Eva Ortego is a life-long gardener

By: HEATHER BOGARD

Lifestyles Editor

As we celebrate the end of National Garden Week (June 1, June 8,) we shine a spotlight on Eva Ortego, a life-long gardening enthusiast. She has been gardening since helping her parents as a young child in Grand Prairie. She currently lives in Ville Platte with her husband of 60 years, Edwin Ortego, and at 78-years-old, she still loves to plant flowers, and grow vegetables and fruit trees on her property. Her favorite flower is the day lily, and she has a wide variety of colors of the flower, as well as many other flowers, located throughout her beautifully landscaped yard.

Ortego retired from the St. Landry Parish Extension Service in 1990 after 20 years with the office. While there, she gained a great deal of knowledge about gardening and another favorite hobby, making homemade lye soap. She said making soap started after browsing through some books one day and finding a recipe for lye soap. She decided to try to make it, and has since made many batches of the soap for friends and others who asked her to start selling it. In addition to gardening and making soap, Ortego also has a great interest in refinishing antique furniture and proudly notes her husband used to make unique birdhouses out of large gourds grown in their garden.

Over the years, Ortego has participated in many events to display her gardening and soap-making talents, such as the Cajun Heritage Exhibition and the Smoked Meat and Cotton Festivals. She recalls her mother, Bertha Jones, winning Garden of the Week honors several times and being very proud to show off her flowers at the Cotton Festival each year.

Ortego’s husband, a retired state meat inspector supervisor, has been ill, so Ortego relies on help from her children and grandchildren to tend her garden. She says they like to help her till, plant and harvest the garden.

The Ortegos have several pear, orange and other citrus trees, and they like to pick the fruit and often share much of it with family and friends. “The best part of growing your own garden,” Ortego, proclaims, “Is there is nothing like fresh vegetables. I enjoy being outdoors and working in the yard. It’s almost like an outing to get out of the house.”