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Gardeners are digging into their first major season since Katrina and Rita. For Baton Rouge plant expert and gardening legend Louis Miller, it’s time to get bombarded with questions– – after all, he’s been in the weeds since he planted his first peanut patch at age five.

Are you constantly bombarded with people asking you about their garden?

Try to go to the grocery store with me for a loaf of bread and a half a gallon of milk—it takes forever. I don’t mind though, it comes with the territory. I don’t do a political show, so it’s not like people are coming to punch me in the nose.

What questions do you get at the grocery?

People who have plants that are not doing well think, through clairvoyance I’m going to know what is wrong. But my crystal ball is pretty cloudy. So a lot of times when I get a question, the first thing is not an answer but a question; so I can get enough information to make a deduction.

What are some good plants that don’t get enough play in Baton Rouge?

One of the ways to find different plants is to ride through older established neighborhoods and look and see what you find that is growing, and take that example that might not be found in a new neighborhood. Because it’s an old plant, you know it will work well.

What do you consider your personal favorite plant?

It’s not so much a favorite plant, but favorite stage in growing a plant—to put seeds under the ground and watch them grow into a full fledge plant, to see that little bitty seed or acorn grow into a big oak tree. Not that that is something I grow very often, you know, oak trees from acorns.