We're here to talk about this lovely, lovely book. And I feel like we've been on parallel journeys with this, I'm not going to go on about my book, because that's not what this episode is about. But it's really exciting that your book is now a physical thing. How does it feel? Well, I have to say it's, there's a lot of gorgeousness in here to enjoy. Were there, was there anything in here that you found really challenging to write about or anything that was particularly enjoyable, or you know, that you really got into that you were flying away with or where where were the peaks and the troughs? I'm looking at 90 plus percent humidity here on the care information, I'm thinking, yeah, that's going to be a challenge.

If you enjoy doing it and find it relaxing, then go for it. Just know that if you are trying to increase humidity, it’s not doing that. And it can cause things like fungal problems on the leaf if the water is not drying off,” says Tony.

The store in Northampton town centre receives customers from all over the world - as far away as Nigeria and Canada. After teaching himself how to grow indoor plants and becoming a prolific collector, Tony has learned better than most not all advice on maintaining plants rings true. “There is some advice out there that isn’t always based on facts,” he warns.

Tony’s desert island plant: Anything from the alocasia family as they produce big leaves which you can shelter under and you can eat the tubers! You're looking at, you're wiping down that plant with great love. That's all I can say about that picture.

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Ah there you go now those are the top tips. I mean, this is illustrative of the fact that, you know, an easy plant for one person will be a super hard plant for another person. And, you know, I guess this is part of your work with a book and also the shop is when somebody comes in trying to elicit from them well, you know, what is your house like? Because, you know, even within the UK, there's so many different kinds of types of houses and conditions. When you have somebody coming into the shop, or when you're guiding somebody through the process of buying plants. You know, do you find that, presumably, that's a fun thing to do for you, because you can... 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. Need a podcast that sates your desire for house plant information, relaxing chat and general leafiness. You're in just the right place. This is on the ledge podcast, and I am your host Jane Perrone. And in this week's show, I visit Tony Le-Britton to find out about his new book, Not another Jungle. And, you know, it's difficult online to explain these things because there's so much information out there saying that this is the right thing to be doing that it becomes factual almost, fake fact. Whereas once you start breaking that down in 'Okay, so how much how much potassium is actually in a banana skin? How do the plants access that?' You pretty much can't in a house plant. So then you can start breaking things down. And once you've broken the, the non-facts down, you can say, 'Okay, well, how do we fertilise our plants?' So throughout the book, it's really about bringing together science and helping people understand why we do these things, not just telling people to do something, but really getting an understanding for your plants.