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ORAL HISTORY

Jeanette Bell

Fleur d'Eden

Growing up in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, Jeanette Bell was enthralled by her aunt’s flower garden: roses, dianthus, and a 500-foot row of daffodils. After graduating from Alcorn State, she moved with her husband to Detroit, where started a business planting flower beds for small, local businesses. After moving to New Orleans, she purchased a large abandoned lot near her house, transforming it into a community rose garden named Fleur d’Eden. In the months following Katrina and the failure of the levee system, she handed out roses to first responders and volunteers, to brighten up their day. A decade later, she rehabilitated five vacant lots in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward, transforming each into a garden, where she grew flowers and herbs to sell to local markets, restaurants, and florists. The Garden on Mars project became teaching spaces, where Jeanette promoted the ethos of environmentally sustainable urban and container gardening. In her 80s, at the time of this interview, Jeanette still gardens everyday.