Midweek bonus 1: how we're going to get through this...

Photograph: Mike Diamond.

Transcript

Jane: Well, hello! We don’t normally speak at this time of the week, but as we say here in England, we’re facing what I would call a bit of a ‘rum do’ at the moment with this Coronavirus outbreak, and I’ve been hearing lots from you about how much you’re appreciating the sound of my dulcet tones right now, so I’m going to be doing everything I can to bring you some extra stuff during this really difficult time.

In this bonus episode, a midweek bonus episode, I’m going to be telling you what I’m planning to do and we’ll also be hearing from a listener in ‘Meet the Listener’. So a little bit of extra content to keep you going in these tough times.

I know already that On The Ledge provides a really important part of everyone’s week on Friday – or whenever you happen to listen – and with many people either self-isolating at home or feeling a bit stressed at work, this is a time when all of us need to hanker down and have some down time when we can think about something other than our health and the health of our families and friends. That’s where On The Ledge comes in.

So here’s what I’m going to be doing and what I’ve already started doing in fact.

No 1 - Houseplant Hour This is an hour of Twitter chat over on the social media platform known as Twitter. This usually happens once every two weeks or once every fortnight, as we say here in the UK. Do you have that term in America? You have a game called Fortnite, surely you know what a fortnight is...

Anyway, usually Houseplant Hour happens every two weeks, but at the moment I think that all of us could benefit from a weekly dose of plant positivity. So I did one, an extra one last night, 9.00pm GMT. There’ll be another next Tuesday at 9.00pm GMT. So please, if you are on Twitter, join in.

If you’re not on Twitter, join Twitter just so you can join in. It’s easy to do. All you need to do is follow me on Twitter where I’m Jane Perrone. I also have an account for Houseplant Hour at Houseplant Hour. Follow either of those accounts and you will be kept in touch with what’s going on. You can just follow the hashtag #HouseplantHour, which you should put on every post that you contribute to the thread.

What can you post? Well, you can just ask a question, you can share some pictures of your plants, bemoan your plant disasters, show off plant hauls – whatever you want to do. Sometimes I’ll throw out a question or offer some tips myself.

Last night I offered a long thread of suggestions for things that people could do who perhaps don’t have many houseplants already or want to extend what they’re growing. So take a link to that. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes. It was things like grabbing some coriander seeds out of your spice rack and sowing them as micro greens. Just really simple things you can do right now if you’ve got a fair few minutes spare to do something that might provide you with a little punch of flavour in your food in the coming weeks, and also just give you something to concentrate on.

No 2 – Houseplant Buddies I’ve sent up a scheme where if you need support, chat and advice, you can pair up with another listener to get this. I’m mainly running this through Facebook. There’s a post on the ‘Houseplant Fans of On the Ledge’ Group where you can tell a little bit about yourself and hopefully find somebody to match up with. Then you can swap Twitter DMs. Facebook DMs or Instagram DMs. I think that’s probably the safest way to do it. It’s an opportunity to just maybe have a chat with somebody who might have the same plant interests as you and you might need that extra bit of support one to one. So go and look at that Facebook post if you are a member of Houseplant Fans of On the Ledge.’ If you’re not on Facebook and you want to take part, drop me a line and I will try to find somebody for you to pair up with.

No 3 - Extra Episodes Well, as you can hear, this is the first of some extra episodes coming. It’s a mid-week bonus episode that I’m calling it. It will come out somewhere in the middle of the week, as and when I can. Obviously this is presumed that I stay well and I can keep putting podcasts out. I will keep you apprise of that as much as I can. These episodes will be a mix of things. They might be extra interviews, they might just be me rambling on randomly. I’m also planning to do some more soundscapes like the one I did at Christmas because I know people enjoyed those.

No 4 - No Breaks I’m going to try to keep the show going without taking any breaks over Easter because I know that could be a particularly pressured time for a lot of us. That will mean that the episodes might be a bit shorter or a bit different, but I will try to keep pumping out the episodes week on week. There may be the odd week where I don’t do an extra mid-week episode, but I will do my best to get as much content out to you. Patreon Subscribers, yes I will also be putting new stuff out on your feed as well.

Now, to make all of this work, I do need your support. I hate to be asking for money all the time, but there are financial implications to me doing this in terms of having to turn down other work in order to do this. Also, I’ve been getting some extra hours for my assistant, Kelly, so she can help me, so money is important. Thank you to those of you who have already come in and given one-off donations or committed to becoming a Patreon Subscriber.

Thank you to Jonathan and Bobby for your one-off donations and to Jodie and Abigail for becoming Ledge-ends. Bear in mind, if you do become a Ledge-end or a Superfan, that will mean that you do unlock extra content. (Oh, there’s a beautiful long-tailed tit on my quince tree. You are so gorgeous!). Sorry, you know how this happens. I usually edit this bit out, but I’m going to keep it in because it might be fun.

So yes, if you become a Ledge-end or a Superfan, remember, you unlock extra bonus content. So you’ll be coming along and you’ll be unlocking 40 extra episodes of podcasts. Could come in handy for a few weeks of self-isolation, eh? So that‘s an option. If you want to do something to support the show, but you want to get something back – which is absolutely fair enough – one thing you could do is take a look at my merchandise shop. There’s 20 per cent off right now until 20th March. You just have to go to the site and you’ll see the link to redeem that – the black bar at the top which is where you can redeem that discount.

If you go to JanePerrone.com you will find a link that says ‘shop’ in the top right hand corner and that will take you to the shop. Just now I have added a new design! It’s the Patron Card that I sent out at Christmas, the illustration of me and Wolfie. This is available as T-shirts and tank tops, and a mug as well! The mug is really nice. I’m going to be ordering myself a mug actually because it’s really nice.

You can also get the original logo either in the monochrome or the greens in various different designs. Every time you buy one of those T-shirts, the Jane & Wolfie design, a cut goes to the illustrator and some money goes to me. So you’re benefiting the show that way and you end up with a lovely, nice quality T-shirt or vest or whatever to wear, and promote the show that way.

If you’re looking for a totally free way of supporting the show, that is just as easy. If you have family members, friends, who are in any way planty people or you think they have the potential to become a planty person, then let them know about the podcast. It’s easy. Even if they’re not on smart phones or very podcast savvy, they can just go and listen by pressing the ‘Play’ button on each episode on the website. It really is that simple. I really hope that way we can expand the listenership and get this podcast out to more people who might just need that extra boost of chat about green stuff in their lives.

Just to remind you, I’m doing a Q&A special over the Easter weekend, so get your questions in now. I will try to make that a nice long episode and get in as many questions as possible, so do get your questions to me ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com And if you want to take part in ‘Meet the Listener,’ yes! We want to hear from you because we want to meet as many listeners as possible! So drop me a line, to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and my assistant, Kelly, will be in touch with the very simple instructions on how to take part.

Finally, I’ll be trying to do as much on Instagram as possible in terms of Instagram stories. So if you’re not following me on Instagram, please do- @j.l.perrone. I’m nearly at 10,000 followers, which means that I can do some whizzy things on Instagram stories once I’ve reached that target. So again, if you’re not following me on Instagram, please do because that way I can get to that target and do swiping up extravaganzas and so on.

So that wraps up what I’m up to. If there’s anything else that you think you’d like me to do, or I could help with, please do get in touch. It’s a busy time, but you are what powers this show and I take direction from you. So please do let me know if there’s something that I haven’t thought of that you would like to add. One other thing – I’m going to do a post which is a list of gardening podcasts other than ’On the Ledge’ which are worth a listen. So if you run out of episodes of ‘On the Ledge,’ you will be able to check that out and look at what other podcasts in the planty world are worth listening to. There are many and they really deserve your support. So I will post that in all the usual places once it’s live.

And Friday’s episode is an interview with Igor and Judith of Urban Jungle Bloggers about their new book – ‘Plant Tribe’ so that will be fun too.

And now, just as you’re getting sick of the sound of my voice, let’s meet listener, Jen.

Jen: Hi, my name is Jen. I am in the United States around the east coast. I’ve been a person who loves plants since I was in my teens, late teens, early 20s. I had a bunch of plants at home and then when I went to college I had to get rid of them all.

It took a long time to come back to them, but really about two or three years ago at this point I started collecting again, and I have a huge collection now. Probably around 150 plants or so. It keeps growing and a lot of that is thanks is listening to On The Ledge, and learning about a lot of new plants to collect.

Jane: Question 1. There’s a fire and all of your plants are about to burn. Which one do you grab as you escape?

Jen: I would say I’d probably grab my Begonia venosa just because I’ve never seen it again since I bought it. It was the only one actually in the nursery when I bought it and I’ve never known anyone else that has one. I’ve looked at a few websites online and it’s always out of stock and not available, so I just don’t think that would be replaceable. So I’d probably grab that one since I couldn't get another one.

Jane: Question 2. What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?

Jen: My favourite episode probably would be I think the Gesneriad episode. I just think I learned a lot in that episode. I’d never known much about those plants. I thought the expert was really informative and I just found it really interesting and of course it led me to buying a handful of Gesneriads after that.

Jane: Question 3. Which Latin name do you say to impress people?

Jen: Usually when I start mentioning Latin names, people’s eyes glaze over so I don’t do it too often other than to my plant friends. I think my favourite name at the moment would be probably Rhaphidophora tetrasperma – which sounds kind of cool.

Jane: Question 4. Crassulacean Acid Metabolism or guttation?

Jen: I’m going to say guttation just because I don’t even know what presulation acid metabolism is. So yeah, I know what cotation is. I’ve seen my parents do it and it’s pretty cool.

Jane: Question 5. Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated monstera or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?

Jen: That is a tough one, but this is a hypothetical £200 or dollars. I’d never spend that in real life. I’m going to say though I love cacti, a lot of interesting cacti, I would go with the variegated monstera because I really want one and I really have no idea where I would put 20 cacti in my house. So if I had the money I would go with the monstera.

Jane: Thanks to Jen, and thanks to my assistant, Kelly, who edits all the ‘Meet the Listener’ slots.

That’s it for this week’s bonus episode. Let’s stay in touch. Keep talking, keep looking after your plants. Stay strong! Bye.
(The music you heard in this episode was ‘Roll Jordan Roll’ by the Joy Drops and ‘Chiefs’ by Jahzaar. Both tracks are licenced under Creative Commons. See Janeperrone.com for details).

Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.

I've been thinking about how On The Ledge can respond to the current crisis we are all facing. In this bonus midweek episode, I bring you my thoughts so far. Plus we meet listener Jenn.

1. #HouseplantHour over on Twitter is usually once every two weeks, but I am making it weekly from now on - every Tuesday at 9pm GMT. Join me to talk about your plants, ask questions and generally escape from any gloom or stress you are experiencing. Follow https://twitter.com/janeperrone and https://twitter.com/houseplanthour to get involved, and include #HouseplantHour in all your posts. You may be interested in a thread on simple ways to get your plant fix indoors if you don’t have lots of plants already.
2. Houseplant buddies. I am helping listeners match up to provide each other with extra support - if you want to take part please add a comment to the post here on the Facebook group Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge. If you don’t do Facebook, drop me an email to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and I can sort you out!

3. Extra episodes. I am hoping to do some more 'soundscapes' like the one I put out at Christmas, as lots of listeners have said they loved it and would like more! IN addition, I will be aiming to put out a bonus midweek episode as often as possible.
4. No breaks! I will keep the show going weekly without taking breaks for Easter, unless I get ill of course. Some episodes may be shorter than normal, but happily I have quite a few interviews already in the bag which will go up in the coming weeks.

To make all of this work, I need your support. On The Ledge is free to listen to but not free to make. You can back me in different ways: it could be donating $1- $10 a month on Patreon, buying an OTL T-shirt or mug (there’s 20% off til March 20 2020!) or telling friends about the show. If you can’t commit to a regular contribution, you can make a one-off donation via ko-fi.com or Paypal.

Thanks to all of you for your enthusiastic feedback, and for being brilliant plant people. I know OTL will help me get through this tough time, and I hope it will help you too....

CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and Chiefs by Jahzzar.

Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.