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We're here to talk about this lovely, lovely book. And I feel like we've been on parallel journeys with this, I'm not going to go on about my book, because that's not what this episode is about. But it's really exciting that your book is now a physical thing. How does it feel? The myth is that people think when you put it into water, the plant is absorbing the water it wants and the roots are basically taking up the water. That’s not the case. The soil is absorbing all the water. And then from there, the roots sometimes take up water from the substrate. In fact, one key element that plants need to grow is chlorine. It is found in the wild and plants use it to grow healthily. Some people boil water, or they’ll leave it out overnight. All that does is concentrate the minerals that are in there because water’s evaporating. If you’ve got rainwater, brilliant! But I grow all my plants, even the very rare ones, using tap water.” Myth: You have to mist This is one of Tony's biggest bugbears, who says home-made fertilisers are “a total waste of food or total waste of time. Sometimes it can actually create a negative impact on the plant". Ah there you go now those are the top tips. I mean, this is illustrative of the fact that, you know, an easy plant for one person will be a super hard plant for another person. And, you know, I guess this is part of your work with a book and also the shop is when somebody comes in trying to elicit from them well, you know, what is your house like? Because, you know, even within the UK, there's so many different kinds of types of houses and conditions. When you have somebody coming into the shop, or when you're guiding somebody through the process of buying plants. You know, do you find that, presumably, that's a fun thing to do for you, because you can...If you enjoy doing it and find it relaxing, then go for it. Just know that if you are trying to increase humidity, it’s not doing that. And it can cause things like fungal problems on the leaf if the water is not drying off,” says Tony. Well, that's a great metaphor for the overall amount of hard work that goes into producing a book like this. So congratulations and tell us when it's coming out and presumably available in all good bookstores.

My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes. Tony says that bottom watering is not essential and there's nothing wrong with tap water for your plants Myth: Homemade fertiliser is always best I'm sure I've seen this on your social media this super, super tiny orchid with this incredible really quite bizarre flower Corybas caudatas. This is something you seem to be particularly fascinated by. I know it's been in your socials. I mean, I'm looking at that and thinking, yeah, it's okay. Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.Oh I love it. I love being in the shop, it's, I think I, if I could just be in the shop all the time, which to be fair, I pretty much am. This project is being sponsored by West Northamptonshire Council and supported by LoyalFree. We are thrilled to sponsor this event as we’re dedicated to growing the visitor economy and supporting local businesses. I look forward to visiting the trail and encourage everyone to come along, stop by the local market and retailers and enjoy this fun family-friendly activity this Easter.

In this episode of Dig It, Peter Brown and Chris Day chat with Tony Le-Britton, passionate houseplant professional and owner of Not Another Jungle shop in Northampton. From humble beginnings growing houseplants in a greenhouse in the house (yes, really!) a childhood ambition fulfilled by appearing on the Gardeners’ World to developing his own special style and flair in helping everyone get connected with indoor plants through his social media channels and brand. Tony chats about his favourite plants, we get to grips with spider plants, top tips on growing indoors and more. It was really, that was one of my favourite parts of the book, were the photoshoots and preparing the plants for the shoot as well. I mean, it wasn't all smooth sailing because if you can imagine for instance the variegated Rhaphidophora tetrasperma, not many of them at the time weren't many of them around. For the book I showed how it stem propagate that so I have to have that plant ready in all different stages of the propagation from it being first cut to the shoot to it's first leaf. All for that one day. And same with begonia leaf cuttings, I basically had to make like 50 of them two weeks apart to make sure I had one in each stage of its development for the step by step. So it's a lot of work. I'm looking at 90 plus percent humidity here on the care information, I'm thinking, yeah, that's going to be a challenge. From little ones to big kids at heart, the trail will have something for fans of all ages, and we hope families take advantage of this free event and explore our town centre as they visit each creature on the trail.

Overview

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you are the hardest working man in the house plant world I don't know how you do it. How you've written a book and opened a shop and done an amazing, you know, amazing amount of social media. When do you sleep? It makes me tired just thinking about it. So I salute you for that. And I think it's, but it's this book is a really great addition to the sort of array of different houseplant books out there because it does do something different. I love the photographs. Now you are a photographer, but you didn't do the photography for this book yourself. Why was that because it was just another thing to do? Well sandwich bag yeah, absolutely. But you must be doing something, you know, like the fact that you're growing that and Kew's failed. Maybe it's just that, you know, Kew's got a lot of plants, you've got a lot of plants, but maybe on a scale that when you can keep particular, yeah, you're gonna take particular care of it.