On the Cover: Gardening & Outdoors

Cover image by Paul Kieu

As we put the final touches on this issue during the last week of February, hundreds of “bambouistes” were planning their annual pilgrimage to Avery Island for the Louisiana Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Bamboo Society’s Avery Island Moso Bamboo Grove Grooming Event. Held on the last weekend of February, the conference of sorts brings together bamboo-lovers from around the region to clear out dead canes and fallen debris from within one of the oldest, most well-established Moso groves in the country. It’s an event motivated by the purest of human desires: to ensure that our natural treasures are cared for, maintained, and appreciated.

Such enthusiasm for our photosynthetic friends lives at the heart of this year’s Outdoors & Gardening issue, where we meet one woman who has made a business in worm poop and another who uses flowers as her artistic medium. For those who have a particular affinity towards Louisiana’s native flora and fauna, we’ve curated a guide to the region’s best preserved and curated destinations fostering them.

And in our Escapes section, we focus in on the Louisiana State Arboretum, where an impassioned group of folks who adored Louisiana’s natural environs carved out a piece of paradise in the diverse landscapes of Evangeline Parish. In Kristy Christiansen’s story, “The Bromeliad Craze Blooms On” on page 53, we spend some time wandering through wonderfully-weird greenhouses and waxing nostalgic on the flowering plant’s early origins as a muse in Louisiana. One long-time collector of miniature bromeliads put the profound effect of plants on people very simply: “I love them to death. These plants make me so happy. They make me want to get up in the morning.”