[Image: Lekoma Akate]
Name:
Lekoma Akate
Gardens in:
Metairie, La.
Professional pastime:
Gardener / Grower
Hobbies:
When I’m not gardening, I like to play music, primarily harmonica and percussion (love the blues); hang out in the woods (love Mother Nature); spiritual development, (meditation, prayer, scanning The Zohar).
Favorite Annual:
Basil, such a marvelous flavor.
Favorite Perennial:
Yarrow, great antibiotic, healing herb for wounds. It is easy to grow and looks good too.
Favorite Plant:
Veggies and herbs, so hard to choose a favorite….
Favorite Shrub:
Rosemary, easy to train into any shape, smells good and tasty too.
Favorite Tree:
Bald Cypress, an attractive, sturdy tree in wind and floods, the state tree of Louisiana.
Favorite Garden Tool:
There are so many. Gardening from a wheelchair has lead to some creative methods. Some of my favorite tools are a mini shovel, about two feet long with a D handle that I can use with one hand as a trowel. I also like the garden claw. With good upper body strength, it makes it easy to remove thick St. Augustine grass from the lawn to put in a new bed. It is also good for turning the soil once the bed is established. I use two tools with extendable aluminum handles. One is a small pointed shovel and the other is a pointed hoe with two-prong cultivator on the other side. These make it easier to work the middle of a bed and are light enough to use with one hand.
Favorite Extension Service Bulletin:
Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide
Favorite Garden Book:
Dan Gill’s “Louisiana Gardeners Guide”
Favorite Month to Garden:
Any month that has an R, as well as the months without an R. Like anyone, I prefer temps below 90° F, but the heat never really stopped me.
Favorite Garden Web Site:
Other than the LSU AgCenter, I especially enjoy visiting a few sites with good info on herb gardening:
Gardening Style:
Organic. Grow mostly edible plants, veggies and herbs, so I plant enough for both the bugs and me. Rarely use pesticides, but when necessary, use those cleared for organic use. Use compost for fertilization, unless there is a specific requirement to be met. We are so lucky in the New Orleans area to be able to grow throughout the year. I am always planting and harvesting something. The whole yard, front and back is potential bed space. It is a work in progress to get as many beds as possible with as little lawn as possible. Beds and paths!
Secret Gardening Tip:
If you can’t get it to grow in your garden after three attempts, plant something else.
Use the internet!!! But be careful of where the advice is coming from…we don’t have the same growing conditions as Europe or Australia or Minnesota.
My love of gardening was inspired by:
My father. He grew the most beautiful antique roses when I was a child. He gave me a small bed of lilies and violets to tend. We had a small aquarium then. When the fish would die, I can remember doing like the Native Americans and planting the fish at the base of the lilies as fertilizer. He later expanded his gardening after buying some acreage on the north shore. He had a couple acres worth of vegetable garden. He once told me “If you are going to grow it, you might as well be able to eat it.” That is one reason that most things in my garden are edible, or at least multi-task as ornamentals with some other use.
True Confession:
The dumbest thing I did in my garden before becoming a Master Gardener was planting things at the absolute wrong time of year. Cool season plants don’t do so well when planted in May! Also, dividing and transplanting irises in February did not make for good blooms that year. Like they say…”Timing is everything.” And then there were the horrible pruning mistakes.
The best thing I learned as a LMG:
How to grow herbs of Mediterranean origin. Drainage, drainage, drainage. They also changed the recommended method of planting trees since I was in school.
What’s becoming a LMG meant to you?
Earned a MS in Horticulture in 1980 from LSU and after getting the bends scuba diving in 1985, got away from gardening. Started to get back into gardening in 1999 and realized that I did not remember much of the practical knowledge I picked up twenty years before. After retiring in 2001, I contacted the AgCenter for some advice and found out about the LMG program. Signing up for the class and the subsequent participation as a Master Gardener gave me a great source of accurate information with LSU and provided an outlet to help give back to the community in a way that was not only dear to my heart, but helpful to the environment as well as physical, mental and spiritual well being of all concerned. It has been very gratifying to be able to provide information to others and to do some good in our corner of a world that could use all the help we can give. Now I have come full circle, getting back with LSU and gardening with more passion that ever, kind of cool actually.
Volunteer Projects:
Various educational and healing gardens, as well as the Wetlands Plant Center project for growing plants to improve City Park and help restore our wetlands. Also, I currently serve as president of the Master Gardeners of Greater New Orleans (MGGNO).
Why would you recommend the LMG program to others?
You learn a great deal, meet a lot of really cool people, get the satisfaction of helping improve the community and you can help others learn the satisfaction of successfully working with plants, of working with Mother Nature.