(Baton Rouge, June 5, 2023) A rare opportunity awaits plant lovers, gardeners and artists as they tour the lush, tropical private gardens and pond landscape, replete with color and soothing sounds of waterfalls at the home of Charbel and Ruth Harb. Tours for public viewing will be from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday, June 18th, at 841 Pastureview Drive in Oak Hills in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Plant lovers and gardeners will soak in the Harb’s visual outdoor retreat in the form of a lush garden, beautiful pond with cascading waterfall, amidst tropical plants, and the neighboring pond of Robert Wu boasting an incredible KOI fish pond with 2-foot-long KOI. The tours allow an area nonprofit, REDSTICK CARES, the benefits of an infusion of donations. A special gift for Father’s Day, the tour will be memorable for any Dad, grandfather or gentleman celebrating Father’s Day.
Admission is free with a donation of a shelf-stable items, such as shelf stable milk, rice, pasta, peanut butter, jelly, tuna, ravioli, spaghettiOs, Vienna sausage, canned vegetables to REDSTICK CARES. A $5 monetary donation is welcomed at the tour entrance.
Pre-registration for the Garden and Pond tour is highly suggested to secure your spot at redstickcares.org/fathersday. The pond tour fundraiser benefits two programs of REDSTICK CARES, the REDSTICK CARES TEAM, young adults with autism, The REDSTICK CARES COOKS team, and their community pantry overseen by the CARES TEAM.
Funds from the event will help support the REDSTICK CARES TEAM, young adults with autism, as well as the REDSTICK Community Food Pantry where young adults with autism learn about food, nutrition, inventory, distribution and helping their fellow citizens with food insecurity.
Visit redstickcares.org to learn about the many programs and services for special needs individuals, young adults with autism, and the Community Food Pantry.
The afternoon will feature the pond and garden tour, as well as an art exhibit throughout the garden by Charbel Harb, a blossoming Baton Rouge artist whose vivid paintings capture the vibrancy, bright color and hues of flowers, landscape scenes, as well as beverage and food on-site vendors will be available.
Charbel Harb, known to many as “Harb,” designs what speaks to his spirit as a gardener and artist. An LSU graduate in landscape architecture, he is well-known for his 35 plus years as the now retired owner of Harb’s Oasis in Baton Rouge. Known for his breathtaking garden and water feature designs, his personal gardens and pond boast over 320 varieties of perennial tropical and other flowering plants.
“I’m passionate about my garden,” said Mr. Harb. Charbel who loves color, the more the better, represents his vivid passions in his landscape, gardens, ponds and canvas artistry.
Together with his wife, Ruth, a passionate gardener in her own right, the Harb’s have created a lush landscape of texture and color with the soothing sounds of a large waterfall and pond and superb outdoor entertaining areas. Charbel states, “It’s just interesting to be able to experience these beautiful flowers and plants of these gardens says Harb of the hard work that goes into the gardens on tour. “Of course, there are beautiful flowers, but many of the strengths of these gardens are in how they demonstrate how to live alongside natural flowing water, or how to create a natural habitat in backyards to aesthetic visions, and how to incorporate a garden around outdoor kitchens, flowers, water and KOI.
Althgouth Harb’s Oasis closed as a garden center a few years ago, has transformed his 13827 Coursey Blvd. property into another oasis- as it now hosts The Market at the Oasis.
Boasting more than 30 farm produce, arts and crafts, and food vendors, Mr. Harb’s tropical plants, waterlilies and fish for sale in a fun and family-friendly environment with live music and pony rides every Saturday 9 am–3 pm. Charbel now dedicates his time to The Market at the Oasis and his passion for ponds, gardening and uncompromised outdoor beauty to benefit nonprofits.
For more information on REDSTICK CARES, please visit redstickcares.org. To pre-register and secure garden and pond, or make a $5 in-kind donation, please go to redstickcares.org/fathersday, and bring your shelf-stable donation day of the event. Nonprofit event sponsors include, REDSTICK CARES non-profit, the REDSTICK CARES TEAM of young adults with autism, REDSTICK CARES COOKS and the REDSTICK Community Pantry programs. The generosity of Chabel Harb and his wife Ruth, The Market at the Oasis, the Baton Rouge Unit of the Herb Society, the event is a perfect Father’s Day gift on a spectacular summer day while benefitting those with autism, food insecurity and their families.
