[6] The renovation of the house and garden is part of a larger effort to celebrate and promote Mississippi's literary heritage as a means of developing tourism to the state.

Chestina Welty put enormous effort into the design of the garden, creating a "succession of bloom" throughout the entire year.

In the summer, the night-blooming cereus plants bloom on the side porch, an event Welty often invited friends to come spectate.

Visitors are able to tour and explore the vast amount of different species of flowers growing in the garden, many of which feature in Welty's writing.

In The Golden Apples the cereus is depicted as “a naked, luminous, complicated flower.”[10] Welty also wrote extensively about the garden in her letters.