Episode 247: planning a greenhouse
Transcript
EPISODE 247: PLANNING A GREENHOUSE
Jane Perrone 0:00:15.4
Hello and welcome to On the Ledge podcast. It's about houseplants. What more could I say? In this week's show, we're going off the ledge and into the greenhouse. I find out all about how to plan and set up your very first planty place under glass.
Once you've been growing plants for a while, inevitably your mind turns to the possibility of finding more space for your collection and, if you're lucky enough to have any outdoor space, that might well involve a greenhouse.
Now, in episode 166, I took a look at IKEA greenhouse cabinets, greenhouses that you can have inside, but in this week's show I'm taking a look at outdoor greenhouses with two people who are pretty well-versed in how these work, finding out all kinds of essential stuff like how to choose a greenhouse, where to put it, how to get it set up and how it differs from growing indoors, which, let me tell you, is quite a lot!
Guest number one is Raffaele Di Lallo. Raffaele Di Lallo's been on the show a few times now. I'd probably class him as a regular guest. He is behind Ohiotropics, the popular houseplant account, and the author of houseplant book, 'Houseplant Warrior.' In the last year, Raffaele has joined the ranks of greenhouse owners, so I got him on the line to find out more about his own set-up and to highlight some of the potential pitfalls.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:02:10.4
Hi, I'm Raffaele Di Lallo. I'm the founder of Ohiotropics and my background is in engineering, but I quit my corporate job last year to focus on my blog, Ohiotropics.com full-time. So that's what I do for a living now!
Jane Perrone 0:02:24.6
What a wonderful life that must be! I guess an engineering background might be quite handy when it comes to starting a greenhouse.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:02:35.5
It is, although my background was in chemical engineering.
Jane Perrone 0:02:40.2
Oh, okay. I would imagine that you've got more skills than I have when it comes to physically putting things together, understanding how systems work together, the kinds of things that are useful to know when you're putting up a glasshouse.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:02:54.3
Sure.
Jane Perrone 0:02:55.2
Why was it, in the first place, that you decided to add a glasshouse to your growing set-up? I'm sure you've got tons of houseplants inside. Why did you want a glasshouse as well?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:03:05.5
I've always been obsessed with greenhouses since I was a little kid. I just always thought they were - at the expense of sounding a little cheesy - they're kind of magical! When you step in a glasshouse, or conservatory, or botanical garden glasshouse, there's something magical about it. So I've always been intrigued and have always wanted one and my dream finally came true this year!
I actually moved all but one plant from my sun room to my greenhouse, and then the rest of the houseplants are where they are, in the house. So I shouldn't say I don't have that many inside the house, but it's greatly reduced.
Jane Perrone 0:03:49.1
Does that feel good to have done that?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:03:51.3
It does because where I'm sitting right now, I have my desk and I can step in and not have to trip over anything, so it's pretty great! And I have masses of plants now inside of the greenhouse. You can fill those things shockingly fast, so now I'm looking at ways to optimise the space. It's a very great, steep learning curve to have a greenhouse, but it's also very fun.
Jane Perrone 0:04:17.7
Yeah, I've heard other people say the same, that it is a steep learning curve. What are the things that surprised you, the curveballs you experienced when you're first putting your plants into that new space and the considerations that you're facing?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:04:31.2
As you probably know, indoors we often struggle with low humidity, so we're adding humidifiers and doing all these things to try and increase the humidity of our indoor air inside of our homes, especially in the winter time, if we're running forced air-heat.
So in the greenhouse, I actually have the opposite problem. I don't know if this is a common thing, but I have the opposite problem where the humidity is too high. So I'm trying to learn how to manage that. My humidity in there is routinely in the 90s. I even resorted - and this is a little bit unorthodox, I don't know of anybody that does this - but I actually put a dehumidifier in there to help manage that. I've run into some issues with mould, so I'm trying to find ways to manage the humidity in there.
So that's probably the biggest challenge that I've had so far. Just have to put in a little bit more effort to try and control that.
Jane Perrone 0:05:43.8
So when you're choosing your glasshouse, I always think that you probably think about dimensions and you think, "Gosh, that sounds huge!" Then, when you actually get it in there, you think, "Oh, I could have gone a few feet longer and bigger!" because it's never big enough! That was my main takeaway. What size did you go for?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:06:05.6
So mine is 12 x 24 feet.
Jane Perrone 0:06:09.9
Oh, that's a decent size then. When it comes to the materials, here in the UK - I don't know if it's the same where you are - but there's choice between metal frames, wooden frames, plastic frames. It's a bit of a minefield, it seems.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:06:27.9
So, I use the company that's local here, and they're actually only about 45 minutes from where I live. I was able to go and visit them as they built my greenhouse. So the frame itself is aluminium. It's an aluminium frame, and I had a powder coated to a dark bronze to match our décor in our garden.
I decided to do the long end of the greenhouse, the 24 foot front, in glass because we have a pool in our backyard, in our garden, and I wanted it to look nice. Then the rest of it, the two short side walls, the long back side wall, as well as the roof, I chose triple wall polycarbonate, for energy efficiency. Now, of course, more of the heat will escape through the glass because it is a single pane of glass. It's a little bit thicker, though. But the next project that I have soon, is insulating. I'm going to insulate the inside of that glass just for the winter time in order to keep the heating costs down.
Jane Perrone 0:07:37.3
Yeah, that must be a factor. What temperature are you keeping it to in there?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:07:43.0
I'm trying to decide. It's changing. It keeps creeping up on me a little bit. We've got some pretty cold nights lately, but now it's a little bit more mild. Right now, I think I have it set at 65 Fahrenheit. 65 to 70 Fahrenheit.
Now when it gets colder, we'll see what my heating bill looks like, and what the temperatures look like too, but of course it all depends on how much sun is out during the day too and multiple other factors. But, as of now, I think I have it set around 65 Fahrenheit.
Jane Perrone 0:08:25.0
It's about 18 Centigrade, I think.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:08:26.9
Yes, you're correct.
Jane Perrone 0:08:29.9
So that's quite warm. It depends what you're growing, but I guess you could probably go at least maybe one or two degrees more cooler. But then, if you've got a lot of humidity, that might make your humidity problems worse, I guess.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:08:41.2
Yes, so I'm trying to find a balance. The heater is actually helping to get the humidity a little bit down. So it's a little bit less than it used to be now, versus the summer time.
Jane Perrone 0:08:59.0
The other major factor that I suspect comes into play with a lot of glasshouses - maybe not yours, I don't know, depending on where it is in your garden - but is light and just the fact that light levels are so much higher. How has that been for you?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:09:14.5
So the light levels have actually been pretty good, and by 'good', I mean not too strong, because, like I mentioned, I used triple wall polycarbonate, mainly for heating purposes, but triple wall polycarbonate will let through less light than double wall polycarbonate, and much less light than glass because the polycarbonate will help diffuse the light. So that actually is fine. I haven't had any issues at all with anything burning.
I grow a lot of different aroids. I grow a variety of different orchids and bromeliads. I have quite a mix in there, a bunch of Hoyas, a lot of different things. Everything has been fine, and, in fact, as we speak today, I should be getting in some additional lighting. I actually ordered some full spectrum LED lighting to install in the greenhouse. This is mainly for the winter time because, probably like you in the UK, we get short, dark days here in the winter time that are pretty dreary. So I'll be using that additional lighting throughout the winter time at least, until spring time comes and the days start to get longer again.
Jane Perrone 0:10:45.7
It depends on so many different factors as to whether the light is going to be too strong. I know I've fallen foul of the light in my greenhouse, taking cacti out there in the spring, that had been inside, and just not realising that the transition was too harsh. It wasn't that the light was too strong, ultimately, but the plant just wasn't ready for it.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:11:08.7
Yeah, you have to acclimate them a bit slower.
Jane Perrone 0:11:12.9
Have you had any plants that really haven't liked the change?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:11:16.3
It might sound a little weird, but I mentioned earlier that I've had some issues with mould. So I've actually noticed some mould growing on the foliage and so I've been wiping it off. I have a Hoya Obovata, which I've had to wipe off the mould. I have a large Philodendron giganteum in there that I've been wiping off, and an Alocasia.
It's interesting though because it didn't happen on most of the plants, just certain ones. So it's kind of curious. That's probably one of the bigger issues along with -- well, that goes hand in hand with the humidity. I think, overall, all the plants are thrilled to be there, but, like you said, ironically people sometimes think, 'Oh, you have a greenhouse! Everything's going to thrive in there' and yes, to some extent, but there's also some problems that you have to be aware of, and it's not just automatic. In some cases some issues can get worse.
Actually, just going back to what you mentioned about the light. Since I use the triple wall polycarbonate, it's actually not enough light for really sun-loving plants. So I actually don't have many plants, if at all, that really need full sun in order to look their best just because of that. I'm good with that because there's so many different plants that I can grow in there. But I can also add additional lighting too, so there's of course a way to get around it.
Jane Perrone 0:12:59.4
Well, as you say, one glasshouse is probably not going to be ideal for a whole spectrum of houseplants because their needs are so different. As you say, you've got to cut your cloth, and I guess there's ways of making different zones in there, the old classic being things that love shade going under the bench and so on, on the floor? How are you maximising space though? I know you said you're already struggling for space.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:13:26.4
I've done a few things and I think I need to go more vertical. When I ordered the greenhouse, this company also custom-makes benches and some other things. So I ordered three benches that are 3 x 8 ft. I have two of those flanking the door way when you walk in, and then on the back end of the greenhouse I only have one bench on the one side, and then on the other side I created a living wall - well, a climbing wall, I should say - and then I have a sink with a little potting bench area right next to it.
So, on those three benches, I just went out and purchased at a local store some shelves to just put to the back of the shelf so I can put plants up there, and then the rest of the plants flat, right on the bench. So that's one thing. I may do more of that, keep going up vertically.
One of my friends gave me a really interesting idea and I got excited and I went on Amazon and ordered them right away. I had quite a few plants hanging but then he said, "Why don't you get some display grids?" I didn't really know what those were until I looked them up. It's a big rectangle of powder coated metal and it has squares on it. So what I did was I just inserted those through the middle of the greenhouse near the roof because there's a bunch of horizontal bars. I did that through the whole middle of the greenhouse, and then I use zip ties to secure them to the bars, to the aluminium frame of the greenhouse. That way I can hang a lot more plants, so that created for me to hang plants.
Then I also took two of those and I hung them on the side wall. I have some mounted tillandsias and some miniature mounted orchids, and so I'm hanging those vertically as well, so we have the benefit of maximising our vertical space as well as hanging space in the greenhouse. It's almost like playing plant Tetris!
Jane Perrone 0:15:57.4
It sounds really clever as an idea for making more room and having stuff hanging, as long as you can, sort of access things easily to maintain, I suppose.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:16:06.3
Exactly. That's a huge thing. I mean, humans, as a whole, are lazy. So if something is inconvenient, we're not going to do it. I try to make things as easy as possible.
Another thing that I did to try and make things easier, is the sink that I have installed in there, I got a little adapter for the faucet and I connected a hose. I initially used a garden hose, but I kept tripping over it and it just became too clunky. So then I removed that and I got one of those expandable hoses. When you fill it with water it expands, and then when you're done you get all the water out and it's fun because it looks like a snake. It's kind of creepy actually when you turn the faucet on, but then when you take all the water out of it, then it just deflates. I tuck it in right under the sink, so that's been a great space saver and it's much easier to just walk around with that. I put a little faucet, a spray nozzle I should say, at the end of it, so I can reach the hanging plants much more easily rather than getting a ladder.
I have a medium size ladder and then I have a step-stool if I need to reach up a little bit higher. So anything that makes your life easier in a greenhouse, it's very important!
Jane Perrone 0:17:38.7
If you could go back in time now and restart this greenhouse experiment, is there anything you would do differently?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:17:45.7
The one thing that I regret is - and I knew this, I knew this coming into it - but, the doors. I love the doors that I chose. I chose 6ft wide doors. They're actually commercial doors, double doors. I chose that just because the greenhouse is so long. I felt like a single 3ft wide door, a little bit under a metre wide, would look a little weird just because the greenhouse is so long. So that's why I chose double doors that were wider. It's more to scale. But unfortunately, those didn't come with any kind of screen. So in the summer time, I can't open the doors or slide a part of it open. So then I just have a screen to let fresh air in. Obviously that would help control the humidity levels at least in the summertime, when the temperatures are warm outside,
Jane Perrone 0:18:52.4
I guess there's always going to be something like that, that you only realise with the benefit of hindsight.
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:18:57.9
Right. Exactly.
Jane Perrone 0:18:57.9
Is this going to mean, though, that all the spaces that were filled with plants in your sunroom end up getting repopulated by new plants? That's the risk, is it not?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:19:09.2
It is a risk, yes, and I constantly fight that! It's actually nice. There's a lot of room and I have a few plants in here now, but I just don't want to let it get to the point where there's too many on the floor. It's a delicate balance. I might hang some more actually, so that they're off the floor. But, yeah, that's always a risk.
Jane Perrone 0:19:36.5
I think the risk is real, but, as you say, you've got to be strong! It may be that, as things settle down, that you realise that there's maybe one or two plants that are better off inside, particularly if you need to drop that temperature a bit if your power bill turns out to be really horrendous, I guess! Who knows? I don't know if you're having the same kind of fuel crisis that we are here, but I know a lot of people are really struggling with their greenhouse heating at the moment for that reason. What kind of heating are you using?
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:20:07.1
We do have natural gas heating. Like I mentioned, we have a pool and so there's a little pool house in our garden as well, so they ran the natural gas from there to the greenhouse. Initially I was going to have the greenhouse all the way in the back of the property behind the garden, and I'm really glad I didn't do that because it was already a pain to run the utilities.
The location of the greenhouse is pretty important and really affects energy efficiency. Whether you have a lean to greenhouse that's attached to your house, it's probably most efficient, but in that case, one drawback to that is that the part that's against your house, there's no light coming in through there. So with a standalone greenhouse like I have, you get light from all the directions too. So there's pros and cons.
Jane Perrone 0:21:05.8
I'm delighted to hear that it's all working out with the greenhouse and hopefully you've inspired some listeners to think about embarking on this new adventure of a greenhouse. It's a challenge. It's a pleasure. I imagine it's occasionally stressful, but this is what we all sign up for!
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:21:24.7
That's right!
Jane Perrone 0:21:26.4
My greenhouse, which is about 12 years old now, the roof has been leaking for a while. It's still leaking. So that's my job. That's what you get down the line; the maintenance issues!
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:21:40.3
Not looking forward to those!
Jane Perrone 0:21:41.9
Yeah, I'll be down there with some sealant at some point over the next few weeks. But yeah, that is the thing: it's a constant place to hang out and a constant joy as well. Thanks so much, Raffaele!
Raffaele Di Lallo 0:21:52.9
Thank you.
Jane Perrone 0:22:01.1
Thanks so much to Raffaele. If you want to see some images of his greenhouse, check out the show notes at janeperrone.com where you'll also find links to details about Raffaele's social media, blog and his book, 'Houseplant Warrior.'
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Jane Perrone: 0:22:50.8
Possibly my favourite greenhouse in the world is located at the headquarters of the charity, Garden Organic, situated near Coventry in the UK. So I wanted to take you to this glasshouse and find out a little bit more about the practicalities of running a glasshouse to extend your growing season and possibly grow something you can eat too.
Emma O'Neill 0:23:18.1
Hi, I'm Emma O'Neill and I'm the Head Gardener here at Garden Organic, based in Ryton-on- Dunsmore.
Jane Perrone 0:23:26.0
It's lovely to be back at Garden Organic. I've been coming here for many years and I haven't been in the last few years. I know this Alitex greenhouse really well because I always make a beeline for this particular greenhouse because it, kind of, is the greenhouse of my dreams! When I make it as a millionaire, I'm going to have this huge Alitex greenhouse. It's magnificent!
But we're here to talk about greenhouses because I know lots of my listeners dream of having one, or perhaps have invested in one - probably not quite as gorgeous and large as this one! I think it's one of those things that, if you've been growing houseplants inside, or possibly doing gardening outside, you have to adjust to the world of greenhouse growing.
So there's a lot of queries that come up. I guess the first one is to do with selection of that greenhouse and where you're going to put it. I guess it's easy to think, 'I want to maximise sunlight, so I'm going to put it right south-facing' but what's the best approach with that aspect?
Emma O'Neill 0:24:28.7
I don't think so. I think it's better to have a balance really, so I would always say some part, shade. What you'll find if you put it completely south facing is you're going to spend a lot of time during the summer having to shade it. So unless you can afford posh roller blinds on them, you're then going to have to spend a lot of time with the shading on, and that causes its own problems especially if you've got a glass house of height. So then you're going to need ladders, and of course you are then also going to have to take that off at a later date. So it's best to have some sort of shade, but you need to site it in the right place really. So have a look at your aspects. Obviously, it depends on how much space you've got in your garden as well. I would always say to get as big as you can, but make sure you are going to utilise it.
Jane Perrone 0:25:23.3
It's so common to see people putting greenhouses up on various second-hand selling sites and you think, 'Oh, yeah, that will be great!' but do you need that massive glasshouse? Attractive though it may be to get a free one, it's a lot of work! They're a lot of work to put together.
Emma O'Neill 0:25:42.2
They are a lot of maintenance because, really, you do need to clean them every year. I now have a professional cleaner come because ours is so tall, and, actually, it is a bit of health and safety nightmare to try and go up on a ladder. So he comes with one of those steam cleaners in a van and does it. It takes all day to clean it!
You can see, in this façade, there's moss growing in and you will have pests hiding in crevices. So it's like anything, particularly when you're organic - you need good maintenance and good hygiene. So don't go too big and then it becomes an onerous task.
Jane Perrone 0:26:25.9
I hear you! As you say, you've got to keep that glass clean, apart from anything else, because you're letting maximum light in. That is a factor. How long is this glasshouse we're in now? I'm going to guess it's... Oh, I'm not very good at distances!
Emma O'Neill 0:26:43.5
No, nor am I!
Jane Perrone 0:26:44.6
I would say 10 metres. Does that sound ridiculously too long?
Emma O'Neill 0:26:50.9
Yeah, I would say so. I'd have said it was about eight, I think. About that sort of size. It's an ideal size for here because it is a working glasshouse and, being a demonstration garden, we're able to demonstrate our seed-sowing and cuttings and propagation and how you can set it up. And here, we're quite lucky because we do have four soil beds. So that's something else you might want to consider. Some people like to have soil beds in the glasshouse. Some people prefer to have all hardstanding. So that's another choice. Obviously, if you can have some soil beds, that does give you an extra angle to grow different things. I personally think it's easier to grow things like tomatoes if you've got a soil bed.
So it's an ideal space for us to be able to demonstrate the normal things you'd expect in a greenhouse - chillies, aubergines, tomatoes - but also, we grow things like Malabar spinach, loofahs, gherkins. So it just gives you another string to your bow, I suppose, and also extends your season, extends your yields, and on one of our beds, we grow some more unusual flowers that won't do outside.
Jane Perrone 0:28:08.2
You've got these lovely, hardcore, big, sturdy metal benches here. I do love a bit of greenhouse benching! I've just bought some for myself, although it's not as nice as this. It is worth investing in this specialist greenhouse benching, though, because it's easy to keep clean, and it is sturdy, because pots are heavy! You've got to be a bit careful!
Emma O'Neill 0:28:31.6
They are heavy, but that, actually, is old catering benches. So that is recycled on that side. The other side of the room are the traditional that would have come with the glasshouse, but you're right, you do need to invest in something sturdy. We did previously try with just wooden potting benches, but they don't take the waste and of course they will eventually rot and they warp. They get hot, then they get cold, whereas these are aluminium. They're much better, and they're quite weighty, so they can take the weight of the plants.
Jane Perrone 0:29:07.9
That's something to consider, isn't it, the effect of the temperature gradients that you get in a glasshouse? It can be quite extreme. I know, during the summer, my glasshouse, when I put shading on it in that heatwave, it was amazing how much that brought the temperature down. Even so, it was still really hot in there and you've got to have stuff that takes those temperature changes, but that ventilation is really important, isn't it?
I know my greenhouse doesn't have enough ventilation. I need to change some closed windows into open windows, but that's really one of the ties of glasshouses, I think. The ties of glasshouses, I think, is being there to open and shut the ventilation, but probably, here, you've got automatic vents, have you? How does it work?
Emma O'Neill 0:29:53.7
Unfortunately the auto-vent doesn't work as such, but we can flip a switch to put it on and off and it's far easier. We always leave the doors open all summer, regardless of the temperature, obviously to increase the airflow, particularly when you've got a lot of plants in here, but you do need ventilation. It's key. So if we can have more, at least spaces, where you can open the window, whether that's the roof or the side - here, you see, we can open the roof and both sides, so we can get quite a decent airflow through. I think one of the trickiest things with glasshouses is pests and diseases, particularly when you're organic. It's a lot harder.
Jane Perrone 0:30:39.6
What's your plan of action with pests and diseases in here? Do you use a lot of biological controls?
Emma O'Neill 0:30:45.8
Mainly biological control. Obviously, we try and dampen down when it's hot, to increase the humidity. We do try to keep good airflow in. We try to be as vigilant as possible, so that as soon as we spot something we can act quickly. Particularly with something like red spider mite. To be honest, once you've got that, the biological control is really going to struggle because it's just so rapid.
So it's about prevention as much as anything, and also trying to grow things that you know perhaps are less susceptible to those types of things.
Jane Perrone 0:31:23.3
That is the battle. If you go away for a few days and come back, everything could have happened while you've been away and it's all been going on and you've missed the opportunity.
Emma O'Neill 0:31:32.3
You've missed the boat!
Jane Perrone 0:31:34.6
That is the tie of having a glasshouse. But again, it's such a wonderful thing on a winter's day, or an autumn day, when it's chilly outside and you just come in and that warm, delicious smell of a glasshouse is a very precious thing!
The other thing I always love about glasshouses is an extra water butt. Do you collect water off this roof, or have you got enough water being collected elsewhere?
Emma O'Neill 0:31:57.4
This one has an internal water butt in here and it's attached. We have a pump. You might be able to see there's a pipe there, so I can use that recycled rainwater.
Funnily enough, I have a great maintenance guy here and he's actually going to attach one outside as well, because the butt that's in here is actually quite small and I think we could be collecting so much more. We have water butts dotted about everywhere. We have a canopy for seating and there's one on there. I think there's four on the shed. So they're all over the place.
Jane Perrone 0:32:33.7
It's so worthwhile having. I've just put another one in my garden, and it's just realising, 'Oh my gosh! I've got all this water!' If I'd had that earlier in the summer, I probably wouldn't have run out like I did. So they are an outlay, but it's worth doing, isn't it, putting up that guttering?
Emma O'Neill 0:32:48.9
We often say though, if you can't afford to have the guttering, even if you've got a big bucket or an old dustbin, anything will help really.
Jane Perrone 0:33:01.5
Exactly. The benefits are enormous, and rainwater is a great thing. I'm getting hot in here. I'm wearing a jumper for some crazy reason, demonstrating the fact that it does get warm in here.
Just going back to the point about plants around the glasshouse, you've got hedges here. I think that's a grapevine pergola there. I think that's so important too, and that does help to bring down the temperature significantly, rather than it standing out and then an empty landscape around it.
Emma O'Neill 0:33:31.0
It isn't a conservatory. I think that's what you need to remember; it's not a conservatory. Hopefully it's somewhere that you're going to be working in at times, so you want to be surrounded. Plus, aesthetically it's so much more pleasing to be surrounded by the rest of the garden. That, also, is important when you come to situating it. For example, you don't want to stick it under a tree. We had a tunnel that was under a tree, and you can imagine it just gets plastered in the autumn with leaves. It's so difficult to clean, and you don't want to clog up your guttering.
Jane Perrone 0:34:08.9
That's absolutely a point! Although, that said, I did see somebody on Twitter in the heatwave that was putting, maybe it was like conifer branches, or something that they had from pruning something, and they were using that as shade. I thought that was actually not a bad idea because it wasn't something that was going to drop a lot of leaves in the short term, but it did provide brilliant shade. I thought that was the kind of inventiveness that you get from organic gardeners who are like, 'I refuse to buy anything! I'm just going to find something I can use!'
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Check out the show notes where you'll also see more details about the charity, Garden Organic, and how you can go and visit that glasshouse that I love.
Thanks so much to Emma. That was a shortened version of a longer interview that I conducted with Emma. If you're a Patreon subscriber at the Ledge End or Superfan level, you can go and listen to that in an extra link in the show notes.
Before I go, a soupçon of housekeeping: thank you to my new patrons this week. Mara and Brianna both became Ledge Ends. And if you are outside the UK, I'm crossing everything! I've posted off all of the cards for non-UK listeners and patreons now at the Ledge End and Superfan level, so please let me know when your card arrives. You may not have heard, but we've been having lots of postal strikes here, so I'm crossing everything that your card reaches you in good time. So if you are outside the UK, please give me a shout as soon as you get your card. I'd love to know it's arrived safely. UK people, yours will be being sent out on Monday at the latest, so you too should get your cards before Christmas. Please pray to the gods of post that happens!
That is all for this week's show. I do hope that you're having a tolerable week, maybe even a good week! Let's hope for a good week, or maybe next week will be good, but whatever you're doing, I hope you're finding time to enjoy your plants to their fullest. Bye!
The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll, by the Joy Drops, The Road We Used to Travel When We Were Kids, by Komiku, and Whistle, by Benjamin Banger. All tracks are licenced under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.
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Planning your dream greenhouse? I get top tips and advice from houseplant expert Raffaelle Di Lallo and Emma O'Neill from Garden Organic.
No outside space? Check out On The Ledge podcast episode 166 where I find out all about IKEA greenhouse cabinets to keep indoors.
Patreon subscribers at the Ledge End and Superfan level can listen to An Extra Leaf 102 to hear an extended interview with Garden Organic’s Emma O’Neill.
This week’s guests
Emma O’Neill in the Alitex greenhouse at Garden Organic. Photograph: Jane Perrone.
Raffaele Di Lallo is the founder of plant care website Ohiotropics.com and his book Houseplant Warrior is available to order now. You can also find Raffaele’s plant advice on his Ohio Tropics Blog, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook page. Scroll down for a gallery of images from Raffaelle’s greenhouse.
Emma O’Neill is head gardener at Garden Organic, the UK’s organic gardening charity. She works in the gardens at the charity’s HQ at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry. The greenhouse I visited is made by Alitex. You can visit the the gardens yourself: info here. Emma is pictured above.
Inside the Alitex greenhouse at Garden Organic. Photograph: Jane Perrone.
Below are a selection of images from Raffaelle’s greenhouse. All images are copyright Raffaelle Di Lallo. Click on an image to enlarge it.
HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE
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CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, The Road We Use To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku and Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com).