Concrete simply makes her see red!
LOUISE Joseph of North Ruimveldt, Greater Georgetown, hates concrete.
Well… not necessarily all concrete.
She can  live with   concrete on  buildings, or concrete  on pavements, or in construction… anywhere else or whatever. But concrete in yards where a green, well-trimmed  lawn can be such a boon to the homeowner makes her see red.
“You know, there can never be a man-made carpet as beautiful as a lawn.  So green, nicely trimmed you just want to lie down on it and roll around on it every opportunity you get,” she said.
“People who opt for concrete in their yards just don’t know what they are missing,” she added.
In case you don’t get it by now, Louise Joseph is a plant lover; a member of the Horticultural Society of Guyana (HSG) who believes in the beauty of nature and flowers and greenery and plants  and vegetable gardens, and their capacity for enriching the environment and lives of those with whom they are connected.
This is her thing; her life’s thing, and a visit to her home and yard in North Ruimvledt says this louder than words.
On the parapet are zinnias, ixoras, hibiscuses, crown of thorns, a miniature kissing bridge with nearby decorative apples, all the colours of nature; at the entrance are a bougainvillea arch, hanging baskets with ferns, more colourful flowers and plants; in the yard… dahlias, roses of all varieties,  plumbagos, mussaendas, orchids, a hibiscus lane, a  recycling fountain, a bird bath, ferns, orchids, gardenias; an array  of colour and scents assail the senses.
As I watch, a few hummingbirds busily immerse themselves in the flowers, drinking in the nectar from the bounty available in the yard.
A retired National Insurance Scheme (NIS) clerk and mother of four, Joseph told the Chronicle: “I believe in nature and the beauty of nature for improving the environment and for so many benefits to the home, the community and the nation as a whole.”
Her yard serves as a  fitting venue for tea parties and other fundraising activities held by the HSG.
Louise Joseph has been a member of the HSG for the past dozen or so years, starting off as a ordinary member, becoming a committee member, serving as Secretary and now as  Vice President .
The HSG holds a competition for gardeners and plant lovers every year, and since 2000, the exhibits from her garden have been winning several major prizes.
This year, for example, she won the following prizes: First, second and third prizes for orchids (A clean sweep!) ; a second prize for floral arrangements; first, second and highly recommended prizes for ferns; and a second prize for ground display.
She has been winning such prizes at the competition for several years now.
She however downplays these achievements, saying: “The winning matters, but not to a tremendous extent. The cultivation, the nurturing of the plants, the fun kinds of interactions with other members of the society when we meet when we compete  mean a lot more to me.
“Someone may bring me a yellow dahlia or some other beauty, or I give another member a  rare plant  or a piece of advice from my own experiences… these things  matter,  make me more committed to  developing  my horticulture,”  she said.
Louise Joseph is the last child of Francina and Joseph Talbot, both deceased,  both formerly of Buxton, East Coast Demerara.
She spent her early years in Curacao with her parents, where she was impressed with the environmental standards set by the municipality in terms of aesthetics and cleanliness.
“In Curacao where we lived, every yard had a garden, and the municipality had workers who swept the streets every night. The community was almost always spotlessly clean.”
They returned to Guyana when she was 14 years old.
She inherited her interest in plant gardening, vegetable gardening and nature and the environment from her mother who was a “gardening fanatic.”
“As a child, every week it was our task to pluck weeds out of the flower and plant beds.  It was not a very pleasant task for me, but I eventually grew to love this interaction with the soil and plants and the miracle of merely planting a seed and watching God take over and developing  it into something so  beautiful.”
Louise Joseph buried her husband, Frank Joseph, a little over five years ago.
He was from Bartica, but had been brought to Georgetown from an early age.
They had been sweethearts since school days.
“We attended the Egbert Joseph Farley Private School, which was housed at the Nurses Association Hall in Charlotte Street.
“Those were the days when you could get licks in school, and the wild-cane flowed. E. J. Farley was a man who didn’t believe in sparing the rod and spoiling the child. And when you got licks in school, you’d better dry your tears before you reach home, or you would get another set of licks for annoying the teacher. In those days, the school teacher was never wrong.  Parents nowadays don’t get it: The teacher is never wrong.”
Frank was at times skeptical about her love for gardening, and was  sometimes jealous  about her obsession with plants. But in the end, he always assisted; pitched in.
He helped her make her hanging baskets; he backed her up when she used up her own money to buy plants.
“He was cooperative; helpful. You really don’t know how hard it is to spend a lifetime with someone so faithful and so supportive and then to lose them.”
After his death, at 63, from kidney complications, the shock and the grief hit hard .
“I could have moped, stayed in my room by myself and given up on life,” she said.
But the plants — the dahlias, the roses, the mussaendas, the lilies, the gardenias, the petunias, the plumbagos, the ferns —   were there for her.
“I talked to them; I told them how beautiful they were. I held them with my hands (I don’t like using gloves when in my garden) and they soothed me.”
There were times when in such a mood in her garden, she would feel something; something  she cannot explain.
“Sometimes before I could catch myself, I would hear myself addressing my dead husband saying: ‘Hey, Frank! I know you are there; I know you are looking on.’”
Smiling whimsically, she said: “I know that sounds weird, and I am not crazy…but that’s how it feels sometimes… how it feels sometimes.”
Louise is most times ably assisted by her grandson, Uriah, who, unlike his parents and uncles and nieces, seemes to have inherited her love for gardening.
Uriah won prizes for novelty gardening for three consecutive years: 2009, 2010 and 2011.
One of his prizes from the Horticultural Show was a plant grown in a novelty setting: A  discarded  boot.
Louise is at the moment part of a project to establish another novelty: A Rock Garden  in the Botanical Garden.
This is an HSG project, and the members are at the moment collecting natural rocks, rocks of different colours, not concrete, for laying out this garden, which should be a great attraction for visitors.