Longue Vue House and Gardens

New Orleans, Louisiana

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, working for the Garden Conservancy, I organized a team of gardeners to help with recovery.  But this morale-boosting exercise was not enough. With two-thirds of the trees and garden plants damaged or destroyed, a comprehensive plan was needed.  On behalf of the Conservancy I convened a team of Longue Vue staff and landscape architects from Heritage Landscapes, who inventoried the remaining trees and shrubs, analyzed them in relation to the garden during its historic period, and developed a prioritized renewal plan. This approach resulted in a garden that is now much truer to the original masterwork of landscape designer Ellen Shipman.