Welcome to Greentown Gardens

A real garden, a natural learning lab, and a slower way to see the land

Curated by Louis Green

Welcome to Greentown Gardens.

We are Louis Green and Karen Reighney, and this little corner of Southwest Louisiana is where we are learning, growing, observing, photographing, teaching, and trying to be better stewards of the land we have been given for this season of life.

Greentown Gardens is a wild, experimental, perfectly imperfect garden near DeRidder, Louisiana.

It is not a manicured botanical garden. It is not a big commercial farm. It is not a polished homestead where everything looks perfect all the time.

It is a real place.

There are zinnias, greenhouses, weeds, flowers, produce, ponds, pine trees, deer, rabbits, bobcats, hummingbirds, bluebirds, bugs, heat, humidity, rain, experiments, and lessons we are still learning.

And honestly, that is the point.

Greentown Gardens is a natural learning lab. We grow flowers and produce for ourselves, but we are also learning how to balance our place in nature. We are retirees enjoying the land at a slower pace while finding ways to keep teaching, sharing, and encouraging others to notice what their own space can offer.

You do not need 40 acres to be a steward.

You do not need a farm.

You do not need a perfect garden.

You may have a few acres, a rented backyard, a postage-stamp lot, or one five-gallon planter on a porch. There is still a way to give something back to nature. There is still a way to notice, grow, feed, shelter, observe, and care.

That is part of what Greentown Gardens is here to explore.

Why Greentown Gardens Began

I retired from teaching public school after 22 years due to medical reasons. Those same medical reasons also led me to step back from a 40-acre truck patch enterprise I had worked for decades under the name Greentown Farms.

But when a teacher retires from the classroom, the teaching does not always stop.

My favorite subject to teach has always been environmental science. My teaching certificate covered science and social studies from grades 6 through 12, and over the years, I taught a little bit of everything. I am also a certified agriculture teacher, though I never had the chance to teach agriculture in a traditional classroom.

Now, Greentown Gardens gives me a different kind of classroom.

Here, the lessons happen at the crossroads of environmental science and agriculture. They happen in the zinnia patch, inside the greenhouses, along the ponds, under the pine trees, and in the daily decisions of what to plant, what to protect, what to test, and what to leave alone.

I serve as the Chief Gardener here. In plain words, that means I am the decision maker in the garden and the caretaker of this small bit of land while it is mine to care for.

I experiment with what grows best, what draws more butterflies, what the deer will not eat, and how the land can serve both our family and the wildlife around us.

And if you know me, you know this too: I will teach a rock if it will sit still long enough.

A Stewardship Lesson From the Road

In the mid-1990s, my grandfather walked the road that splits this property and told me something simple:

The land will take care of you if you take care of it.

I asked him for details.

He laughed and said, “You will know when you need to know it.”

That was his stewardship talk.

Years later, I had a similar conversation with our son. When I gave him that last part of the speech, he laughed and said, “You still don’t know, do you?”

I replied, “No, but I am enjoying the journey as I learn it.”

That is the heart of Greentown Gardens.

We do not claim to have every answer. We are still learning. We are still observing. We are still asking what it means to take care of land in a way that is useful, thoughtful, and life-giving.

What We Are Growing and Watching

We have 40 acres, but not 40 acres of zinnias.

Right now, we have about a quarter acre of zinnias, along with mixed pine forest, two ponds, a 10-acre field, and two greenhouses. The zinnia patch is one of the most visible parts of the project because it is colorful, photogenic, and full of life.

But Greentown Gardens is about more than flowers.

We are exploring how to expand our flower areas without hurting ourselves. We are looking at how to create wildlife spaces across the property. We feed the deer. We watch bobcats and rabbits move through. We notice hummingbirds and bluebirds using the zinnias for their own purposes.

Sometimes Karen cuts a bouquet and later finds a jumping spider has come inside with it.

She admires the brave little thing, then catches it and sends it back outside where it belongs.

Karen is the Chief Photographer at Greentown Gardens. She is an introvert, a flower lover, and the one most likely to stop and notice how the light is hitting a petal, what a bug is doing, or how a small moment in the garden has become its own kind of art.

Her role is to artistically capture what the land is showing us.

The photos you see from Greentown Gardens are part beauty, part documentation, and part invitation to look closer.

Small Land Can Teach You If You Slow Down

One of the biggest lessons Greentown Gardens keeps teaching us is this:

Small land can teach you if you slow down.

Land does not have to be fully monetized to matter. A space does not have to look perfect to be useful. A rough flower patch can still feed pollinators. A greenhouse can still be a classroom. A five-gallon planter can still teach a child to notice a bee.

Unmonetized does not mean unimportant.

That idea is becoming a big part of our work here. We are also developing a project called Small Land, Smart Use, which will help people think through what their land can do for their life, their family, their food, their peace, their income, their skills, and their relationship with nature.

But even before that project is ready, Greentown Gardens will be a place where we share what we are seeing and learning.

You can expect garden notes, wildlife observations, flower photos, small-land thoughts, simple stewardship ideas, and maybe, as things grow, photo galleries, educational resources, and other ways to learn with us.

Stay tuned.

A Front Porch Invitation

Whether you own 40 acres, rent a house in town, dream of land one day, or only have room for a planter on the porch, there is still something you can do.

You can plant something.

You can notice what visits it.

You can leave a little more for the pollinators.

You can stop seeing every imperfect patch as wasted space.

You can ask better questions about what your land, yard, garden, or container might be able to offer.

Greentown Gardens is our place to keep asking those questions out loud.

What can we do to be better stewards?

What can this little piece of earth teach us?

And how can we enjoy the journey while we learn?

Welcome to Greentown Gardens.

We are glad you are here.

Want to keep up with Greentown Gardens?
Follow along for garden notes, wildlife moments, flower photos, and Small Land, Smart Use updates.

Louis on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/louis.green.92102

Karen on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/karen.reighney

Greentown Gardens on Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/louis6226/

Thank you for visiting GreentownGardens.com.