Episode 118: surviving winter, with the Arctic Gardener
Anders Røyneberg, aka the Arctic Gardener, has filled his Oslo apartment with houseplants.
Transcript
Episode 118
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Jane: On The Ledge podcast this week is supported by Soltech Solutions, home of the luxury plant light. You've probably heard me talk about Soltech Solutions stylish LED grow lights on the show before, so I'm really excited to be able to share with you a unique coupon code. Just enter OTL15 at checkout for 15% off your purchase. If you're looking for museum-quality grow lights that fit with your decor and give off just the right spectrum of light to keep your plants happy, without that weird pinky-purple glow you often get with LED plant lights, Soltech Solutions is the answer. They offer a track system to illuminate your plant-filled shelves and pendant lights to suspend over your precious fig or euphorbia, all beautifully made with the indoor gardener in mind, so you can seamlessly integrate your favourite plants into every corner of your home, whether you're a beginner or a pro. So visit SoltechSolutions.com to find out more and don't forget to use the coupon code OTL15 for 15% off your purchase.
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Jane: Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast episode 118, I am your host Jane Perrone. This week I am talking to Anders Røyneberg, also known as the Arctic Gardener, he's growing gorgeous house plants in Oslo and he shares with me today his tips for dealing with, what he calls, the death months: those cold months of the year where we, and our house plants, start to suffer. And I'm answering a question about where to source your water.
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Jane: Thank you to my new Patreon, Tate, this week and also to the anonymous listener who gave a one-off donation via ko-fi.com and thank you to Oscar, M B Cairns and Golio7 who all left reviews this week and gave me that warm and fuzzy feeling which is so important to get me through these cold winter months, because I'm telling you, it's cold in my office right now, it's 17.8C, that's 64.4F for those of you in the United States. I am guessing that conditions in Oslo in Norway are a lot more severe for most of the winter and I spoke to Anders Røyneberg, who is a psychotherapist and a house plant grower extraordinaire. I'll let Anders introduce himself.
Anders: My name is Anders Røyneberg, I'm known as the Arctic Gardener on Instagram, I am a farmer, but I live in the city centre of Oslo, the capital of Norway. In my daily work, I work as a psychotherapist. I'm also a psychiatric nurse and a sexologist. I have a huge passion for plants and I've just come out with a book called The Green Joy.
Jane: I'm really excited about this chat, Anders, because I think so many of us are struggling right now with that shift from warmer times to cooler times and the effect that it has on our plants. I know that Norway has, perhaps, a more extreme winter than we do here in the UK. Tell me what the conditions are like right now for you outside and how do you keep your plants from suffering, come November, December, January-time?
Anders: I call them the months of death, November, December and January because, especially in Norway, it gets really dark during the winter time. If you go up north in Norway, the sun has totally gone for a couple of months, so it's really hard conditions for the house plants. So what I recommend people to do when they ask for me for advice and what I do with my own house plants, I get them as close as I can to the window so they get the little daylight that's available, so they get the feeding from the light. It's a simple rule that I reduce everything in the winter time, I reduce the amount of water and I stop fertilising my plants from October until March.
Jane: How good are the windows in Norway? Do you find that problem we sometimes get in the UK with old houses, where you get a really cold area right next to the window? So although you want your plant to be close to the window for the light, there's also the issue of the plant just getting too cold right next to that draughty old window?
Anders: That's true, but actually in Norway it's quite opposite problem because the new housing and the new apartments, they're so closed because of the cold. So there's a very little draught and what I see is that it gets too dry indoors in Norway often, so that's a bigger problem than cold draught from the windows.
Jane: Whatever you do, there's an issue, isn't there? In the UK a lot of us have got very draughty, cold windowsills where I want my plants to be on the one hand, but also I'm worried that they're going to suffer. Are there any plants that really suffer particularly during the winter months, the ones that you really should be paying the most attention to at this time?
Anders: Actually the most easy plants are the cacti and succulents because they are desert plants, they cope quite well because it's quite cold during the night time, so they're fine as long as they don't get too much water and fertiliser. The tropical plants are difficult in Norway because of the dry indoor air but also the cold. The tropical plants are suffering.
Jane: Is there anything that you recommend to people suffering from dry air,, in terms of improving that air quality and making the air a bit moister?
Anders: I recommend choosing the right plants, choosing more of a cacti and succulent, these are more desert plants because they can cope better with the dry indoor air and the cold. So if you want more tropical plants, it's fine, they might survive, especially if you've got a bathroom with heating in the floor and there's a lot of moisture from the shower and bathing, that's a good place for tropical plants, but it can be hard conditions for them during the winter time in a normal living room, I think.
Jane: One of the plants that I've noticed on your Instagram that really peaked my curiosity was a kiwi plant growing indoors. I never imagined that would work. Tell me more about your indoor kiwi.
Anders: I kept it indoors for a while, it was spring time, it was thriving, it was green, it was pupping new leaves, but then the summer came and then all of a sudden it looked depressed and weak, so I had to bring it outdoors on to my balcony, and it really enjoyed that. So now what I do is I keep it on my balcony for the summer season and in the winter season I bring it up in my attic, where it is cold, and there's a small window with a little light. So it sleeps there during the months of death, during the winter time, then I bring it back into my living room in the spring period. Then it pups new leaves and then I bring it on to the balcony again in the summer time, so it's only indoors for a short time and during the spring.
Jane: Okay, that makes perfect sense, I guess a bit like you might treat a citrus in a similar way where it needs cold but protection from really cold weather.
Anders: The kiwi is a really beautiful plant, it became one of my favourites, but it's so thirsty and drinks a lot of water. For a period, it was kind of a joke between me and my friends, that I couldn't hang out in the evening because I had to go home and water my kiwis. It's a really thirsty plant. You need to pour a big bucket of water on it every single day or get a bigger planter, I guess.
Jane: That's interesting, they're fast growers and they need lots of moisture to keep going. Tell me a little bit about your Chinese money plants, Pilea peperomioides, I know these have got a bit of a Norwegian connection. Are these good plants for Norwegian homes? Do they work well? I guess they are because they seem really popular?
Anders: I have several Pilea, and they have a long history in Norway, so I've got a big Pilea family and they all came from the same Pilea mother. It keeps pupping new Pilea - I call them the Pilea babies - all the time. It's a perfect gift to also give to friends and family. As you mentioned they'd had a Norwegian connection, the Pilea, because even though the Pilea originates from China, it was brought to Norway by a Norwegian missionary that had to flee from China in 1946, around that time. He brought these Pilea babies to Norway and he started handing them out to friends and family and all of a sudden they spread all over Europe, so even though it originates from China, it has a house plant history from Norway. What I see on Instagram, it became a symbol of the new green wave or shift or whatever you call it on Instagram. I mean I was kind of spreading the green gospel by bringing it to Norway, I think.
Jane: What do Norwegians call this plant, is there a common name?
Anders: Yes, we often call it Pilea or the missionary plant, or misjonær plant, is what we call it in Norwegian. What I recommend with this plant is, if you have a cold bedroom and you like to have the window open in the night time, Pileais a really good plant to choose because it's quite similar to the areas where it originates from in China, so it quite draught tolerant, for me it's a good bedroom plant as well.
Jane: I do hear from listeners who like to keep their bedrooms really cold at night. I like to keep my bedroom as warm as possible. I keep hearing from listeners saying: "My bedroom is really cold," and I'm thinking: "Why?" I'm guessing it helps people sleep. That's just me, I want to go to bed with as many hot water bottles around me as possible. Maybe that's just an English thing. One thing that I hear a lot about Pilea peperomiodies is people saying that the leaves are yellowing and dropping off, sometimes all of them, but sometimes just the ones lower down the stem at the base of the plant. Is that just a natural thing that the plant does as it gets taller or is there any way to keep your plant really bushy and green? I've seen your plants and they look amazing, so you've obviously got some good techniques going on here.
Anders: Yes, the thing is, what is shown on social media is the happy side. The Pilea is quite hard, I find it quite hard in the winter time because it gets more yellow and some of the leaves will drop off. I have this one rule with the Pilea and it works quite well, is that I never water it before it asks for water because the leaves will drop more. So that's a good rule because Pilea should not be watered too much. It will tell you when it's time to water it, at least that's my experience.
Jane: I think that's very true, the other thing I hear about that plant is that people have problems with the leaves going funny shapes and there's lots of theories about why the leaves aren't flat and pancakey as they should be, but it seems to me that the leaves just adapt to the conditions they're in, possibly looking for light? Or adjusting to slightly different levels of humidity and there's not a lot you can do about that.
Anders: I agree on that, the only thing I experienced with the Pilea as a windowsill plant, is that if it's in direct sunlight the leaves will often curl, so that could also be a sign that it's the sunlight that's too heavy on it, so that's another experience I've got.
Jane: I did see the other day, I don't know if this is available in Norway yet, I did see a variegated Pilea, I think its cultivar name is Sugar, the variegation is not tremendously exciting, it's tiny splashes of silvery white but I don't know if that's reached you yet, but that's something to look out for.
Anders: No. I've never heard of that before, so I will check it out.
Jane: Do check it out, I think one of the great qualities of this plant is the simplicity of those round leaves, so I'm not sure I'm totally sold on the variegated version. If it exists then I want to find it, so that is the issue.
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Jane: We'll be back to hear more from Anders shortly, but let's get to the Question of the Week this week which comes from Gavin. Gavin has become a house plant addict over the past year and now has more than 70 plants: good show Gavin! But he's finding he's having one major sustainability issue with his plants and that's water. He's using tap water for the majority of his house plants but the Calatheas and Carnivores are getting distilled water bought in plastic jugs.
Gavin writes: "I'm putting in the effort to avoid peat moss, so it seems silly I'm using so much plastic to keep my plants happy. I know you commonly recommend rain water but I live in the city and this isn't really an option for me. Are there any suggestions you have that I can implement for mineral sensitive plants?"
First off Gavin, a big tick for you, I'm glad the sustainability is on your mind and I really feel your pain regarding rain water because I am really, really lucky to have a free supply of rain water coming down into my water butts in my garden. It is a really tricky one for your carnivores there isn't really any way of getting the water you need unless you're going to go down the distilled bottled water route which I think is what you're doing right now, obviously then you have the issue of single use plastic. The other alternative is to get a reverse osmosis unit, which is a relatively large expense, I think you're talking about anywhere from £200, probably the equivalent in dollars, for a very basic reverse osmosis system up to God knows what, thousands of pounds, and obviously you've got to find room for it in your accommodation so it's quite a big investment. But if you do have an RO system, that does mean that you have a free and easy supply of water that is suitable for all of those plants that are sensitive to mineral salts, including, of course, carnivorous plants.
One other product that I've seen on sale in the UK, is a steam distilled water system. The water is heated in an enclosed container and then the steam is collected and that's condensed back so that you can have distilled water, these retail for about £150 and up in the UK. Whether this is any more sustainable than you buying the occasional plastic jug of water from the shops, I don't know, because you're buying a piece of equipment in which then you have to use energy in order to boil that water and get it condensed.
Let's assume that's off the table, the other thing that people suggest in this circumstance is something that is more commonly used by people with aquariums, a product that dechlorinates water. I think a best selling one is one called Seachem Prime, what that does is it removes chlorine and heavy metals and chloramine from water so that you can add them to fish tanks. So that is good for plants that are sensitive to chlorine and chloramine, which are closely related chemicals and do cause some house plants problems, but it's not going to help with the mineral salts issue.
The only other thing I can suggest is that you ask around your neighbourhood, could you do something as basic as putting a plastic container outside somewhere, outside your back step? I don't know if such a thing exists? Or ask around your neighbourhood on Facebook groups and other community groups, is there anybody who has got some outside space who might be prepared to give you some water from their water butt regularly? Or some kind of bartering system where you give them some house plants and they give you a supply of a few bottles of rain water.
It sounds crazy but there are an amazing number of networks now, through social media, where you can connect with people who might be able to provide you with what you're looking for in terms of rain water. Rain water is the gold standard in this case, looking for some water that you can use on those carnivorous plants. I would say try to think about that, whether there's any way you can get your hands on some rain water. If not, I think you're probably going to have to keep going down the distilled water route. Delving around on various aquarium groups, I've also seen people mention, in the US at least, that if you go to an aquarium store you can refill a jug with RO water, basically water that will be fine for your carnivorous plants, that's had the mineral salts removed, by the gallon jug, that you just refill and it costs less than a dollar for a gallon, so that might be another option if you happen to have any aquarium shops in your vicinity, check that out, ask around and you may find that you that way you can do a refill rather than having to get a new plastic jug every time.
That's my suggestions. If anyone has any other ideas for Gavin do let me know. If you've got a question for On The Ledge, drop me a line
Now let's go back to our chat with Anders to find out a little bit more about the Norwegian attitude to house plants and why men seem to like the larger house plant.
Jane: Norwegians, as a nation, really have a thing for house plants. I think, per head, you have a lot more house plants than we do here in the UK. Why do you think Norwegians are so into house plants?
Anders: I think Norwegians are known for doing a lot of sports, they're known for fjords and mountains, and we are very active and we get a lot of recreation from nature, but the winter is quite long and cold and dark, so we actually lack nature during the winter time. For me, as a therapist, I see this also with my patients. The winter is often hard. It's not that house plants alone can cure depression but they sure can help because I really believe what's happening now with the house plant wave, more and more people see that house plants and surrounding yourself with greens, is quite cheap and easy way of feeling a bit better, so that you can survive through the winter.
Jane: I think that's really true, it's just nice to have something green you can tinker with over the winter and when it's cold outside. I'm fully on board with that. Moving on from that along the same veins, I believe that dogs are also involved in your mental health wellness ideas?
Anders: Yes, it's true.
Jane: There are some pictures of your Instagram. I think you've got a dog with your plants. Tell me a bit about how that works. Does your dog get on well with your plants?
Anders: He does. He's not mine, but he belongs to a friend of mine and I borrow him. His name is Tassen. He's a Cavapoo. He's a very sweet dog. He's happy all the time, into almost being a bit annoying. He's blessed with a constant good mood. As a therapist there is a lot of scientific reports showing that pets and plants have much the same effect on people, they make us feel better. I think the body of releases a lot of endorphins and some kind of hormones that makes us feel better. So this is not an alternative, it's purely scientific. So I say if you want to feel better, you should go pat a dog in greenery and that's where you get a double dose of happiness.
Jane: You are absolutely right. Walking my dog is a wonderful daily dose of loveliness. As regular listeners to my show will know, Wolfie, my dog, is very, very important to my mental health, and he occasionally drives me nuts and worries me when he has to go to the vets, but it's a wonderful presence.
Anders: I think both the green therapy and pet therapy is an easy way to feel a bit better.
Jane: Totally. One of the things that you commented on to me, which I thought was really powerful as well, was about the loveliness of the house plant community that you've experienced through setting up your Instagram and so on. Tell me a little bit about that, I know this was the subject or the headline for a Vanity Fair piece you were in?
Anders: I often say that plant people are rarely bullies because I find the house plant community on social media to be quite warm and caring. I have about 54,000 followers on Instagram and I never experience any hate or bullying. I have some other friends in Norway that are what we call influencers and they have a lot of followers on Instagram too, but the amount of discrimination, racism, sexism, they experience, I got shocked. So I was wondering, what is it with the house plant community on social media that is so peaceful? But I think it's the effect that the plants have on us: we get more peaceful and it's not controversial at all.
Jane: I would absolutely agree. I have to say the Facebook group that I set up for the listeners to On The Ledge has been a wonderfully trouble-free place, with everyone being incredibly supportive and lovely and I would totally echo that. It makes it such a joy to make a podcast because you get such a positive feedback on what you do, which is great. That's really nice to hear that you don't have any of those hassles that your friends have.
Anders: True, the only thing I experienced is un-voluntarily being dragged into a heated debate whether it's good to spray the plants with water or not. That's the worst thing and that's a thing that I can deal with, but it says something about the effect that plants have on us. It's quite peaceful, you see also on social media. That has to do with house plants, I think.
Jane: I want to get on to the subject of misting because this is something that's caused much vexation over the years in trying to establish fact from fiction about misting. I'm not a big mister, I have to say, unless I'm treating a plant for a pest, I tend not to mist my plants. What are the arguments for and against and where do you stand on it?
Anders: As I understood after reading quite a lot about it, it doesn't have much effect because if it should have an effect, you should spray your plants every ten minutes and that's not possible. The reason I mist my plants, once in a while, it's an easy way to get more in touch with the plant. You'll notice if it looks bad or healthy and you get to clean away the dust. I also think that it makes the plant breathe better, so it's an opportunity to cleanse the plant for me. I spray it and then I use the warm cloth and sweep the leaves.
Jane: So it's more of a cleansing thing as opposed to this is going to massively increase the moist air around the plant which is not really going to happen? One of the other things that you were telling me about, was the idea that the house plant enthusiasm that we're seeing is not just a temporary trend but something bigger, part of the green shift. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
Anders: Yes, when I wrote my book, Green Joy, I got in touch with some people, editors, and some of them, not the editor that I chose, but some of them said the plants are only a trend and they won't sell. I think they are really wrong. The book has sold out three times in Norway, so it's something that people want more of. It's not just a trend, I think, because how I see it, is house plants are a symbol of the green shift. I think people lack nature, so they bring nature back into their homes, their offices, their schools and you see this with all the green plants indoors. It's a way of taking back nature and the longing for nature I think. If that's a trend, that's not good. We need more knowledge and we need to be more in touch with plants and nature. For me, the house plant shift, the green shift, the green wave, is a symbol of what people need more of and want more of for the future with the environment, that's how I see it.
Jane: I really hope that you're right. I think it's wonderful to think of it being part of a really long-term shift in our thinking, that is what we're all after. Tell me more about your book, how has that gone down and have you discovered a whole new raft of fans as a result of it?
Anders: Yes, it's been doing very well in Norway. It made the best-seller list and some people didn't believe that a book about plants would make the best-seller list, but I think that shows the big interest for house plants nowadays. The book also sold to another European country now, so I hope it will also come to the UK and so on. Even though it's a book about Norwegian conditions, it's also relevant, especially people living up north where you have the colder winters. It's also a book about how people can succeed with their plants, so it's very easy-care. It's also a book about my personal plant history.
I grew up in a farmland in Norway and it was very green and lush. I became a farmer myself but then I moved to the city and I saw that I lacked something, so I filled my apartment with plants more and more and now I've got over 100 plants in a small apartment, some say that's madness but it works for me. It's also a book about how you can make your plants look good and how you can use them in the interior because 100 plants can look a mess but by placing them nicely together, using different heights, there's also some tips and tricks on how you can make your plants look even more beautiful in your home.
Jane: Yes, I think that's a good one because, as you say, when you've got a lot of plants it can end up looking like just a load of leaves and styling them does take some skill. I can see from your Instagram that you do that very, very well. A lot of that seems to be down to choice of pots and positioning. You've got some lovely containers and tables and things that you put your plants on. Do you spend a lot of time working on that kind of thing and choosing containers and so on?
Anders: Yes, I always think that there's a lot of bad-looking containers. So what I've done with a lot of my planters is that I go into my mother's cupboard, I go to flea markets, I find bowls and buckets and I use a drill and make a hole in them, so I create my own planters. That's a cheap way of doing it and it looks even more personal and beautiful I think.
Jane: Raiding your mother's cupboard sounds like a great idea. Pots can get really expensive as well. Once you start buying new stuff, it can get very pricey, so repurposing other things is a fantastic idea, providing you put some drainage holes in there, absolutely, why not?
Anders: I think it's quite a funny thing but in the Scandinavian countries, you see a lot of men have an interest in house plants. I was thinking why this was so and I spoke with a friend of mine, he has a plant shop in Oslo, he says there's a lot of men coming into the shops now, they're bringing their girlfriends, wives, partners and so on but they don't want ordinary plants, they want the huge, they want the big plants. So I don't know how to understand that but if it is so that men are getting more and more into houseplants, I think that's a good sign for the future.
Jane: I think that's really true. It's interesting, the size thing, yes. I'm not sure what to say about that! With your profession you may have more of an insight than I into that.
Anders: Yes, in my experience, I can recognise it in myself because when I get a plant, one of my goals is to make it as big and lush and vital as possible, so that's a goal. I really enjoy my biggest plants, like the Strelitzia nicolai and the Monstera. These are my favourites and they're really big and I like that.
Jane: There's definitely something to be said for a bit of scale, even in a small apartment. I think people think a small plant will be the only thing, but in a small apartment one big plant can make the room look bigger, I think.
Anders: Yes, that's true, and also I think the big plants, you see them a lot of them in offices and in shops and they're often used as room dividers. In my apartment, I use big plants as room dividers. They're also very good for noise and the sound because the noise will often be absorbed with the leaves and also the soil, so it also has that function.
Jane: The other thing I wanted to ask you about was about buying plants in winter. Should we be putting ourselves on a complete plant-buying ban during the death months, as you call them?
Anders: Yes, I think so. I try, but I don't succeed very well with that. When you buy a plant you want to succeed with it and it's quite hard if you buy a plant in November because the risk of it dying is there. So the best thing is to buy to plants in March/April when the spring light returns and they get a fresh new start. It's tempting to buy it in the winter time as well, I think.
Jane: It is very tempting. I guess if you do the key is bringing it home well-insulated from the outside conditions.
Anders: That's important and another thing is, you see this a lot in Norway now, people using grow lights to make their plants survive the darker months and it really works. I started with it three years ago, what I see is that my plants thrive through the winter. Some say it's cheating to use the grow lights, but I say if you have a washing machine you don't use your hands to wash the clothes. It's the same with the technology - it's here, so why not use them to make your plants grow better? It's also good for the environment, to make your plants survive, I think grow lights are a great thing and I think also they can be used inside homes as long as you have the white lights and not the red ones.
Jane: I agree, why not use them if you can get hold of them. Any more tips for getting through the death months? When do we start getting hope again? Is it February, the days start getting lighter?
Anders: I think the end of February when the spring light returns, that's a good period for me because then I know I have a long season until October where I can do a lot of plant care and buy new plants and they have a good condition for growing in and being happy.
Jane: We'll get our heads down and get through the next few weeks and months and then we can come out the other side. Thank you so much for joining me today, Anders.
Anders: Thank you.
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Jane: Thanks so much to Anders for talking to me about the death months. I hope that's convinced you that together we can get through this. Of course, if you're in Australia or New Zealand right now, enjoying the summer, well, what can I say? Enjoy the sunshine, we're not bitter in the slightest ... much! Check out my show notes for details of the Arctic Gardner's Instagram account, his new book and more. Until then, keep your hot water bottle topped up, that's my advice! Bye!
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Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day, Gokarna by Samuel Corwin and Endeavour by Jahzzar. The ad music was Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. See www.janeperrone.com for details.
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Anders on his balcony with a very impressive Strelitzia, backing up his theory that men like big plants!
November, December and January are what my guest this week calls ‘the death months’ - the period when so many houseplants struggle to survive in low light, dry air and cold draughts.
Anders Røyneberg, aka the Arctic Gardener, has filled his apartment in Oslo, Norway with houseplants, and as a psychotherapist he knows better than most how plants can help people with their mental health challenges.
Anders grew up in the farmlands of Norway, became a farmer, then moved to the city. He missed the greenery, so he decided to bring plants indoors, and now has dozens of beautiful specimens inside his small apartment. His new book Plantelykke - which translates as ‘green joy’ - is out now in Norway, and with any luck will be published in English before long.
We talk about how to keep houseplants happy over winter, why Norwegians love the Chinese money plant and how to grow them well, why dogs and plants make the perfect therapy combination, and whether misting really helps plants cope with dry air. We also discuss about whether a plant-buying ban in a good idea during ‘the death months’ and why growlights are a brilliant addition to your home, especially during winter.
Question of the week
Gavin buys distilled water in plastic bottles for his carnivorous plants and calatheas, but is feeling bad about all that single-use plastic. Getting hold of rainwater is difficult as he lives in a city. I suggest asking around to see if a neighbour, friend or contact with outside space can barter some water, maybe in exchange for some cuttings? Some people suggest using a water conditioning product such as Seachem Prime which is used to treat tap water for aquariums, and although this will deal with chlorine and chloramine in the water, it won’t deal with the mineral salts that are the main issue when watering carnivorous plants.
Installing a reverse osmosis unit is a good if pricey way to have an endless supply of water for plants that cannot cope with mineral salts in their drink. Another option is a steam distiller, which boils the water and then the steam is condensed and collected, producing distilled water that way. Both of these options are likely to cost upwards of £150, or roughly the same in US dollars, so they are not a cheap option, and there are also the energy costs of running them. One final option is to locate an aquarium shop as some of these seem to offer refills on distilled water by the bottle, so you could avoid having to use more plastic. If anyone else has suggestions for Gavin, please let me know!
(In episode 119, I mentioned that a listener recommended the Zero water filter as a good way of obtaining a rainwater alternative as it claims to remove 99.6% of all dissolved solids.)
Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue!
This week’s sponsor: Soltech Solutions
The Aspect growlight from Soltech Solutions.
On The Ledge podcast is supported this week by Soltech Solutions, home of the luxury plant light! You’ve heard me talk about their stylish LED growlights on the show before, so I am really excited to be able to share with you a unique coupon code for listeners to get your houseplant lighting system off to a great start.
If you’re looking for museum-quality growlights that fit with your decor, and give off just the right spectrum of light to keep your plants happy - without that weird pinky-purple glow you often get from LED plants lights, Soltech Solutions is the answer.
They offer a clever track system to illuminate your plant filled shelves and pendant lights to suspend over your precious fig or Euphorbia, all beautifully made with the indoor gardener in mind so you can seamlessly integrate your favourite plants into every corner of your home, whether you’re a beginner or a pro.
Visit Soltech Solutions to find out more and don’t forget to use the coupon code OTL15 for 15% off your purchase.
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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, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day Gokana by Samuel Corwin, and Endeavour by Jahzzar. Ad music is Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons.
Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.