And in this week's show, I'm talking to the author of a new book called the indoor garden. That's Jade Murray. Plus, we hear from listener Dorian and I answer a question about wick watering. Thank you to Jay plants this week who left me a lovely review. For the show, giving me 5 stars. Thank you so much. And here's a little anecdote when I first moved to the states. My roommate thought my name was James, rather than Jane, for a good few, a good few weeks before I realized that she didn't have my name right. So that was a fun conversation. Shyam retiring English person as I was, it took me a while to pluck up the courage to tell her that she'd got it wrong. Oh gosh. Those were the days. Thank you also to Sara and Luisa, who became legends this week, joining my Patreon clan. When I was doing the cards for my Patreon subscribers at the legend and superfan level, I realized that I have an incredible spread of patrons from around the globe. 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Now if there's one thing that today's guest Jade Murray and I have in common is the fact that we both have children and indoor gardens. And that's something we chat about in her interview today. Jade's new book, the indoor garden, get started no matter how small your space is out now, I'll put a link in the show notes to this title in the U.S. is being published under the name beginner's house plant garden, so I'll put links for both the UK and the U.S. edition into the show notes. I had a feeling that Jade's house plant obsession wasn't a new thing in her life, so I wanted to find out first where this all began. So I would start with maybe a child, so I must have been about 6 or 7. And I used to spend a lot of time at my nun's house and she had a balcony garden where I lived at home with my mom. We didn't have a garden. No one in my family actually had gardens, but my nan had a balcony garden. So I used to spend a lot of time as a child, water in her plants, helping her so seeds in and all that sort of stuff. So that was really where my passion and loved plants started as a child. That's really lovely to hear. And I think lots of people will relate to that being the start of their love of plants with a family member. It's a really special thing to enjoy. And here we are now. You've published a book. How did you end up writing a book about houseplants? It's such a random story. So what happened was last year, I think it was April. I was actually washing up my dishes and I was listening to a show over here in the UK called BBC the one show. And one of the presenters presented has said, we're going to be seeing someone who's going to he's got 300 houseplants and we're going to be having a look. So I stopped what I was doing in the kitchen ran to the living room. I thought, oh my gosh, I need to see this woman's 300 house plants because I've got about 70. I want to see what hers looks like. So I was watching the whole segment beautiful house she had loads of house plants. And after that segment, there was a competition that RHS my Chelsea garden competition and that entailed people up and down the UK can submit a photo of either their front garden, that garden, roof terrace, or an alternative garden category. So obviously I entered a photo of my indoor garden, which fitted the category for alternative garden. And I actually went on to win the competition and got RHS gold award for my indoor garden. And on the back of that show, my publishers had reached out and said to me, we loved how you were on BBC the one show. We can't believe how many house partners you've got and the knowledge you've got, you know, we'd love to offer you a book deal. So that was how that came about the book. And what do you think it was about your particular space that inspired the judges to give you the prize? Do you know what? That is actually such a hard question to answer because it's my home and then my plants and I just style them how I want. I suppose it's like I took it for granted, you know, I suppose it's when I'd have visitors and they would come and they'd be like, oh my God, this is beautiful. But it's just because it's mine and it's what I've done. Yeah, so I don't know how to answer that. I don't know why, but I suppose, yeah, they really appreciated how I've styled my plants, how I've taken care of them, and they're very carefully placed in the perfect location with my home. So a lot of the shaded plants that don't like direct light, they're in the perfect location, plants that love brighter light. I have spotlights on them. So they've obviously elements at the one show picked up on and realized that amount of thought and detail I've put into my house plants and well placed them and how I've solved them. Yeah, I mean, looking at the pictures, I can tell that you've got an amazing collection. How many houseplants have you got now? Has it gone up? No, it hasn't gone up. So I'm about 70. Could you fit more in or are you quite? I know you've got children like me. So, you know, you have to be a bit respectful of the fact that they might not want to have be living in an actual jungle. I do have space for more. I've just have to be very disciplined not to get any more. And because it requires a lot of time and care and attention. And at the moment, my time is very limited after the book's been released. So I've been very disciplined and not buying anymore, but no, my kids actually love our indoor garden, especially because they have autism or free of my children. So they've actually found having the indoor plants very therapeutic for them. And I've definitely noticed that in them as well. The benefits of having the indoor garden. That's really interesting. So how do they interact with the plants? Do they get involved with the care or do they just enjoy looking at them or how does that work? So for my daughter who's ten, she's very hands on, she reminds me of me at her age actually when it comes to the plants. So she likes to help me propagate, repotting, wiping down the leaves, keeping them dust free, she's into it, missing them all of that sort of stuff. The boy, my 17 year old son, and my 12 year old son, they more just appreciate the visuals. So the sensory appeal that he has, especially my hanging plants. They love the shadows on the walls that they create. Very sensory for them. So yeah, they all appreciate our Intel garden in their own way. And I've definitely noticed how calm and tranquil it makes the house feel, which definitely has had a positive effect