Episode 141: Alice Vincent

Alice Vincent is best known in the gardening world for her brilliant Instagram account, @noughitculture. Photograph: Giles Smith.

Alice Vincent is best known in the gardening world for her brilliant Instagram account, @noughitculture. Photograph: Giles Smith.

TRANSCRIPT

[Music]

Hello, and welcome to On The Ledge podcast episode 141.

Today we're rootbound. In today's episode I talk to Alice Vincent, aka Noughticulture, about her new book Rootbound. It's a mix of memoire, botanical history and biography, and if you are somebody who has got into plants in the last few years, lots of this book will resonate strongly for you. We cover loads of ground here from why we both love nasturtiums to all the things you could do with sticky willy. It's a plant!

And we also talk about Alice's other new project, an audiobook, all about sowing seeds. Fantastic! That's coming up shortly after a tad of housekeeping. Thanks for all your lovely feedback on Diva Week. I'm glad to hear that you all enjoyed the expert advice from our clutch of growers who were so brilliant at giving you the lowdown on these plants.

And I am super chuffed that people are still committing to become Patreons even at this time of difficulties financially for so many people. Chris and Darian became Ledge Ends and Erica became a Crazy Plant Person, so thank you to you trio of lovelies. And thank you to Suitabox from Belgium who left a lovely review for On the Ledge on Apple Podcasts.

[Music]

Long time listeners or those who have binged on every episode of On the Ledge, may remember that Alice Vincent featured back in Episode 14 - blimey, that was a long time ago - when I talked to her about balcony gardening. Since then she's got a new balcony and she's changed jobs. She was writer/editor on the Arts Desk of The Telegraph, but now she's Features Editor at Penguin Books. But she's perhaps better known to the gardening world through her Instagram account, @noughticulture, which also translated into a column for The Telegraph. Her book Rootbound: Rewilding A Life is out now.

This isn't a 'how to' or a glossy, coffee table book. No, this is an account of Alice Vincent's encounters with plants from her childhood through a rocky period in her personal left that led out the other side to a greater appreciation of the plants around her.

This interview was recorded in mid-May, so if you're listening further down the line when perhaps the world is a slightly different place, you'll forgive the references to lockdown and so on. But that's the world we're in right now, so that's what we're dealing with, and as you're listening, do check out the show notes for links to Alice's book and also details of her audio book, Seeds from Scratch.

It's really nice to have you back on the show you were a very early guest as I remember, talking about balcony gardening. That was a long time ago now. It's got to be two years ago, but you're back on the show to talk about a couple of things. The thing I want to talk to you about first is your lovely new book Rootbound: Rewilding A life, which has got a super cover on it, I have to say. Props on the cover because it's very lush and leafy. This book, I think has caught the imagination of lots of people who given the current 'insert pandemic cliché phrase here' the current situation that we're in, the unprecedented situation has caught people's imagination. Just tell me a little bit about what the book's about and how it all came about.

Alice: Well, it certainly wasn't written with a pandemic in mind.

Jane: Well, nobody wants to launch a book right now, I guess, but you can't select that.

Alice: You can't, no. And certainly, of all the losses in the pandemic, a book being released in it is definitely not on that list.

It wasn't like I woke up one day and was like "I'm going to write a nature memoire." For the uninitiated, the book deals with a number of things, but it essentially examines how humans go to ground in times of traumatic events and turbulence. I examine other generations that have discovered plants for themselves and the ways in which they do it, alongside this narrative of a year of my life in my late 20s when the path I thought my life was taking, completely veered off the tracks and turned to dust, I guess. During which, I discovered gardening as a means of coping really.

As a writer, I started to write about it, six months, a year after the fact and eventually it appeared that actually maybe it could be a book. The plants that make themselves interesting to me are always the ones that have stories and that's how I learn plant names and plant facts and whatever tiny amount of botany I've got is from learning the origins and stories of a plant. And so it interweaves these narratives of plant stories with that of my own and it's all about, I guess, the relative therapy that gardening and growing things gave me at a time when not much else did really.

Jane: You are classified as a millennial. I'm not a millennial. I think I'm probably about a decade older than you. Tell me about being a millennial and plants because there's a lot of clichés out there on the inter webs about millennials and their house plants. As part of that generation, how does that cliché make you feel, and is there a way to bypass that to get to an actual nub of truth about how millennials are interacting with plants?

Alice: Such a good question. I've had quite a lot of people generously talk to me about Rootbound. They think the whole thing's about house plants, and I think that might be because of the cover. It's a very botanical indoors-y, plant-y cover. But it's not about house plants. It's about the need for the outdoors and it's about this constant searching for the outdoors. It nevertheless acknowledges that for many people my age, discovering house plants was a gateway to gardening more widely, and there's nothing wrong with house plants, they're brilliant!

I think to answer your question about how these clichés make me feel, I think it's such a limited understanding and I definitely there is a grain of truth. It's a trend. As you've investigated on your brilliant podcast, it's a trend that's cropping up for lots of reasons and is very established and brings a lot of people job. But it's also representative of a wider need to engage with the soil, with the ground, with growing things and with nature, because my argument that I make in the book is that those born after 1980 and grew up in the subsequent years, we were the first generation to grow up with the Internet. We were the last generation to grow up without the Internet and my childhood, which was one of being outside, as also very much one of the 'sit down, this is Microsoft Windows 95. This is your Gameboy. This is your first smartphone. This is MSN Messenger.' We learnt to do things really, really quickly and we learnt to cultivate a reliance upon instant gratification. Is it any wonder that we get to our adulthood and we're desperate to slow down? Gardening offers that opportunity to do so.

Jane: Yes, I think that's a really interesting point. I think your Windows 95 was probably my ZX81! Loading games on a tape player. I'm probably the one person listening to this who remembers that experience, but anyway, that taught you patience, I can tell you. Something wonderful about that, but this is not a computer games' podcast.

One of the things I loved in the book was your interaction with plants as a child, which did ring a lot of bells with me as a child of the 70s and 80s, talking about things like Sticky Weed -- although I have to say, I don't know if that was sanitised for the book, but down my way it was sticky willy, that plant.

Alice: It was called sticky willy too. It shouldn't have been sanitised!

Jane: I'm just joking. It did make me laugh though. That plant's got so many different common names, but sticking that on people's backs, I have to say my son has discovered that during lockdown and absolutely loves coming home - and he really only festoons himself in it, but coming home covered in Sticky Weed at the end of a dog walk. But also using things like dandelions and grasses, I was going to ask if children still do that, but obviously they do because my son certainly does and I'm sure he's not alone. Do kids these days spend quite so much time doing that kind of thing with plants? I wonder if lockdown actually has given them more opportunities to fiddle about with plants in an idle way and find out lots of interesting things about them.

Alice: I really hope it has. I live next to woodland, close enough to have a main stretch out of the woods. From the balcony I see and hear it. Yes, there's a lot of kids out and about, which is nice. Really cool, if that's one of the very small positive upsides of this entire endeavour. Do kids still do it? I moved to a village when I was four. I've lived in cities for nearly 15 years now. I don't have any children, so I'm probably not the person to ask. But certainly, if I think about my childhood, for all that I said about spending time indoors, there was also an awful lot of freedom.

From the age of about seven or eight, we were let to roam the village because everyone knew each other and there wasn't really that much trouble you could get into. You were probably going into one another's house or you're going into the fields. There literally wasn't really that much stuff to play with, but we could go roaming in the countryside to our heart's content really, which sounds terribly idyllic. It was also, by the time I got to about 13, excruciatingly dull. So swings and roundabouts.

Actually, ironically, it was that boredom with it that pushed me so far away from nature for the next decade or so.

Jane: And did you find as an adult that some of those plants that you'd forgotten about, came back into your view? I'm thinking about this because what I've seen, coining the term "plant blindness". This idea that we're walking along and we're not really noticing the plants around us.

I know obviously you and I both are very much alert to interesting plants around us, but lots of people aren't. Is that something that's changing and being driven by millennials, this desire to experience plants? And also through your own work, are you finding people coming and going, "Ooh, I've just started looking at the weeds in my front driveway, or my front path, because of your book and I'm realising that there's fascinating things out there?"

Alice: I wish there were that specific examples; that would be amazing! I've definitely been very, very touched by the number of people who've got in touch saying, "You've made me notice nature more," or "You've made me so much more aware of plants and the natural world around us." When you write a book in all its various grizzly unpleasantness, I would never have been so grand to imagine that was something that might happen as a result, and that's really so heartening.

Are we noticing more? What has been really interesting in lockdown is the number of people who have been seen on social media asking for apps which help them identify plants and birds and other bits of nature. There is a real hunger. People are suddenly really fascinated with it, because I think especially if you've only got your mile or so radius in which to walk around most days -- and obviously those rules are changing in he near future, but we're still realistically going to be relatively limited on where we can go -- then actually it's so much easier to notice the differences, so much easier to notice cow parsley turning up. It's so much easier to notice the hawthorn blooming because you're walking that every single day.

We are plant blind. I can't remember the statistics. There was a brilliant book released earlier this year called Losing Eden by Lucy Jones. In it she gives the numbers of plants recognised by our generation, by that of our parents and by that of our grandparents. I think millennials recognise ten per cent of what their grandparents would know the names of. So we are incredibly plant blind. I'm still very plant blind, and that's what's so shocking. We are at a stage where we're having to gather that information ourselves and it's quite daunting to know where to start.

Jane: That's an interesting one about the plant apps. I've seen the same phenomenon, and it really interests me because the old school me says plant apps are not the answer. However, my son has decided to do a survey of all the spiders in our house, and I was absolutely blown away when he went onto Google Lens on my phone and immediately identified accurately a species of spider using Google Lens with a very blurry photograph. I was like, "Wow!" I thought actually this can work to spark interest. I think if you see a spider or indeed a plant and you don't know what it is, it can be a mystery that just remains a mystery, whereas once you can put a name to something you can go and study it and that's a good thing.

What I do find though is when I ask for an ID of a plant on Twitter or something, all the answers that come back from somebody who's using an app, is always incorrect, and all the people who are the experts come back with the right answer. So I'm in two minds about these apps. I don't know how you feel.

Alice: It's a similar kind of thing. When I first started gardening, I used PlantSnapp as a means of helping me to identify and grow things, but the thing is with Plant Snap -- which is now called something, I think, SmartPlant, it's been through a million different iterations -- those plants are diagnosed and identified by real people who are experienced at the other end, so it's not automated. I'm still a bit old school. I'm trying to stretch my head around the recording equipment to have a look. I've got a really old wildflower book which is amazing because it's got photographs not illustrations and it has them done in chronological order through the year.

Jane: That's handy.

Alice: It's really handy. It's unfortunately too big to take in a pocket, but I really like that as a means of identifying things, and of course the beauty of existing in communities like you and I do, like Instagram and other social media, is that without being a total irritant, if I'm burning with curiosity, I tend to text someone who I know will have the answer. But yeah, technology's a funny thing. Most of my plant information has come from the Internet. It's come from Instagram or reading people's blogs or delving into Gardeners' World forums, and books. Books are really helpful, but I don't think we can be too puritanical about this because while people might have the wrong answer, as you say, if it encourages a curiosity, eventually they'll find the right thing out.

Jane: Yes, I think that's really true, and hopefully, as you say, it sparks the curiosity and makes people want to go deeper. I do love all my native plant books, which are many and various, but at the same time as you say, the immediacy of being able to plug something into an app -- I mean, great, when you've got an app that's got some human beings behind it as well, and get some gospel answers, I think that's invaluable.

Talking further about Instagram. You run the account @noughticulture. Tell me about the origins of that name and what you use Instagram for.

Alice: So the name came to me. I can still remember it was. I was sat on the top deck of the 68 bus. It was 8^th^ December 2015. I have quite a scientific memory!

Jane: Wow! I can't remember what I did last week. I'm so impressed.

Alice: Well, it's just certain things. My Dad has this amazing ability to remember dates, so I try to practice the same. I was on the way home from one of the first Christmas parties of the season when I was an entertainment journalist, which essentially makes everything exhausting from about mid-November until actual Christmas, and you're so done you never want a Christmas party ever again.

But I was on the way back from that swish party while sat on the top deck of the bus. The windows were all steamed up and it just appeared to me. It was like 'Noughticulture.' I'd been thinking of what to call this account for quite a long time. I wanted to express that I was a rank beginner. I wanted to express that it was about gardening and I didn't at that time want to use the word 'gardening' because I think even in the past five years gardening has had its own natural rebrand. But at that time it was a deeply unsexy word.

I guess it's a portmanteau of horticulture and the sense of nothingness. So having no knowledge, knowing now't, I guess. So yeah, that's where the name came from. And what do I use Instagram for? It changes all the time. Initially I used it as a means of exploring and dipping a toe into the world of broadcasting my curiosity and affection for gardening, my nascent education, self-education in it. I still think it inhabits that. but what's weird is that now I use it as a means of explaining things and giving out information, which is rather the reverse. I suppose it's also for me very much a community. I've made some genuinely really wonderful friends on it. At its most basic it's content, isn't it? I put up photographs and I draw attention to the things that I've written and I like to share videos and things. For me it's an exploration and celebration of all the good things that come in gardening in small urban spaces, which I felt wasn't particularly well catered for.

Jane: One of the delights of your Instagram is your balcony tours. Now, we covered your balcony a little bit in the previous episode that we did, but give us a balcony update. What's been happening out there?

Alice: I think I got a new balcony since the....

Jane: Oh, yeah, quite possibly actually.

Alice: New balcony, yeah. I moved from a very exposed north facing balcony to a very sheltered west facing balcony which is surrounded by trees. I'm looking at it now, it's very green and beautiful. It's also very shady, but it's growing well. The hosters are enormous, Fatsia japonicus is doing its thing. I've had a bit of a shuffle round recently because I found this ladder by the bins on my estate. It's a beautiful vintage green ladder and I brought it back. So that's now holding all of my nasturtium seedlings which means that on the other side of the wall I've got a lot of hardy geraniums in troughs up on the wall. So yeah, it's growing. It's fit to burst with seedlings like I imagine most people's growing spaces are at the moment.

Jane: Finding that ladder, oh my gosh! I'd have been so made up coming home with that. I bet you were too.

Alice: I was. About three hours earlier I'd had a row with my partner who's moved in relatively recently because I was just frustrated at his crap being everywhere -- which isn't even fair as most of his stuff is in storage. It's a bit of a temporary situation when lockdown happened -- jokes! But anyway, I was like, "There's no room for anything in this house," and then I literally snuck it in when his back was turned in the kitchen because he was like, "I thought you said there was no room for anything in this house, and you're hauling this ladder in here."

Jane: The ladder's saving space, right? The ladder's making space. That's exactly my argument.

Alice: Exactly, Jane. Exactly. I just said, "It's going on the balcony," and snuck it in.

Jane: Oh my gosh, yes. That would have cost you £50 from some fancy upcycling shop.

Alice: Exactly. No, I'm very pleased with it. It's so funny, I nearly didn't rescue it. I put it on my story theme, like "I'm so tempted to get this from the bins." The good people of Instagram were like, "Do it." In their dozens they were like "Do it, do it, do it. You've got to do it."

Jane: So the good people of Instagram. Can you highlight a couple of other really good Instagram accounts that we should be following?

Alice: Oh, my goodness! How long have you got? I don't know how many of them have been On the Ledge before. I'm thinking right now, Floral Fabulosity in the form of Arthur Parkinson's account. Ab Fab Tulip's, what more could you want? Milli Proust, a flower grower in Sussex and she's been giving me visual Prozac. Forde Abbey, poetry and beautiful escapes and misty mornings down in Devon, so beautiful. Somerset. Somewhere down that way. Beautiful.

On a more practical sense, I learn something from Andrew Timothy O'Brien every single day.

Jane: Yes.

Alice: Jack Wallington's urban garden is turning Clapham into Palm Springs, and I am so here for it. And Claire Ratinon who was an urban grower and has recently moved up to Sussex, just brings me total joy and knows so much. If you're in the realm of no dig and growing edibles and things, she's your girl. All sorts of people. I follow a mix of photographers and plant people. They normally collide in the middle.

Jane: I'll try to put links to all of those in the show notes because there are top, top recommendations there. Sometimes that's really nice, a bit of visual Prozac is what we all need. The trouble is when it goes over into just sheer jealousy and pity. I saw somebody this morning with an amazing Calathea all with folia, the one with the really wide big leaves, and it was so enormous this plant that I just felt this rush of pure hot jealousy of this person's plant. I was just like "Control yourself, Perrone. That's really sad. Just be glad for them that their Calathea is striving." I think that's the flip side. It just gets dangerous.

I'm sure it's the same for you. Lots of people blame me when they have to go out and buy more plants because they've seen me doing something or talking about something. Is it the same for you? Do people say, "I've just had to buy £25 worth of seeds because of your excellent guidance?"

Alice: Yeah, I think maybe. The thing that comes to mind most recently that I think I've probably inspired a small rush on are this very ingenious little widget which costs 60p. You screw it on the top of a water bottle and it turns your water bottle into a rose, which is perfect for seedlings. I'm going to send you the link so you can put it your show notes, but I did some watering a lot with it because I've got the seedlings and it sits on a 2 litre water bottle. The number of people who have just been like, "I've bought this because of you," and I'm like, "Well, it's not a large investment. The postage probably costs more." I think that and the occasional gardening book recommendation tends to be it. People generally are greening their spoons.

Jane: Talking of seedlings brings us neatly onto another project that you've been working on, which I believe is out either now or imminently. An audio book. Tell me more about this audio book.

Alice: It's a lockdown baby. It's a Corona baby. It's called Seeds from Scratch and it is a garden long audio book. So over the course of four chapters, which is around 90 minutes, if you've never sown seeds before, or if you have and you've never had much success, the plan is that you listen to it and I - unfortunately we couldn't get anyone more dulcet toned to do it in such a short period of time - will guide you through the process of sowing your seeds and raising those seeds into a plant and what you do at each stage. We cover pricking out, thinning out, potting on, things like light and not enough of it, and watering and legginess and that kind of stuff, and along the way while you're doing it I also reflect on encouraging you to listen to the meditative sides of gardening, really indulging your senses and how to notice more when you garden to ultimately get, we hope, a sense of satisfaction and calm from it.

Jane: This surely has to be given the fact that seeds shops are selling out amazingly fast during this pandemic. Everybody and his wife who wasn't into seed growing before has suddenly developed an interest. So hopefully this will sell really well. Can you give us a very, very potted couple of tips. Where's the first thing people go wrong with sowing seeds?

Alice: I think the very, very first thing is overestimating the amount of light your space gets. I've done this, I 've tried to grow sweet peas of all things, in my shade garden balcony. It's not to say that you cannot grow. There are annuals that will thrive in your shadier conditions, because I grow them every year and there are some varieties which do totally put up with those conditions, but I think there's a lot of people who are like, "I want to grow some edibles. I'll grow tomatoes" and they might not have enough light to get those going. And I hope the audio book does this - really think critically about how much light your space realistically gets. Nobody wants gangly, leggy tomatoes that won't fruit. It's such a waste of expectation and everything else.

And then secondly, and I'm a real stickler for this, we can always end up sowing too thickly or rather too many seeds. That's fine, but be brutal with the thinning out. Nobody really likes to do it. It always feels a bit like killing your darlings, but much better off to do than not, and pinching out as well. Painful in the short term vital in the long term, I'd say.

Jane: I'd love to know why it is everyone thinks that tomatoes are the first thing they ever need sow because tomatoes are really not that easy.

Alice: They're not, no.

Jane: But everyone wants to start with them. It always amazes me.

Alice: They're also not exactly difficult to get hold of. You can get a lot of delicious tomatoes. Even if you want to support your local grocer and buy them in seasonally, I get that, but I don't know. I'm one of those people that if I had an allotment I'd just grow cut flowers on it anyway.

Jane: And the other lie that I really want to put to rest is the idea that homegrown tomatoes always taste better. They really don't! I think people have this idea they're going to grow homegrown tomatoes and they're going to have this amazing epiphany. There's going to be angels singing because the tomatoes are so tasty. I think if you've got them growing in a greenhouse, possibly you will get more of an intense flavour but it's very hit and miss, I find, with tomatoes. I think that's another big disappointment, but it's one of those things. What's a better starter seed then?

Alice: I don't think you can go wrong with herbs, which sounds very basic but actually the amount of waste and air miles involved in shipping in herbs and then eating them in your house. You always end up with either a half dead supermarket herb basil on your kitchen windowsill or a shrivelled up miserable bag of cut parsley in your fridge drawer. The fact is that actually herbs like coriander, basil, parsley, I think grow really reliably. Some varieties can take a little while to germinate, but a lot of them will be relatively hardy. I keep parsley outside all year and I know that I'm in London and it's a bit warmer, but still. The satisfaction of cutting your own herbs, which you can use in a whole variety of dishes, is likely to be far greater than, as you say, these tomatoes which you nurture and nurture and nurture and then you have a crop and most of them are green and some of them aren't that tasty.

I'd also say salad leaves as well. You can grow so many interesting salad crops -- mizunas, mustards, pea shoots, which are so fresh. When I work outside on the balcony, I just end up eating most of my pea shoot crop just idly while tapping emails because they're like sweets. They're so yummy and sweet and gorgeous, so yeah, I'd say stick to the leafy greens just because you'll get so much from them and you'll be able to eat them with everything.

Jane: Yes, I think that's really good advice. I just love chucking a few coriander seeds from a big bag from the supermarket and they just grow and you've got this wonderful crop. I had one particularly good crop last winter and I just remember picking them. I was just the smuggest person alive because I literally had bagfulls of this fresh coriander. I know not everyone likes coriander but it was so good. I normally have a reasonable amount, but that year it just felt so abundant and I felt so Lady Bountiful giving away these packets of coriander to people.

Alice: And it smells so good.

Jane: It's amazing. I know people find it soapy and horrible, but I just love coriander. That's very, very true. I hope the audio book sells well. How can we get hold of it?

Alice: I believe it's going to be available through iTunes and if you're an Audible customer, I think you can get it through there as well. Seeds from Scratch. I will be definitely shouting about it online, so if you want to join in we are sharing photos of your seed sowing station and you sowing seeds. So stick them up and tag me #seedsfromscratch and that will be fun as well.

Jane: Awesome. I do love sowing seeds, but I am also a big proponent of the perennial vegetable. I think that is another area that is just right for people who are getting into vegetables to get into. I feel like I'm some kind of crazy, tense evangelist about these plants. Have you ever tried any perennial vegetables?

Alice: No, because the thing is, on this space that I'm on most of the plants on the balcony are perennials. I'm a huge perennial fan. In terms of design, in terms of growing them, I love it, but there's not a lot of space and there's not a lot of light which means growing edibles is a bit of a challenge. Certainly giving over space to them for the course of a whole year, you've got to be a top plant to earn that level of space on the balcony.

Jane: Yes, I hear you.

Alice: But they are amazing. I think people don't even know that you can get perennial vegetables. Of course you can, so you're wise to preach about it.

Jane: Yes, as I say, it's my ongoing mission to convert people. You talked about sweet peas. Is there any other flower that is really your number one thing to try growing from seed?

Alice: I quite like growing cosmos from seed but actually beyond that, nasturtiums are probably the number one. They're what I've got growing at the moment, and because of lockdown and the aforementioned challenges of getting seeds, I've actually been able to buy nasturtium seeds in quite a variety in the supermarket. I've sown so many of them and the ladder is going to be a tower of nasturtiums later on this summer, I hope.

I love them because not only are they entirely edible so you can eat them, but to me they're really easy. They're a great one to grow with children because the seed is quite big, so they're good for little hands and they will grow in incredibly poor soil. If you don't have any compost you could literally do it in the sweepings of your patio, I'd imagine. If you don't water them too much, they only flower more. They're brilliant. For me, they always really remind me of holidays. I'm a nasturtium fan, I'd say.

Jane: I'm with you. I'm totally with you. I love the idea of a nasturtium tower on the ladder. That sounds amazing. They're an amazing plant. There's so many different things you can do with them and they're so tolerant of different conditions - whether they're in full sun or shade, they're fantastic.

The other thing that I absolutely love - now, perhaps you don't have enough sun for this on your balcony - but English marigolds, pot marigolds. Oh, my God!

Alice: Yes!

Jane: I never sow any. They just self-sow in my vegetable patch. They give me so much joy at the minute. They're just so ridiculously bright orange.

Alice: Yeah, and if you're into herbalism or you want to start with a bit of herbalism and medicinal uses for plants, obviously marigold's calendula, they've got all sorts of uses.

I had a packed of calendula seeds and I actually sent them to a friend. I'm going to have to track down some more, maybe well the garden centre's open and get on with that because you're right, they're brilliant. They're so cheery, and zinnia as well are another example. We're just about getting into zinnia sowing time I'd say.

Jane: Yes, we are.

Alice: Very cheery, very bright. When it's one of those slightly chilly spring days, you're like, "Can I handle the luminosity?" Yes, you can. Wait a few months. You'll want it.

Jane: I've got a book recommendation for you. Have you come across the book called Vickery's Folk Flora?

Alice: No.

Jane: You might love this book. I've just got it here. It is an A to Z of the folk lore and uses of British and Irish plants. So basically this guy has collected over many decades all the different common names and stories behind British plants. It's such a good book.

I'm just looking up some of the names of Calendula officinalis or marigold. Apparently they call it Merry go rounds in Dorset, Nobody's flower in Wiltshire and Mary Gowlan in Northumberland. So there we go!

Alice: Brilliant.

Jane: And apparently it was used to treat measles. It's a really interesting book. It's a really great book actually. I thought it might be one that you might enjoy.

Alice: That sounds right up my street, thank you.

Jane: It is. It's a massive tome though. It's not one you're going to be wandering around with because it's huge. It's like a brick, but it's great.

Alice: It sits next to More Grids and Modern Herbal. The two 70s tomes for bedtime reading.

Jane: Exactly! Well, it's lovely to talk to you, Alice. I'm so delighted to have been able to chat to you about Rootbound, which is a fantastic book. I will put details of that in the show notes. That's out now. I would say in all good book shops, but unfortunately at the moment as we speak, not quite.

Alice: No.

Jane: But hopefully soon. Is there an e-book? Are there all those good things of that?

Alice: Please support independent book shops, especially now.

Jane: Indeed.

Alice: But if you want it on Kindle, it's currently stupidly reasonable on Kindle. It's £2.70 or something on Kindle. Audio book is not that cheap, but it is read so beautifully by an actress called Fiona Hampton, and she does such a gorgeous job. So audio, e-book, physical copies, all in existence.

Jane: Good luck with that and I hope the Seeds audio book also does really, really well.

Alice: Thank you.

Jane: Any more future plans, post pandemic plans, or is it all up in the air?

Alice: It's been a busy few weeks and I've just stopped and taken a breather. Hopefully, continuing with the original lockdown plan, which is getting my head into a few books and brewing up something new.

Jane: Awesome. Well, I can't wait to see what that is. Thank you very much for joining me, Alice.

Alice: Thank you for having me.

[Music]

Thank you to today's guest, Alice Vincent.

I'll be back next Friday with more plant-y goodness. Until then, have a great week. Bye

The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and the Encouragement Stick by Doctor Turtle. Both tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. See the show notes at JPerrone.com for details.

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

Alice Vincent (@noughticulture on Instagram) joins me to talk about two new planty projects: her book Rootbound, and an audio guide to sowing seeds - both perfect lockdown reading material. You may remember Alice from her previous appearance on On The Ledge, talking about balcony gardening back in episode 14. Check out the links below as you listen…

Rootbound-cover-1.jpg

HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE

Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.

Want to make a one-off donation? You can do that through my ko-fi.com page, or via Paypal.

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.

  • The Crazy Plant Person tier just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the show you love.

  • The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.

  • My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.

If you like the idea of supporting On The Ledge on a regular basis but don't know what Patreon's all about, check out the FAQ here: if you still have questions, leave a comment or email me - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. If you're already supporting others via Patreon, just click here to set up your rewards!

If you prefer to support the show in other ways, please do go and rate and review On The Ledge on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen. It's lovely to read your kind comments, and it really helps new listeners to find the show. You can also tweet or post about the show on social media - use #OnTheLedgePodcast so I’ll pick up on it!

CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and The Encouragement Stick by Doctor Turtle. 

Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.

Jane PerroneComment