gardening in Hammond in 1988, but she grew up with it. “My dad was raised on a real farm,” she explained. “They grew strawberries… We always were in fields, doing veggies and things.” She was eventually sent to the kitchen because for every berry she picked, she put five in her mouth. “That’s where my love of vegetable gardening really started,” she fondly recollected.
While she started with vegetable gardening, Mona found herself drawn to floral arrangements. “…I knew that I loved flowers, but I just didn’t know how to arrange them,” she explained. “When I was in college, right before we got married, I started working for a florist…” Linda DePaul, who passed away in 2009, was the one who brought Mona into the gardening club. “‘Linda… are you going to teach me how?’… And sure enough, that was it!” she exclaimed. Together, they worked on flower show competitions within the club, between clubs, districtwide, and nationally.
“I learned through the garden club what to grow together; what plants to plant. Whether it’s for greenery to put in, or like zinnias, or gladiolus, or all the snap dragons- all of that to put in your arrangement. Why spend all the money on flowers to do an arrangement... when you can grow it? It’s more cheap and you get exactly what you want each time.”
Mona’s favorite flower to grow is the Zinnia. “I love zinnias, always loved zinnias. You’re planting them and you really kinda have to baby them,” she gushed.
“They’re just so forgiving. They come up, last forever, so many different colors! ... You can make a whole bouquet just from that. Not only do you have the flower, but they have beautiful leaves and stems that are almost decorative on [their] own. So you can put them all together.” Following Zinnias, she expressed her fondness for gladiolus, then roses.
We were given a tour of Mona’s back garden which is a combination of in-ground plants and container gardening. Some of the highlights of her garden included fruit trees, resilient Peggy Martin and David Austin roses, floribunda roses, as well as the sentimental ‘Angel Kim’ daylily she grows in honor of her dearly departed daughter.
Mona showed us the large variety of plants she grows within containers of various sizes and styles. The garden fence was full of hanging and installed wall planters growing various flowers for floral arrangements, such as snapdragons and bell flowers, to herbs and vegetables such as thyme and green onions for everyday use in cooking. She showed us the different kinds of mint, each with a different flavor profile.
In addition to wall planters, she had a large variety of ground containers where she grows flowers for her arrangements. She then showed us her impressive fruit plant containers where she grows key-limes, blueberries, tomatoes and a variety of other fruits. She explained that people really underestimate what can be grown in a container. With Mona’s garden in sight, the diversity that can be found in container gardening is truly as limitless as there are plants.
Wildlife Gardening and Birdwatching with Dona Calcote and Stanley Ashmore
Dona and Stanley are active downtown residents with ties to The Hammond Garden Club. Prior to living in Hammond, they lived in a variety of different environments, each home with their own unique gardens. “Each place we’d go, we’d make a new garden,” Stanley said. “Right before we moved here, we had a nice desert garden in Mexico. Before that, we had a cold weather garden in Alaska… I grow grapes wherever I can. We had a vineyard in Mexico [and] Maryland.”
Stanley first started gardening with his mother in Illinois, while Dona’s first experience came when she was a young mother with financial difficulties back in the 1970s. “There wasn’t very much to do for entertainment, but I had a lot of land and so we grew vegetables,” she recollected.
Their garden in Mexico was on a hacienda they rented. “It was a really big property, but we didn’t take advantage of all of it. But we did have this little vineyard, and we made wine and lots of friends,” Dona chuckled. In addition to their vineyard, the desert garden was a collection of the indigenous plants that grew there. “They were just arranged a little more artfully than they would’ve been out in the mountain.”
“My favorite plant is something that wants to live,” Dona chuckled.
Stanley chimed in that Dona has had really good luck with phalaenopsis and that she starts everything from seed, “Those things started blooming in February.”
Stanley found that his favorite plant depended on what part of the world. “We actually had a commercial plant growing business in Alaska where we grew Himalayan blue poppies [Meconopsis]. And in Mexico, cactus and yuccas of course,” he explained. “Here [Louisiana], there’s a lot of natural wild plants. Like those elderberries…, they just come.” Dona chimed in to mention that Stanley’s favorite plants are trees and grapevines, especially thanks to his forestry background. He had to learn the names of all the trees in Illinois and Alaska, with the latter being easier than the former.
Building on Stanley’s response regarding meconopsis, Dona elaborated: “He became quite the expert and has been published in some books about meconopsis…”
Dona and Stanley’s garden is a stunning naturalistic habitat created to draw on Louisiana’s natural environment to provide a habitat for birds and insects. Their garden has a wide inclusion of tree species and indigenous plants. Prior to Ida, their garden had been a shady one, but the missing water oaks allowed for the garden to become a sunny one. Yet as nature does, the remaining trees continue their crawl towards the skies making their garden into a shady one again.
Their garden currently has spiderwort growing which they will allow to come to seed before mowing the lawn. By allowing the wildflowers to live their full life cycles, they ensure that the flowers will be back for the next time. In addition to the spiderwort, their water fountain had flowering lily pads, and irises surrounding the cypress trees’ knees.
In addition to the natural plants that grow, Dona and Stanley have a wide variety of special areas for plants such as fruit trees, onions, and Peggy Martin Roses. Dona and Stanley’s garden truly has an enchanting balance of natural, untamed, and beautiful charm.
How to get started?
Resources
One of the first steps for any new hobby is research and knowing what resources are available. The library is a great place to start for people interested in learning about specific or generic plants, and to have access to free seeds from within the local community. “Reach out to a neighbor that you can see,” Mona suggests. “It goes back to, especially downtown, people that are growing, they want to share… whatever they’re growing and their knowledge.”
Mona additionally recommends Youtube and Jenny Bourgs’ facebook.
Laying out Roots
“Start small,” Stanley recommends. “Realize that weed control is going to be your biggest activity.” Laying out underneath and inground or raised bed can help keep the weeds at bay for some time. Dona elaborated that a garden is a commitment that, if you start too big without knowing what you need to do, can quickly spiral out of control. Keeping things small lets you explore and experiment with significantly more control, while getting simultaneously getting the hang of what gardening style you prefer.
For renters, container gardening is a phenomenal option. Mona recommends starting with one for florals and another for vegetables. These containers can be arranged, moved, and be easily be picked up and taken with you should you need to move out. Dona, similarly, recommends a hydroponic system that can aid beginners by providing them with light up prompts for when it is time to water and feed plants. While she primarily uses this system as a way to start seeds, she has found great success using it as a container for long-term plants.
“I would love to encourage people, especially renters downtown, to just dive into it. Make the place yours while you’re there by container gardening! You can take it with you when you leave! Literally pick it up and go! But while you’re there, that’s a way to make your stay your own. Whether you’re renting for a year, or two, or four years because you’re at Southeastern, … or you’re saving up to do a home- it’s a perfect way to learn how to do all of this, … feed yourself, but also have beautiful flowers for when you are a homeowner.” (Mona Crapanzo)
Finally, one of the most important things about getting started is just doing it! There is no greater time than now to find and start a new hobby. The only way to really learn and know is to do. There is an active and warm community in downtown eager to welcome interested gardeners.
from the garden of Dona Calcote and Stanley Ashmore
Dona Calcote’s hydroponic set up and orchid
