Exploring Gardening Tales & Tips with Award-Winning Writer L.A. Jackson

In this episode, Melissa introduces L.A. Jackson, a garden columnist featured in nearly every issue in Cary Magazine's history. L.A. shares fascinating stories of his gardening journey and career, including his beginnings in Jacksonville, North Carolina, his time as an editor for Carolina Gardener Magazine, and his adventures leading European garden tours. He also discusses his favorite plants, photography tips, and offers advice for gardening enthusiasts. Join us for a pun-filled episode that reveals a seasoned garden writer's captivating life and insights.

00:00 Introduction to the Gardening Expert
01:20 The Mystery Behind L.A. Jackson's Name
02:11 L.A. Jackson's Journey into Gardening and Writing
04:11 Becoming an Award-Winning Columnist
05:09 The Rise and Fall of Carolina Gardener Magazine
12:18 L.A. Jackson's Home Garden
16:09 Capturing Nature Through Photography
19:13 The Importance of Quality Photography
20:53 Common Gardening Questions from Readers
22:19 Handling Stumpers and Utilizing Resources
24:03 Gardening Tips for Hot Summers
27:04 Favorite Gardens and Travel Experiences
29:31 Lightning Round: Quick Gardening Opinions
33:33 Local Garden Shops and Resources
34:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Creators and Guests

Host

Melissa

Host of What's Up, Wake + social media manager + writer + travel editor

Producer

Joe "Buttons" Woolworth

Owner of Podcast Cary and pusher of buttons.

What is What’s Up, Wake?

What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.

019 - What's Up Wake - L.A. Jackson
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Melissa: [00:00:00] As a gardening enthusiast, I'm definitely digging my next guest. His nature themed column is featured in nearly every issue of our magazine's history.

Yet I don't know much about the man behind the watering can. In the podcast world, we like to keep episodes what we call Evergreen. So it doesn't matter when you listen to it. The topic will always be relevant. Well, I can't think of [00:01:00] a more evergreen guest than our resident garden expert, LA Jackson.

Welcome la.

L.A. Jackson: Thank you. Thank you. And greeting Wake. Gardeners and you know who you are out there. So

Melissa: Yeah. And who, who is not, but maybe we can, maybe we can transplant some into the gardening world today. They're coming. So I, have to ask LA does it stand for something?

Yeah, I'm assuming it does. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Do we, are we allowed to talk about that?

L.A. Jackson: Well, lemme put it this way it's a southern thing, sort like ZZ Top and JRU, meaning that type of thing. And I've always. Figured that, you know, life is made more interesting with mysteries involved in your life and you're

Melissa: a writer, so Yeah.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. And with the la if I told you what it meant, well that would take away a mystery uhoh. So I just left a little bit of mystery in your life now.

Melissa: Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to guess and at the end I will give you my guess and you can just tell me if I'm how wrong I [00:02:00] am.

L.A. Jackson: You can do that. 'cause as a matter of fact, some folks insist, and I keep saying.

If you get the first name and the middle name right, I'll say that's it. Then we'll go on with our life. Okay. Alright.

Melissa: Okay. So tell us a little bit about yourself. How you got into writing your history with gardening. I. All that. Yeah. All of it. Yes. Yeah. Well, I,

L.A. Jackson: I am a native born, so, grew up born in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Came up here to state graduated, like the area stayed. you know, like I said, I've always liked plants. It's just the nature in me. It's kind of weird. No, no pun intended.

Melissa: Listen, we're gonna have a lot of plant puns today.

L.A. Jackson: No, no, no.

I guess my journey has been kind of circuitous, but kind of weird because, you know, and I, I grew up as a kid. My grandfather had a farm. As a matter of fact, it was out Andrew and I would help him in the summer and, you know, I just enjoyed that. Didn't wanna be a farmer, but the plants kind of intrigued me.[00:03:00]

And there was a weird little movie that was, I'm gonna date myself, but it was way back when it was an English movie called The Day of the. This involved these strange plants that came down on a meteor and anybody saw the meteor, they went blind. And these seeds grew these tall manea plants. So they went around planet eating people and everything.

Dumb movie. But when you're eight years old, you know, pretty fascinating. But when you came into the theater, they had free trid seeds. Now any 8-year-old, you know, in his right mind and everything, first thing he wants to do is go home. You know, plant seeds. So they eat the neighbors and everything. So, you know, I planted them and they did grow.

They were sunflowers.

Melissa: If that works, I might have to try it on. Some people I know. Yeah, they, they

L.A. Jackson: were sunflowers. But I mean, still the thing from a little, little seed to a tall, it kind of fascinated me. Stuck with me and you know, through state. I took some technical writing [00:04:00] courses and things like that.

Always wanted to sort of dabble with writing, you know? It's not exact profession you go for because, you know, you where's the big books there? Yeah. But I, I still like to, it's tricky. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And you know, when I graduated diddling around, but one thing I kept doing was was doing some writing And before Carry Magazine, there was Carry News.

Which is a small town paper. And Jane Page was the editor, Harry Pretty, was the publisher I believe. And you know, I, I noticed they didn't have a garden column and I said, Hey, like I'd mind you know, see if I could talk 'em into a column and I must caught her on a slow day 'cause she said yes. And so I started doing a weekly call alright, doing my duty and, after, for about two years, the North Carolina Press Association has these awards every year, and I happen to win columnist of the year for a mid-size paper.

Melissa: Oh, neat. Yeah. Okay. Pretty good. Yeah, no, I, I like

L.A. Jackson: that. Got Now

Melissa: I should have introduced you as [00:05:00] award-winning writer, LA Jackson.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah, let's start this over.

She didn't do that, so, yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, that I got my piece of paper and Great, well. Couple months after that, I got a strange call from a guy in Greensboro who was the publisher of this magazine called Carolina Gardner Magazine. He had just done his first issue and his editor, who he had had a a farm down in family farm down in South Carolina.

Hurricane wiped it out, so he lost his editor. He had to go back home. So he's going like, well, what am I gonna do now? But he saw my name in there. He said, well, if he knows how to write, maybe he knows how to edit. Mm-hmm. So he came to Raleigh and we talked about it and next thing I know, I'm going, oh, I think he wants some be editor the magazine.

So, okay. You know, we'll be, I said, I'll give it a shot. And so I became the second editor, Carolina Garden Magazine. In the [00:06:00] second issue, I. So, but we did pretty good. I, I mean, we came Is that

Melissa: still around?

L.A. Jackson: That's that's the thing I'll, I'll get to in just a second. Okay. As a matter of fact. Okay. People ask me about that.

Mm-hmm. But he presented me with a salary and I said, well, that's fine. He said, then we'll use all these, all these free. Articles like from Extension service and some other people and everything. I said, look, can I use part of my salary to get some good writers?

Melissa: Hmm.

L.A. Jackson: And he thought that was kind of strange.

'cause you know, people don't give their money away.

Melissa: Definitely not.

L.A. Jackson: But I could see the concept that this magazine wanted to go ahead and give it a shot. So. So he said that was fine. So, you know, with that part of my salary, we went and got writers like Peter Lower, who's he's a nationally known garden writer Kim Hawks, who used to be the owner of Niche gardens in Chapel Hill reca Morris down South Carolina.

Rob Gardner, who was a great guy at the NC Botanical Garden. People like that. So with that, now all of a sudden we had. [00:07:00] Personalities mm-hmm. To go with the stories and and the magazine grew and grew and I, you know, I had fun with it by about year 12, I was getting a little tired of it. Mm-hmm. But by the time I left the magazine we were the largest regional garden magazine and country.

Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I. I didn't know that 'cause I was working too hard with copy. Then the publisher came to me one day and said, you know, you're in the largest, I said, no, I did not know. Wow.

Melissa: And it sounds like you built. The team, your dream team.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What I call my stable of writers.

Melissa: Mm-hmm.

L.A. Jackson: And yeah, it was great. Pam Beck wake County, she's pretty well known around here. I got her too. But yeah. After about 12 years, I being this, okay, I'm gonna put it in quotes, being this illustrious. Editor, garden magazine editor, unquote. I use that sarcastically. People started coming to me to see about doing garden columns, you know, carry [00:08:00] Magazine and news and Observer.

And so I started doing stuff with them. And in the meantime I was also leading garden tours to Europe. Great Gardens of France. Great Gardens of Ireland. Oh, nice. That type of thing.

Melissa: Oh, I'd like to get on, get in on one of those tours. I'll tell you. They were, are you still doing that? The tours? No. Okay.

L.A. Jackson: They, as much fun as they were, they were A lot of work. A a lot of work. Yeah, definitely. So, yeah. Very

Melissa: taxing. Oh,

L.A. Jackson: yeah, yeah, yeah. They were. But it is still a lot of fun. I, I would do it again maybe after, you know. Maybe after we better we, Dr. A Scotch or something might think about it. But but yeah, I was getting really busy so I just said, okay, I'll just, you know, go off and do my own thing.

And in the meantime Carolina Gardner was still doing fine and a guy in Louisiana saw Carolina Gardener liked the concepts. So he started Louisiana Gardener, and then he liked that concept so much. He started, he started Mississippi, Georgia, Florida. [00:09:00] Virginia, Ohio Gardener, he pretty much called it state by state gardening.

So he had this, you know, all these states. He never came into Carolinas because we were already there and he knew we were very strong there. But a couple years after I left, he convinced the publisher in Greensboro, you know, to sell him the flagship, the mothership, as it were, Carolina Gardner. So he did, and.

It cost him a couple bucks it sounds like, because after he did that, it was still going strong. But you're running into money problems and it must have been some big money problem. 'cause the whole thing fell in like a house card. And this was probably about like six, seven years ago and the whole thing folded, so went away.

I still have the, you know, was former editor of Carolina Garden Magazine on there. When it folded, I took it off, but it kept coming, going back on there and I, I would take it off and it would leave us. All [00:10:00] right. That's fine. Because I was the former Carolina Garden magazine. Mm-hmm. So, so yeah, you know, with that I had already gone off to other things, so in doing the columns and tours and all that stuff, so.

Here I am now still doing that, not tours, but the columns and, yeah, because I'm doing doing travel writing too. So,

Melissa: and what, one thing that I find fascinating is you, you write for us each month, and it's always, of course, the same general topic being, being plants and, and you know, backyard wildlife. But it's, it's always so different.

There's always a different take and a different, a different story to tell.

L.A. Jackson: There's a lot of stories to tell. Yeah, I guess

Melissa: it is really never ending because there are so many different plants that we can talk about and, and learn more about. But I also love that all of your, your stories have your tone.

So I feel like I knew you before I met you today.

L.A. Jackson: Wait, [00:11:00] see? And that's it. Who was it? It was Oscar Wilde. I was great. I've been writing, writing, and I saw this quote by him and I'm going, that's it. And Oscar Wild said, A writer is somebody who trains his mind to misbehave. That is me. No, I already knew how to misbehave and putting it in writing.

So, but, and people ask me about writing and, and you know, how do you get into it? And I, I said, you know, be yourself. I said, because if you're not yourself, you know, you're not gonna enjoy it and you can't express yourself the way you should. And, and you know, so I'm not a I'm not William make Peace Zachery.

I'm not James Fennimore Cooper, I'm La Jackson and those guys have got me beat anyway. 'cause they have. Whole first name, whole middle name. I only got initials.

Melissa: No, I, Hey. I'm still thinking in my mind. What, what? I'm going to name you l

L.A. Jackson: la Well, I'll, I'll give you, [00:12:00] I'll give you some that they've already given me.

You can start thinking about people said Lincoln Abraham,

Melissa: that that is not the one that has come to mind yet. Lance. Lance Armstrong. Nice. Okay.

L.A. Jackson: Louis Armstrong. So there's some, I'm not gonna use it right now, but these are wrong.

Melissa: Okay? Yeah. All right. I'm gonna cross those off. Okay. Let's, let's walk through your home garden here.

You said in Apex. You live in Apex?

L.A. Jackson: Yeah.

Melissa: Okay. Basically,

L.A. Jackson: mm-hmm.

Melissa: What do you have planted in your garden and is there anything that you wish you had?

L.A. Jackson: That

Melissa: maybe you have too much sun in your yard or too much shade and you just can't, you know, seem to work out this type of plant.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. I'm good there. 'cause I, I, I, well, I don't wanna brag.

I'm just saying what it is. I've got two acres.

Melissa: Nice.

L.A. Jackson: Mm-hmm. So, and it's woodland and it's also open plan. So I'm able to you know, go ahead and plant whatever I want. Mm-hmm. And you know, I. It's not a big showcase garden and everything. [00:13:00] A lot of times I'll, I'll get a plant and try it, stick it somewhere, see how it does, it looks outta place of other things, but I'm just sort of evaluating it, see if I wanna write about it and also get pictures.

So, but what I have been impressed with is mainly native plants, 'cause they're pretty easy to do. But echinacea's used to be purple cone flowers. They're not purple cone flowers anymore because echinacea have gone through this transformation of whites and golds and oranges and yellows. So, even doubled double flowered echinacea.

One of my favorites is one called Doppelganger Like that. So, but they're just tough plants. The ones that I've planted and I have like a, a border of those, haven't done anything to 'em. Once he got established. Dependable come back year round. And so I, I pretty much plant what I, I I want to evaluate and sometime people send me plants from nurseries and stuff like that to evaluate and see what I think.

So, this [00:14:00] little number you have here is one of my favorites.

Melissa: Okay. So, for my listeners here, LA was very kind and, and brought a gift. And when a, a little, a little plant. And when I asked him what it was, he said he was not going to tell me until we all learned together. So what is this plant?

L.A. Jackson: Well, I'm still

Melissa: not

L.A. Jackson: gonna tell you, so, oh no, we're gonna stretch this

Melissa: out.

L.A. Jackson: No I'm gonna have to guess that too. Okay. That's actually one of my favorite plants and I wrote about it in Kerry Magazine in Western Wake this March. It's a moon vine. I.

Melissa: Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So does it, does it produce a, a flower? It does, yeah. And I feel like I have seen the moon vine and it, it has quite a beautiful flower.

I guess all flowers are beautiful, but

L.A. Jackson: pretty white. Mm-hmm. This few folks there can't quite see this because podcasts are limited in visuals. It's about a six inch plant, but you go plant it this week. Maybe around the deck or something [00:15:00] like that, and it'll get to about oh six eight feet easily.

And come August, maybe about middle of August, September, it'll start un twirling these big white flowers easily six inches across. Now when I say un twirling is actually like unfurling these things on a hot night, you'll actually see them open up.

Melissa: Mm. I

L.A. Jackson: mean, it, it, it's,

Melissa: you can watch the transformation.

L.A. Jackson: You can, yeah. That's why I call it a deck plant or a gazebo plant. 'cause you wanna be there. Where I plant mine is just off my deck and my dens from there. So I can watch TV with one eye and I can watch the plant with the other eye and, I start guessing which one's going to open first, and they'll just unfurl right in front of me.

Melissa: Oh, I can't

L.A. Jackson: wait. Yeah. And the neat thing is, if you play with 'em a couple times, you'll see some that are almost unfurl. You can go over there and tickle 'em on the end and they'll open up for you.

Melissa: So they're a playful plant. They're a playful plant.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. But yeah, that's one of my favorites. And, they had me do a moon [00:16:00] flower diary in March.

So you folks go back and look at Kerry Magazine in Western Wake March issue, moon flower diary. Find out all about.

Melissa: I will definitely go back, especially now that I have one. You mentioned your photography that you accompany with your stories. You will catch a, a dragonfly as it lands on a flower or a hummingbird as it stops by.

Do you have a favorite critter that you try to purposefully catch on camera? And do you just have to sit there and wait?

L.A. Jackson: You have to sit there and wait.

Melissa: Especially with something like a hummingbird or a dragonfly. I mean, it just seems like I, I see your stories and I see the pictures that go along with them, and I think, mm-hmm.

Gosh, did he just get lucky? Yeah. And you've gotta have your camera ready at all times, I'm assuming.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah, you do. And, kinda like Jonathan Friedman, like we talking about. I mean, he, he, he must shoot like a Roman tourist. Yeah, that's, that is our in-house

Melissa: photographer who is amazing. He is amazing.

L.A. Jackson: And like I told her earlier [00:17:00] that, you know, I try to keep up with him, with his mm-hmm.

But no, there's nothing I go hunting. It's, it's accidental thing. Now, the only critter that I tried to purposely photograph was, let's go back to Carolina Gardner Magazine. The very first issue that I did. I was doing gardening for wildlife and big section on birds and everything. So I put a, a bird feeder out by my deck and then I just sort of sat there real still.

Hopefully something would come along and I'd get a good picture of 'em. Well, that took about two hours, which, you know, that's fine, except. Because of the nature of when I got the job and how things were. This was the middle of January and it was about 23 degrees out there and I was just waiting for anything to come along.

I mean, if, if. You know, I don't know if a fly had landed on there. I'd just said, yeah. And flies like [00:18:00] bird houses do. So, but I mean, that's the only one I, I hunted. And the picture wasn't that great, I don't think. But that's the one I'm proudest of because I waited the longest to get it. Yeah. Every, everything else, you know, I, I do all my story ideas about a year ahead of time so that, you know, right now I have what I call a hit list.

I. These are plants or, you know, birds or, or critters that I'm looking for this year, articles next year. So that does help. So it's not, and I

Melissa: guess you have to, because with plants you really have to plan in advance what is gonna grow and give it time to

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. No, no. Yeah, I mean that's one of the problems I had with the publisher at Caroline Gardner magazine.

Nice guy. Good business sense and everything. But sometime he would come to me and say, Hey, how about let's have a, a rose story in the next issue. Well, he had come to me in middle of December and I'm going, okay, well where are we gonna get these rose shots from? Yeah. Yeah. [00:19:00] So, you know, but yeah, like, I'd like to I like to shoot my own shots.

That way people will know. I've seen the plant, you know, I've worked with the plant. I took the shot, and I tell all the writers that want to do particularly nonfiction things, do that. You know, do your stories, but also take the picture and know how to take 'em. Just don't take something on the fly and everything.

Try to do quality pictures because you come to an editor and you give 'em. You know, nice pictures and a good story more. You have a better chance of those being accepted as opposed to. Well, and you go find some pictures or you know, these are some old Polaroids I had from 25 years ago. That's not gonna work.

Melissa: Well, and it's really flexing a muscle, right. Both writing and, and photography. Because the more you practice Yeah, the better you get.

L.A. Jackson: Mm-hmm.

Melissa: And you can see your improvement with both writing and photography as, as the years go on.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah, that's [00:20:00] exactly it. And my articles, I call them pretty much image centric.

Mm-hmm. In other words. I get a picture, I'm going, yeah. Now I can write an article. Ah, yeah. As opposed to getting, doing an article ID and saying, now, you know, like I said, I have a hit list. But I mean, if I see something and it's nice and the picture comes out great, I start building a story around it.

Mm-hmm. So, and that's where it makes for a good one, two article in image and in story.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. You list your email address in each of your stories so [00:21:00] that readers can send you gardening questions. What is the most common question you get? Or is there a, a very common question that you get?

L.A. Jackson: People ask me, , I have this yard that's, , so big, so long and everything.

What plants would you suggest for your yard and. Of course that's a very broad thing and you know, a lot of times I wind up giving 'em a couple of ideas, but then I send them off to websites for them to look at particular plants for them to think about because it's kind like landscape designers.

They're not gonna tell you what you need to be done until they get there. So, and me telling folks by email, I. What their yard should look like. That would be the same way and same problem I would think. I do send folks to a website, particularly with native plants. North Carolina Native Plant Society has a really [00:22:00] good website.

Virginia Native Plant Society has a really excellent website and they do like a plan of the year, and they also backlog those things. So you can see all those things. Now it's Virginia, but also, you know, plants don't know anything about state lines. So it's, it's a great, fairly

Melissa: common ecosystem. I would, I would guess.

Yep,

L.A. Jackson: pretty much the same.

Melissa: Has there ever been a question that has stumped and Yes, pun intended, you.

L.A. Jackson: Stumped. We're go, we're gonna go there. Are we? Yes, we

Melissa: are. I told you this is going to be a pun filled episode, I'll tell you. Yeah. So, you know, where's the door on this place?

L.A. Jackson: Any, I I've been stumped before.

You know, I'm, I'm not the guy, but. Anytime I'm stumped, I'll, I'll send some people to where I think they can get the answer, because I, there's a lot of resources out there and because of the web, I mean, it, it's, it's amazing what's out there. Mm-hmm. And, you [00:23:00] know, I said, I'll, I'll get stumped about a certain plant.

Somebody will send me a picture about a certain plant and here again, it looks like somebody's Polaroid from 25 years ago. And I'm going,

Melissa: well, and, and you know, the web does help, but we're also in. A perfect area for questions because we've got the, the horticulture school at NC State. Yeah. We've got the arboretum, we've got amazing garden centers in the triangle.

Yeah.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. So there's,

Melissa: if, if you don't know, maybe somebody, somebody else would.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. And I have no problem very quickly telling somebody if they say, you know, we're an apex or something, like, tell 'em, look. Here's this garden center. This garden center. Go down there and talk to those folks either about a certain situation or a certain plant and everything.

'cause yeah, they're all very knowledgeable and and

Melissa: they want to talk about it, that, that's their thing. Mm-hmm. They do.

L.A. Jackson: They do. And that's you're right, this is a great area for that type of thing. So, you know, if you have a question, can't get answered around here. Some question.

Melissa: Yeah, that is true.

You see, you might stump someone after all. [00:24:00] Yeah,

L.A. Jackson: I, I can leave anytime.

Melissa: Don't leave, don't leave you. You include to-do list in your garden column with suggestions of things to do during each month. This episode that, that we are talking right now is going to come out probably late July. I am thinking.

Which is hotter than a jalapeno's armpit in North Carolina. What should we make that up all day yourself? Listen, I, I've got a saying for just about everything. What should we be planting now that not only handles the heat well, but might help produce later, like in the fall and winter? Even with, with vegetables, I, I like to.

Say that I'm a vegetable gardener, so what should I be planting now that would help produce late fall and, and winter?

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Well, I mean, July, you're still have, you know, your warm season veggies and everything. So I wouldn't have any problem with, you know, tomatoes bush beans, [00:25:00] cucumbers. Now in doing that, I'd go in there and prepare that garden.

And then go back there and do it because the sun's been baking that place. Mm-hmm. You know, ever since spring and everything. So I would definitely go in and, you know, with compost or, you know, commercial soil conditioner and things like that. Beef it up, beef it up, and put these plants in or seeds, and definitely get mulch and put it in there.

Water at least once a week, if not twice. If the heat comes in. With the heat on. What I'd also do is get some sunscreen, a big floppy hat, and I'd go to those garden centers we were talking about, and also the JC Ralston Arboretum NC Botanic Garden, and the Duke Garden because in July they'll have something happening.

They'll have something flowering, they'll have some plants that are really showing off irrigated [00:26:00] or whatever. Go to those places and, and a lot of the nurses around here, they actually have display gardens too. So they'll be able to show you what kind of plants are in the heat mm-hmm. Of the summer, the, the dog days and everything, what you can possibly, you know, put in your, your yard, you garden.

Melissa: I have personally, slowly, slowly transitioned my yard to have mostly perennial plants. Mm-hmm. Are there certain annuals that I should make an exception for?

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Any, I mean anything but flowers. Mm-hmm. Zenia to annual flocks? Yeah, because they just add instant color and Yeah. And stain power. So even, yeah.

Melissa: And certain perennials come back at certain at different times and yeah. You know, bloom at different times. This, this

L.A. Jackson: fills zen on 'em and everything. Okay.

Melissa: Okay. It is time for our What's up Roundup, where I ask a lightning round series of questions. And of course yours is gonna be [00:27:00] mostly plant related.

Plant. Sorry about that. Not about me. Not really, but it is about your, your opinions. Okay. You mentioned that you used to do European tours for gardens. Mm-hmm. Where is the favorite garden you've ever seen? Ooh Europe or us, wherever.

L.A. Jackson: Okay. That would either be yeah, I'll tell you. It'll be Scotland.

It'll be in for u ah, it's right on the northwest coast of Scotland. It's where you would think there wouldn't be a garden. I mean, you come in there and it has palms in the entrance. I mean, this is, you know, it, it's northern, not northern Scotland, all the way up to the island and everything. Mm-hmm. But I mean, it's cold up there, but this they just created this amazing garden up there that you know, you go, this shouldn't be here.

Mm-hmm. But it is, and a lot of North American plants in there, they just have a great that garden looks. Better than a lot of botanic Gardens I've [00:28:00] seen in the us. Also Varney, Monet's Garden.

Melissa: Oh, oh, I would love to see that one. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's on my bucket list.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. It, it's a you know, unlike a lot of the European gardens where they're kind of stylized and, and you know, have all the roses.

They pretty much planted the way he did it. And they have these rows, these plants are, it's like, botanical anarchy. They fall in in the paths and they flop over and everything. Mm-hmm. Do whatever they want to, but it just the way they did it and you know, to go, they buy the small pond where heated is water lilies.

Mm-hmm. And they're still in there. You go, yeah. This is good place to be. So it

Melissa: really is as, as amazing as it sounds.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: Okay.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. One other I would say in springtime would be koff in Amsterdam, tulips, tulip. I was about to say tulips. Yeah. Oh, cow.

Melissa: Yeah. Have, have you visited a lot of the tulip farms?

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. When I saw, koff. This was actually on a on a Viking cruise [00:29:00] because I was travel writing. That is

Melissa: also my bucket list. I've told my husband I want to retire and just live on Viking cruises.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. This is not a paid commercial. After that advertise after all. But I mean, any of the river cruises.

Yeah. Viking. Yeah, they do. Really. I've, I've done a couple with them, so, and every time I go away, coming just thinking, okay, when I'm gonna come back. Mm-hmm. So.

Melissa: Well, you could be one of those people that just live on the ship, sell everything, and just live on the ship.

L.A. Jackson: Ah, after a couple weeks you'd throw me off.

Oh,

Melissa: and you wouldn't be able to have your garden space. That's right. Yeah. We have determined that you certainly have plant curiosities, but if you had to study one other subject and write about it every month like you do gardening, what would it be? Not nature related.

L.A. Jackson: Not nature related. Mm-hmm. What else you got?

Melissa: Oh, wow. I, I told you I'd stump you eventually.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Yeah. I'm feeling a little stumpy here already, so, you know. [00:30:00] No probably probably music. I mean, I, I, okay. I never, never have had a chance to, I've had instruments that haven't had the chance to mess with 'em. I pick up on songs very quick, you know, and I, I can retain memory on certain songs and know everything about it.

I can't play 'em. Haven't had a chance, you know, so probably that,

Melissa: that's a good one. What is one perennial plant that is easy to grow and every North Carolina novice should have in their garden?

L.A. Jackson: A perennial?

Melissa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

L.A. Jackson: I'll give you one. It's you gotta go looking for it, but it's really interesting and it is a good conversation piece.

It's called bat Face Plant.

Melissa: Bat face

L.A. Jackson: plant. Yep.

Melissa: Okay. I've not heard of that. This is this thing on bat, Facebook. Bat face. I'm trying to picture what that might look like now. It's gonna have you scrambling at it. Uhhuh.

L.A. Jackson: Did I

Melissa: stop

L.A. Jackson: now? We will have.

Melissa: Oh, you did? Okay. I have been, I have been stumped in return.

Okay.

L.A. Jackson: Bat [00:31:00] face plant is out of the species. Cfi. It's also related to cigar plant and the, I have heard of that. Okay. And Mexican Heather. So they're all but bat face plant. has small, looks a whole lot like

Melissa: that. Okay. I'm, I'm having a picture held up for me, so everybody's gonna have to google this one.

Yeah. And it does look like a bat

L.A. Jackson: face. Yeah. With

Melissa: a beautiful bat face though. With, with

L.A. Jackson: Red Ears. Mm-hmm. And little purple face and. Yeah,

Melissa: it is beautiful. I've, I've, that's the prettiest bat I've ever seen.

L.A. Jackson: There you go. So, you know, Batman's probably crying already, so, but yeah, that one because it's, it's unusual.

You can't go down to. You know, local store and just buy it. You have to go looking for it. It's easy to find on the web. Mm-hmm. But it's just a conversation piece. And people go, what is that? And then you have to tell 'em, and then you have to get up real close, get out on all fours and look at it. Mm-hmm.

But it's just been a fun plant [00:32:00] and it takes a lot of heat, a lot of sun. I've got it in a planter. Always been in a planter right next to Lantana. I mean, Lantana, it takes a summer and then some. Mm-hmm. But it's in the same planter and it's just tough plant and I'm

Melissa: gonna try that. I'm gonna look for that.

L.A. Jackson: Okay. That face.

Melissa: Face plant dope. I went to Arizona a couple years ago and was blown away by the Arina in Phoenix. Where is one place in the world you have not visited, but would love to go see the plant life?

L.A. Jackson: probably Longwood up in Pennsylvania. I think I keep hearing about that place. And Missouri Botanical Garden too.

I mean that

Melissa: you would not think Pennsylvania and Missouri for, I. Botanical gardens. Yeah.

L.A. Jackson: So, yeah. Yeah. But Missouri Botanical Garden, that I would like to go there because Jim Wilson, who used to be on PBS and I knew him for a long time that's where he is from. And he always talked about Missouri Botanical Garden and I said, well, Jim [00:33:00] Wilson's talking about it must be some great place.

Mm-hmm. So, the one that just came off my bucket list. I don't know, about five or six years ago it was Q Gardens, everybody talking about q and it is a great majestic garden and I would say that's worth the trip to. So

Melissa: where is that one?

L.A. Jackson: That's in London.

Melissa: Ah, okay. I know you probably do not wanna answer this question.

But when I was

L.A. Jackson: 14, no.

Melissa: Oh gosh. That, that derailed real quickly. Oh, that's wrong. Okay. What is your go-to garden shop? Local Garden shop. Oh. Where can we find you?

L.A. Jackson: Garden Shop You? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I like to go down to big Bloomers. Oh.

Melissa: I have not been to Big Bloomers. You can go to Big Bloomers.

L.A. Jackson: You just like the name.

Yeah, that's what sent me there the first time. Yeah, it, it's a really [00:34:00] good place. But I mean, Keith Ramsey, you know, at, at, at his garden place

Melissa: yeah, I've interviewed Keith. He is awesome.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. I think

Melissa: gardening is gonna be a running theme for me because I personally love it, so.

Mm-hmm.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah, he was on there Fairview Garden. That That's great.

Melissa: That is the one I I usually go to. That's near me.

L.A. Jackson: Yeah. Campbell.

Melissa: Campbell's great as well.

L.A. Jackson: I don't mind going to the farmer's market 'cause there's always, there's a lot of small nurseries over there, so you get a lot of bang for your buck for walking around.

And now

Melissa: Logan's is there.

L.A. Jackson: Yep. I haven't had a chance to hit Logan's yet. Mm-hmm. But I mean, they were awesome when they were down by the railroad tracks downtown. Yeah. But yeah, I'll probably hitting them in the next week or two. Mm-hmm. But but those, yeah. Yeah, like I said, big boomers is they, they got a lot of plants. Mm-hmm. And a lot of different things. They got big

Melissa: bloomers to fill. That's, yeah. That's it. And you really can't go wrong with any of the garden shops around town. No, you can. We're very blessed with garden shops. Yeah. Find LA and Carry Magazine. Wake Living And Main and Broad.

Email your questions to [00:35:00] let me make sure I'm getting this right. La [e-mail]. Sounds a lot like me. Okay. Now it is time for me to guess La.

L.A. Jackson: Go for it.

Melissa: I'm going to go with Lawrence Augustus,

L.A. Jackson: ladies and gentlemen. History has been made today. Did you realize that she has been the next person to be.

Don,

thank you la. Sure. Thank you. [00:36:00]