Episode 97: indoor jungles with designer Martha Krempel
Martha Krempel’s plant filled extension. Photograph: Jane Perrone
Martha Krempel with some of her (freshly washed) plants. Photograph: Jane Perrone.
London-based garden designer Martha Krempel channelled her love of houseplants into turning her newly extended London home into an indoor plant haven featuring some seriously big plants, including a succulent Euphorbia planted into a floor-level bed right in the centre of her living space.
Safe to say, I was completely captivated.
Martha has been designing gardens since 2014, and a love of houseplants lead her to redesign her own home to accommodate lots of statuesque plants, including one very fine succulent Euphorbia ingens planted into a bed at ground level, so it looks as if it’s thrusting up from the floor.
Earlier this year, Martha won an award from the Society of Garden Designers in the category Big Ideas, Small Budget for her indoor/outdoor courtyard garden, which was described by the judges as “A clever blend of house and garden, through a courtyard whose planting lends a softness and tranquility to the space. On entering the garden one feels like one has stepped out of the world to a wonderful urban oasis of calm in the city."
I find out how she dreamed up the space, picked the plants and continues to play with different arrangements of pots and foliage.
You can follow Martha on Instagram and Twitter and view more garden design projects on her website.
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Pablo and friends green up the living space. Photograph: David Heathcock.
The Strelitzia that Martha says hasn’t yet flowered is the white-flowered bird of paradise Strelitzia nicolai.
The impressively tall euphorbia is a Euphorbia ingens (aka candelabra plant) named Pablo. Strictly speaking it’s a tree succulent, as opposed to a cactus.
The tree Martha planted outside to shade the indoor area is a Betula nigra ‘Heritage’, a type of river birch.
The plants growing at the base of the pit containing Pablo the Euphorbia are Euphorbia characias ‘Tasmanian Tiger’, Festuca glauca ‘Intense Blue’ and Sesleria nitida.
The tropical gardens Martha mentions is Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset, in the UK.
Martha likes to source her pots from many places, and many are upcycled finds from antique shops and the like, but some of them come from Atelier Vierkant.
Question of the week
I don’t know if you’ve ever explored the Twitter hashtag #planttwitter, but I saw this question on there, and it got me thinking about my plant care regimes and how I document (or rather don’t document) them. I’d love to know if any of you use apps, journals or any other method to keep track of watering and the like? Do let me know!
Want to ask me a question about your plant? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com.
CREDITS
This week's show featured Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and Overthrown by Josh Woodward. Ad music is by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra: Dill Pickles and Whistling Rufus. All tracks licensed under Creative Commons.
Logo design by Jacqueline Colley. Podcast editing by Joff Elphick.