By: Phyllis Giffard
Brad Price celebrates his gold-level Louisiana Certified Habitat in Lafayette.
Brad's home is located in a traditional subdivision in Lafayette near Comeaux High. An avid birder and photographer, Brad wanted his yard to be a "showcase for native landscaping" that shows "how beautiful that can be and what it can do for wildlife". He focused on their backyard, which backs onto a park and has mature oaks and pines. He removed many invasives and enlisted the services of bird habitat expert Bill Fontenot and native landscaper Matt Boutte to design and install the backyard landscape. They left tree snags standing and improved a water feature, both excellent for bird habitat. The design replaced some of the lawn that was struggling in the shade anyway. This area was planted in large sweeping beds with understory shrubs that give good bird cover and food, like viburnum, beautyberry, Turk's cap, oakleaf hydrangea, yaupon hollies, native azalea, and leucothoe. A smaller sunny area has native bee balms, asters, coneflower, milkweed, sages, rattlesnake master, sedges, and coreopsis. The beds were installed this spring with spacing that will fill in as plants grow this year.
From the August 2022 ANPP Newsletter