On The Ledge show

On The Ledge

Summary: On The Ledge is a podcast all about indoor gardening - helping you to grow everything from Aloe vera to the ZZ plant.  Presenter Jane Perrone has been nuts about houseplants since she was knee high to a Swiss cheese plant. She quizzes the experts, helps you find cool new stuff to grow and figures out how to fix your plant problems. For more information, email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com or visit janeperrone.com.

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Podcasts:

 Episode fourteen: balcony gardening with Alice Vincent | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:33:45

This week I take a look at that inbetween space for plants - the balcony. It’s not quite indoors, but not really outdoors either - the spot where houseplants and herbs, bamboo and begonias meet. And who better to talk to than Alice Vincent, who describes herself as ‘gingerly treading the unlikely tightrope between plants and pop culture’ - she writes about urban gardening for the Telegraph and is also the author of book How To Grow Stuff. We discuss the difficulties of heaving compost several floors up, the delights of growing on balconies, and squirm our way through a chat about that most evil of pests, the vine weevil.

 Episode thirteen: James Wong | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:38:20

Ethnobotanist James Wong is wonderfully ubiquitous these days, from his TV appearances on Countryfile and Gardeners' Question Time, to numerous books - the latest one is called How To Eat Better - and of course his column for the Observer magazine. His homepage is here if you want to find out more, and he's on Twitter as @botanygeek. Despite his packed plant CV, it's our shared love of houseplants that always dominates conversation whenever I get the chance to catch up with James in between his globetrotting exploits. He's got some really thought-provoking things to say about why we grow the houseplants we do - think of the ubiquitous spider plant and umbrella plant - and where houseplant horticulture may be headed next. 

 Episode twelve: Robin Stockwell, the Succulent Guy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:32:15

Have you ever wondered how one particular type of plant seems to come out of obscurity to become the must-have houseplant of the moment? Although photographs of aloes, echeverias and agaves are now plastered all over Instagram, it wasn't always this way. My guest this week is The Succulent Guy, Robin Stockwell, the man credited with making succulents sexy. I talk to Robin about his legendary - and enormous - globe of succulents, why you shouldn’t get an Agave mixed up with an Aloe, and why there’s transatlantic difference of opinion about size among Sempervivum breeders.  We also talk about Robin’s new book Succulents: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Designing, and Growing 200 Easy Care Plants. It is out this month, published by Oxmoor House.

 Episode eleven: plants for bathrooms, feat. Tillandsias | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:37:53

This week's show takes on a confessional tone as I confess to a terrible crime: there is not one single houseplant in my bathroom. I seek help from plantsman Robbie Blackhall-Miles and Tillandsia expert Graham Sigsworth to remedy the situation.

 Episode ten: conservatories with Anne Wareham | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:24:53

Conservatories have got an image problem... gardener Anne Wareham got so fed up with hers she had it knocked down and rebuilt. Jane Perrone talks to Anne about how she planned her new conservatory, and her cunning an thrifty solution to the issue of shelving.

 Episode nine: Get Plants by Katherine Price | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:32:00

On The Ledge goes back to basics this week: I interview writer and gardener Katherine Price, who is on Twitter as @wildsuburban, about her new book Get Plants: How to Bring Green Into Your Life, published by Kew - it's out today, in fact! We major on succulents, covering how to pronounce "kalanchoe", the symbolism of the sempervivum and how to get in tune with your plants.

 Episode eight: Chelsea flower show 2017 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:28:00

Episode eight: Chelsea flower show 2017

 Episode seven: chillies | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:30:00

Chillies are probably one of the most popular edibles to grow on the windowsill: they're fun, fairly easy to grow and offer the excitement of a fiery harvest. This week's show talks to a newbie chilli grower who has taken the pursuit of chilli greatness almost as seriously as he takes his job as an Apache helicopter pilot, and chilli expert David Floyd, author of chilli guide book 101 Chillies To Try Before You Die. 

 EPISODE 6: Pots | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:27:10

This week's show is all about containers for your plants - learning about their history with cultural historian Dr Catherine Horwood and discussing to the best ways of making your houseplant collection #shelfie-worthy with Ian Drummond of Indoor Garden Design. And at the end of the show, I'll be asking orchid expert Susanne Masters help reader James Robbins solve a query about keikis.

 EPISODE 5: How not to kill your houseplant with Veronica Peerless | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:27:23

This week I find out what yellowing leaves mean in a houseplant, confess to sawing a peace lily in half and get the lowdown on plant pests from Veronica Peerless, whose new book How Not To Kill Your Houseplant (£9.99 from DK) is out now.  This week's question comes from @allotmentalice who wants to know "how do you keep a Ficus from throwing a wobbly every few weeks and dropping all its leaves"? Get in touch and support the show If you'd like to share a picture of your houseplants, taunt me with pictures of your gorgeous Begonia rex plants, ask a question or make a comment, you can comment below, email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com or tweet @janeperrone. Do like the On The Ledge Facebook page, too. You can also find me on the social media app Garden Tags as @OnTheLedgepodcast - come and say hello! The best way to help this podcast spread the houseplant love is by giving a review on iTunes - you can do that here - or on Stitcher. Thanks to everyone who has already done so, you're a ledge (geddit?!).  If you fancy supporting the show financially, that would be marvellous - On The Ledge is free to listen to but not free to make - you can click the button below to buy me a coffee! It costs just £3 to help keep On The Ledge on the air for another week. Credits Thanks my guest Veronica Peerless, props to my old mucker and talented voice artist Mark Hamilton for providing the extra voices you hear in this show; On The Ledge's theme music is Government Funded Weed by Black Ant which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. You also heard Hot Lips by Bill Brown and His Brownies.

 Episode four: microgreens | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:28:10

Microgreens are super-quick to grow, don't take up much room and pack a punch in the flavour stakes. My guest this week is the lovely Mark Diacono of Otter Farm in Devon in the southwest of the UK - a grower, food and garden writer and microgreen enthusiast. Thanks to the wonderful voice artist Mark Hamilton for providing the extra voices you hear in this show; On The Ledge's theme music is Government Funded Weed by Black Ant which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. You also heard Hot Lips by Bill Brown and His Brownies. Get in touch by emailing ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com or find me on Twitter as @janeperrone.

 Episode three: office plants | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:36:00

In this episode, Jane Perrone finds out about all the gross things office workers do to their plants with horticulturist Lou Nicholls; taps the expertise of Christopher Satch, plant scientist at The Sill in New York, and finds out whether there's science to back up the widely-held belief that plants in the office make us happy. Credits On The Ledge's theme music is Government Funded Weed by Black Ant - the music you can hear halfway through the show is Hot Lips by Bill Brown and His Brownies.

 Episode two: Monstera deliciosa, the swiss cheese plant | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:26:31

This week we move from the enclosed world of the terrarium to the weird, wild world of Monstera deliciosa, aka the Swiss cheese plant or split leaf philodendron. My first guest, the legendary organic gardener Bob Flowerdew, explains how it grows in the wild and what its fruit (yes fruit) tastes like (scroll down for a picture...) while author and historian Ethne Clarke consider's the swiss cheese plant's role as an iconic plant in interior design since the 1950s onward.

 Episode one: terrariums | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: (27:00)

Terrariums are on top right now: they're a great way to grow indoor plants without stress. Jane Perrone finds out more.

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