French Creole Architecture

So my cousin is going to school to be a landscape architect. This means I can take advantage of all the things he's learning while getting cheap (free!) labor to re-do my front patio. But my condo complex is very unique, each unit looks different and some people have really gone out of their way to put their personality in it (like the people two units down from me with about a million chochkis). I wanted to stay true to my unit's french quarter look, so I had to do a little research.

My condo looks like a double gallery house common to french creole architecture which can be seen in New Orleans. Besides I have french doors (two sets leading to the upstairs balcony and one downstairs off the kitchen), a wide balcony, wrought iron, and thin wooden columns which are the trademarks of this style (google told me so).

So they don't say much about patios for these double gallery houses (I think technically I'm supposed to have a porch where I have a patio) so I guess I'm on my own when it comes to making a plan for the exterior. But here are some double gallery houses. I will show mine once the patio is done. I cannot bear to show the before pictures without something to show as an after shot.

So I think I need to get some hanging ferns to really get the french quarter vibe going and then on June 6th and 7th my cousin will be here to do the manual labor part of things and my double gallery house will be looking better than it has in a long time. Stay tuned for the results.