Interview with Isabelle Palmer, author of The House Gardener

I hope you had a lovely weekend. Today, I’m delighted to share with you an interview with Isabelle Palmer. Isabelle is the author of the new book, ‘The House Gardener’ and the founder of The Balcony Gardener, an online company specialising in product ranges for small urban outdoor spaces.

Your first book, ‘The Balcony Gardener‘ focused on balcony gardens, could you tell us about your new book ‘The House Gardener’?

I really wanted to focus on the much forgotten houseplant. There are so many wonderful ways you can incorporate plants into your living space and I wanted to explore these and bring them back into the decorating/garden sphere. It’s a wonderful way to really make a home and great if you don’t have any outdoor space at all.

What are your top 5 houseplant tips?

1. Make sure your plants are suited to the light levels & temperature of the room.
2. Try to avoid direct sunlight and don’t place houseplants on top of radiators.
3. Avoid deep shade where plants won’t get enough light to photosynthesise.
4. Keep plants away from draughts and temperature extremes.
5. Pot on regularly. Aim to repot into larger containers every two years.

Do you have a favourite design from The House Gardener?

I really love the moss fireside as it’s a really showy display and something out of the ordinary.

Succulents feature heavily in your book and they’re very on-trend at the moment. Could you tell us what type of growing conditions they like?

Succulents include sempervivums, sedums, aloes, kalanchoes, echeverias and other fleshy-leaved species. Watering succulents is probably one of the trickiest parts of growing succulents.  If you see black stems, you’re overwatering.  And if you see shrivelled leaves, you need to water more. Generally, keep the soil moist to touch at all times in the summer growing periods.

What is your favourite houseplant?

There are so many but if I really had to pick one, I think it would be Crassula (money plant) for sentimental reasons, as it’s the first houseplant I moved into my house with, 14 years ago and it’s still with me to this day.

Here are some images from Isabelle’s wonderful new book, including the fabulous fireside which she mentioned…

Thank you so much to Isabelle for all her help in compiling today’s blog post. Here’s a short video where she talks about the book:

The House Gardener by Isabelle Palmer is published by CICO Books and is available from Ryland Peters. And if you’d like to follow Isabelle on social media, she’s on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

P.S.  I’m with Isabelle…I too love money plants! Do you have a favourite houseplant?

(Images : Isabelle Palmer/Ryland Peters)