Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball - Family Nicknames, Feeling Anxious at Parties and Mulching Your Borders!

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball are here — and they’re kicking off Dig It with barn dances, hosepipe bans, and navigating life in your 50s and 60s with humour, honesty, and great boots. GET IN TOUCH 📧 Email us: [e-mail] 📱 Text us: 07477 038795 💬 Or tap here to send a voice note or message on WhatsApp: https://wa.me/447477038795 GET EARLY AND AD-FREE EPISODES Become a member of The Potting Shed for early and ad-free episodes and bonus content 👉 https://digit.supportingcast.fm/  SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR This episode is brought to you by Ancient and Brave. 🛍️ Get 20% off your first one-off purchase with the code DIGIT at 👉 ancientandbrave.earth/planet Credits: Exec Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan  Technical Producer: Oliver Geraghty Video Editor: Danny Pape    Dig It is a Persephonica production 

Coming up on Digit. So we've got a host pipe band coming. Oh. You can't wash down your leisure boat. How are you going to go to? How will you cope with a dirty leisure boat? My feet are black and blue today. I got trodden on so many times.

Never go line dancing or cowboy dancing without shoes on. Can I say, happy goddamn 60th birthday, Joe Wiley. Look hotter than you've ever looked. Swimsuits and underwear, the nemesis of any woman of a certain age. Look, Wilbur's now giving you a full catwalk. All of that right after this. Hi Joe, Joe Wiley. Hi, Zoe Ball.

Obviously, we are the Anton Dek now of the podcast world. Someone said, can we always stay on certain side so that they can tell which of us is which? Because people get us confused all the time. Lifelong problem. People always shout to me. Hey, Joe Wiley. And I just take it.

I'm like, I don't mind being confused with you. I love it. Also, we don't want to disappoint people, do we? Like, I had a cab journey the other day and the taxi driver was like, Hi, Zoe, and started this long conversation. I thought, I can't bear to break his heart that I'm not Zoe Ball, so I just went along with it. We could get each other in loads of trouble.

You can actually be my other personality. And we go way back. So when do we first know each other? I think it was a very beginning of the 90s, wasn't it? You worked in one half of the office on the Word, and I worked on the Big Breakfast in the other half of the office. And everyone who worked on the Word was dead cool, and everyone who worked on Big Breakfast were complete nerds. and it was like these two sides. But I think from that office,

most of the people now run television. There's a lot of people started there. Yeah, absolutely big influential people. I mean, Chris Evans was part of Big Breakfast, wasn't it? And I do, the reason that I think I remember you is because you were always into cool music. So even though there was this office and there was a line going across it,

you used to step over the line and used to talk to me about music and bands that you love, like the lemon heads and all those kind of the grunge scene that was going on at the time. So I think there's always been this kind of musical, kinship between the two of us. We like the same kind of thing. And then we've just evolved. We've grown up together. Look at us now. We have grown up together. And I remember you booking Nirvana on

the word and being like, this girl, this girl knows her stuff. And your India was a toddler in the office then. I remember. And she'd come in and she would melt everyone's hearts in the office. We'd all be like, can we do daycare? Can we do some daycare? Mom's working. I mean, that's what you do, right? As a working mum because I had my daughter when I was 27, India. And I remember I got this amazing job. I was a music booker on the Word. It was fantastic. And then I got pregnant. And I was like, oh, oh, I don't know quite what to do. And there was no conversation about what you did when you had kids. I didn't have any friends who had babies. So I just genuinely didn't know what to do. And I went to saw my boss, who was a guy called Charlie Parsons. I went, and I've done one series, but now I'm having a baby.

And he went, all right, go and have the baby and then come back and do the next series. So that's what I did. And they, and I said, what do I do with her? And they went, bring her in. That's fine. So we'd have meetings, we'd have board meetings, and India would just crawl across the table. And then someone would, like in Rugrats, they'd just go, Chuckie, they'd reverse her and she'd crawl back again. And it was absolutely fine. And I had a guy who was looking after her, who was my nanny. And we made it work. And she came along and she met some incredible people like Bjerk and Courtney Love.

But she was only a tiny, tiny seed at the time. That's amazing. You had a manny before anybody else. I love that. We should tell people what this whole thing is all about, shouldn't we? what the podcast is. Yes. It's called Digit and what is it about, Joe? It's not the fat slugs, which is now our favourite because one of our lovely, lovely listeners got in touch. And we'd mentioned that our kids were suggesting stupid names for the podcast. One of them was, what was it,

Joe and Zoe's big bushes and then the other one was fat slags. And then someone said, no, it should be fat slugs because we will be touching on gardening. But apart from gardening, there's so much more that we're going to be talking about. These are the conversations that you and I would have with each other. It's about life. It's about being working mums. It's about being worried about our teens and what they're up to. And our kids and our parents and aging and longevity and keeping healthy.

And should we eat this or eat that? And should we dig old stuff out the back of the wardrobe? Can I get away with wearing a Hansa G swimsuit? No, I can't because I tried. And they said they work on anyone in any one. shape or figure. I wore them in the 80s. I tried some on the other day. They turned up. They looked awful. Do not fall. Swimsuits and underwear. The nemesis of any woman of a certain age. But that's, yeah, that's the essence of it. It's literally, it's life and all the stuff that goes

with it. And a lot of fun as well and a lot of the chaos that goes on their lives because it's just ridiculous. You know, all the hard stuff. It's just ridiculous. And if we can help each other out with it, then that is great. We're just going to laugh our way through because that's the only thing you can do. So speaking of ridiculous, you have had the most crazy couple of months, Glastonbury, straight into Henley Regatta. I saw you on Friday DJing, yeah. And then a sort of like, was it like a double birthday and anniversary celebration this weekend? Yeah, basically it was my birthday last week. It was Steve's birthday a week later. It was our anniversary yesterday. He forgot, by the way. Can I just say it? I mean, we normally always forget. And this year, I remember.

I was like, yes, I've remembered and I know he's going to forget. And that's quite a good feeling handing over a card and just going, here's your card from me, knowing that he's not going to go. And here's your card from me. That didn't happen. But yeah, it was my birthday and I was 60 and everyone kept saying, oh, literally for the last year, I've been having everybody going, oh, you've got a big birthday coming up, haven't you? How do you feel about it?

And I just thought, I do you know what, I'm not going to be, I'm not going to shy away from it. I'm not going to be embarrassed about it. It's a fact of life. I'm really happy. I'm here and I'm healthy and I've still got all my family around me. I'm very grateful for all of that. I'm just going to acknowledge it and I'm going to celebrate it. So we had a massive barn dance because that's what I did when I was 50, 10 years ago. And we recreated that. So in the garden, we had bales of straw everywhere. We had a band. We had a Kaley. We did line dancing. We had an ice cream van turn up. We had all kinds of madness. And it was just the most fun. And the one thing about being 60 is that you really appreciate everything. I mean, you really do. You look around the room and there are people who aren't here now, who were at my 50th birthday and you think, bloody out, I'm just going to seize every moment. I'm going to appreciate every second I have with all these beautiful people who are here tonight.

And that's what we did at the weekend. This is amazing. Can I mention a couple of things? One, how are you 60? I know. That blows my mind, Joe. It blows my mind. And also, I think it just goes to show.

that these are just numbers. They are numbers, aren't they? And sometimes you feel a little bit like, oh my God, these numbers, but they're kind of irrelevant in a way because actually there's so much else to sort of think about. But I'm also really glad that you have properly celebrated it. It's like, yes, I'm 60 and life is good.

Let's have a party. Absolutely, yeah. And your anniversary, I do believe there is a picture of you and Disco Steve when you got married. This is iconic. You're going to show it, aren't you? We're going to see this here. We need to see.

This picture is so cute. Obviously, we keep referring to lots of photographs and things. But if you want to, then you can watch the whole program. You can see it on Spotify and YouTube. But then you're able to see all the outfits and all the stuff we're talking about. Talk me through. Talk me through wedding memories, please. So for the wedding, traditionally, I had some kind of hair scenario going on.

and I decided to have my hair curled. Why I had it curled for my wedding when I never ever normally have curls. I don't know. And it just took quite a long time to get the hairstyle right. So I, and I went for the full meringue dress. Love it.

As you can see. It was, you know, it was iconic of the time. So big puffy sleeves, big puffy everything. Blue flowers, dark blue flowers. And it was lovely. I've got really, really wonderful memories. And one of the really good things that I remember is my sister was bridesmaid at our wedding.

and my sister's got learning difficulties and she's a very, very forceful, strong, hilarious character. She's tiny, she's like this mighty atom, tiny but wide. And she had a lovely bridesmaid's dress on when we got married and we walked down the aisle and she was behind me and she was quite shouting, quite vocal. And as we stood at the altar, so she decided to barge past us and sit in front of us.

So we had the vicar there, we had Francis just in front of us as well. And then throughout the whole ceremony, she just kept heckling. And every time he'd say, you know, do you, Steve take Joe? And he'd say, I do. And Francis would go, yes, I do as well. And then when Steve did a really lovely speech at my birthday, and she heckled him throughout the entire speech as well.

So he gave some flowers to my mum, and she was like, my flowers. So it was like 30 years on, and she's still here with us, and she's still being brilliant. She's still heckling her brother-in-law. And she's still heckling. Can I just say, Joe, you were like a fine wine. I think you look great at 60. I think you look better at 60.

Thank you. You do. You blow my mind. We see you doing Glaston. Look at you, a Glastonbury. Look, girl. I mean,

I know you hate looking at pictures of yourself, but I know lots of people who don't get to go to Glassbury, watch the coverage. And, you know, all my friends as well, everyone's so excited about watching you do it because you just own it. And I know it's terrifying for you

because you've got to be across all those bands and everyone else is dancing around and feeling. are watching at home, getting drunk, and you have to work. It's a lot. But you always rock up in these fabulous outfits. You look ageless. And then you absolutely own it and you bring it all home for everybody who's watching at home. Thank you. But you know that I was messaging you literally the night or two days before going, I cannot stand it. I can't go with the pressure of finding a nice dress. I've got nothing to wear. The joy of getting older, genuinely, is that you've got experience.

You know, you've learned from over the years. You learn what's, you learn what's. suits your body shape so you don't wear the wrong things and you have people that you can get advice from and and times are different now we can get lots of makeup tips online can i just say the boots the boots i know we've gone off paste already it's like but we'll come back to the piece um but the boots you wore yeah so good you and were these new or old were you digging stuff out the back of the wardrobe no they weren't i wore my black dms as well sorry i wore my black dms i'm looking at the photograph um which are my really old ones but then these these were brand new ones these were a designer, Terry de Haverland. And as soon as I saw them, I was like, oh my God, they're going to look

great with a pretty dress. They will work with anything. Shorts, dress, I don't care. I'm having these. These are boots for life that I'm going to hand on to my kids further down the line. So they will always be in the family. Because, you know, with Nelly, I bet she wears lots of your clothes already, doesn't she? Because Coco raids my wardrobe. She has. And she's very strong-minded about, oh, well, no, I will not be borrowing that. Because I'm like, what about this? What about that and I can't buy her clothes anymore because everything I buy her, I've been trying to buy her slightly longer skirts. I've been she turned into my dad. You can't go out in that that helmet. That's not a skirt. That's a belt. But she takes that really well too. Yeah. And I've

realised I can't tell her things like that because she should be really proud of her body and she looks fabulous and she can wear what she down well likes. But she does borrow some key pieces. There's a couple of leather jackets that I can't get around my manly shoulders anymore because I've got wider with age and I love that she's wearing those things. The only thing I do have loads of that I don't know what's going to happen to them is all the drag queen shoes that I've worn over the years which are like this high that no one is wearing anymore and I think she sometimes with her mates they try them on and all dance around the house but they're not going out. No one's wearing heels like that anymore. No, no because they're sensible. Yeah. Why would you hurt your feet like that? I know.

But that picture of you in the dress and the boots, can I say, happy goddamn 60th birthday, Joe Wiley. You look hotter than you've ever looked. Thank you. When we started to do this, Dina, who's the producers of the show, I was like, oh, I've lost my coffee. There must be a coffee mug somewhere around. Can you find it? And he looked under the settee and he was like, no, I can't find a coffee cup, but I can't find this. Oh, no.

This is a, it's quite a lot of these this morning underneath the sette and in various places. There's lots of cowboy hats as well. The debris of a party. If it gets desperate, you might have to swig that. I'll be on the PIMS. Actually, just watch it. It hasn't got any cigarette butts in it. Let's go back to the party then.

So did you do like full on dose doce doze doves? Yeah, we slink in the arms. I love a barn dance. Yeah. Well, this is the thing. I think when you have parties, people will know. It's really nerve-wracking. And it takes quite a lot sometimes for people to come to parties

because they've got to speak to strangers or people they haven't seen for quite a long. time. You might be feeling a little bit fragile, a little bit vulnerable, and you have to really, really put on your big girl pants or big boy pants and make yourself go to a party and be sociable. And people find it hard, and I'm really aware of that. So if you give them something to have fun with, like a line dancing party or a stupid game, we play this thing called Bird on a Perch, if there is an icebreaker at the beginning of a party, it works wonders. You relax people. It's not all about having a drink to enjoy yourself. It's all about having fun.

fun and having a game and having a distraction. And that's what that's what the line dancing did. I mean, we did docy dowing and we did stripping the willow and it was just so much fun. And all the photographs, you can see the joy in everyone's faces. It was such a relief, just have something to do. And also then you get to dance to different people and you're like, oh, hello, I'm so, I'm Bert, la la la, la. And then you're dancing with it. I love stripping the willow. I used to call it stripping the wittle. And then someone went, it's not that. So, thank you very much. And then you go round and round and round, don't you? It's quite, you need fit, you need to be fit.

Zoe, you get flung around. It's exhausting. No, I've got bruises because I, I mean, stupidly, I was barefoot. I'm always barefoot. And so I was dancing around barefoot. Everybody else was wearing really hard cowboy boots. So I have, my feet are black and blue today. I got trodden on so many times.

So that was, that was an error. Never go lion dancing or cowboy dancing without shoes on. Is that an animal that's just joined us? This is Wilbur who has, he's just had a lion cut. because he gets really matted because he's long-haired. So I don't know if you can see him. Nice bushy tail though.

He looks quite mad. He's a moggy, but he's long-haired. Right. If I can get him back later, he looks quite funny. We always give him a hard time about being huge, but he's actually very skinny underneath a lot of hair. Yeah, we've got ragdollers like that. You're talking about it being tricky to go to parties.

I have really bad social anxiety. My brother has it too. And so whenever there's an event coming up, be it at Glastonbury or a wedding or a party, I'm always slightly in the back of my head trying to think of an excuse of not being able to go, which my old job was a great excuse and I used it for years.

And now I don't have that job anymore. I can't use it as an excuse. Oh, I've got to get an early night. And what do you do? Well, it is that thing of, because you don't want to reach for a drink because then it just makes it worse. So it's like that breathing through,

finding someone you know you can chat to because I'm really bad at small talk. Yeah, same. I'm sort of slightly, it slightly makes my skin crooks. I'm like, oh my God, I'm asking. And then I do weird things. Like, I've had to actually reverse myself out of conversation,

sometimes almost making the beeping lorry reversing sound where I've said something so weird that I'm like, okay, this has gone really badly. Beep, beep, beep, beep. I'm actually going to reverse out of this room. right now and go home. So it is, I love the idea of something like that, breaking the ice. That's what we've come to realize because, you know, I've got a lot of, and a lot of the time

it is girlfriends and they're at similar age. And I think they're going through the menopause. And I think that's when you do start to become quite vulnerable and just don't feel, you don't have the confidence of being younger. And quite often you don't have a group of girls or a partner around you, so you're coming on your own. And that is, that's tough. That's really, really tough.

And so many times you get messages throughout the day going, or yeah, something's cropped up so I can't come and they're making the excuses that you're talking about now because it's just too daunting. So, yeah, let's just acknowledge that, I think. That's that a lot of people feel the same. And people would never think that you have that feeling because you come across as being so confident

and so talkative and so happy within your own skin. But that's not always the case, is it? We put on a brave face a lot of the time. Yeah, we really do. And it's great. There's such a top tip of like a party game or an opener or just something that immediately put someone at ease. I quite like it if I turn up at something and people will be like,

can you just keep an eye on the little ones? So it's people's little kids. I'm like, yep, great. I'll go look off to the little kids because then I don't have to talk to adults. Have a job. Have a job to do. Let me go and sort the ice out. Let me, you know, lay out the salads.

Give me something to do. Yeah, maybe that's what people should do is before they go to a party, if they know they're going to be anxious, just contact your friend who's having the party and say, give me a roll what can I do just give me something to do when I get there because I would I would happily do that I have this one friend who was coming this weekend and when you have a big party there is so much to do and because you and I would care about a garden so much the most important thing to me was not the food I mean we had this amazing guy doing paella Omar doing paella for us which is great

but the thing was I wanted the garden to look nice and I'd actually heard a thing about Barbara Streisand once she had a party and it was at the wrong season and she was worried about the roses being the wrong colour. And she paid someone to come and paint the roses at the right colour. And when I heard that story, I was like, I would do that because I want my garden to look right. I can completely understand Barbara. But this time I had a friend and I just went, I don't want you to come and help me with the food. I want you to just come and put some plants in the garden. Because having a party in mid-July, there's not much colour in the garden at the moment, is that? Yeah. It suddenly all goes, doesn't it? I know. I know. Yeah. So I had a garden centre

dash in the morning and I brought loads of colour back and I just said to my friend Amy, put them in the borders. I just want to have some pink in the borders and that's what she did for me. And that was very grateful. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to take a quick break for some ads. But if you're keen to listen to these episodes early and ad free, you can subscribe to the potting shed. Become a member of the potting shed and receive bonus bits, longer episodes and early access to tickets for live events. If you're wondering how to subscribe, there's a link in the show notes. Right. Time for a break. If you're loving dig it so far, don't forget to hit follow so you never miss an episode. Also at your house, there's a big old crew, there's a barn dance, but possibly one of the best things at your house, which I was lucky enough to come to you recently, and your garden is extraordinary.

I know you've put so much work into it. It's amazing. But in the middle of your garden is this beautiful old, I mean, it's like perfection, this shed, this beautiful shed with these old doors. and it's absolutely stunning. It's got roses growing all the way around it. We did our little photo shoot in front of it. But at your parties, it becomes something else. Yeah, this is a scene from the garden shed.

It's not any old potting shed. By night, when we have parties, it becomes the minuscule of sound. And it is full of dry ice. It's just pumping out of all the windows under the rotten door. And inside there is a banging sound system. I mean, it's tiny, but you can fit a million people in that place in the minuscule of sound. And that's where I was at three in the morning on Saturday. And I was having the best time ever dancing to the Chemical Brothers and the Hot Chiff.

It was so, so good. Joe Wiley, if we couldn't love you anymore, that love has just gone totally stratosphere. I'm such a good idea. I know. Disco Steve's idea. We salute you disco Steve. And happy birthday to disco Steve as well, by the way. And happy anniversary.

And let's say happy Easter and happy Christmas. and all at the same time. But, you know, the idea also that everything becomes a bit more intimate later on and the hardcore just keep going. Who was the last man or woman standing? Do you know? Oh, God, who would it have been? It would have been Jude. It would have been my party animal. I think like Woody is your party animal. Jude is my party animal. Jude came to the party as Dolly Parton, obviously. He's done Theresa May. He's done Princess Diana. So he was Dolly Parton and he looked unreal. It was one of his best outfits. He looked. looks so, so good. He was all in white. He bought this really amazing white, shiny, frilly shirt.

There he is in all his glory. There he is. A hat with pink LED lights. This amazing week that he found in the loft. And he wore that all day on Sunday as well. He couldn't even take it off. So he was the last one standing as well. Look at him. He just looks so good. Yeah. Yeah. He was the last one standing. And then he got to a point when I was just like, okay, I'm done. I'm going to bed now. I need to get my But they turned the music down. They kept on going. What state is the house in then? I mean, this is, so this was Saturday night, you know, if we're sort of at the beginning of the week, I haven't got much energy left. I'll be honest with you.

Because I think one of the most important things about this podcast is that we are real and that we are 100% ourselves and authentic. And we don't pretend that everything is rosy and amazing and perfect because it's certainly not. And I just didn't have the energy yesterday like to create a nice backdrop here. I've shoved some things behind me today. But around everywhere else around the house, it's just utter chaos. There are wigs, there are cowboy hats, there are cans of pims and goodness knows what all over the place. We've talked so much about what I did this weekend. What did you get up to?

This weekend, I bought a shed and I've bought a bike shed. I opened up the shed to read the instructions and it said, this will take three hours and it needs to be assembled by two people. So the shed is still in the box. So I then thought of loads of other things I could do Rather than doing that Because so we've got a host pipe ban coming From Friday, Friday the 18th So I am thinking about what I'm doing

Because this is quite a new garden It was all AstroTurf out there So I'm panicking a bit Because obviously there's new trees that need watering So I went and bought a water butt So I will quietly fill that up Because of course once you get a hosepipe ban Which we've got in Yorkshire

And it's happening in the southeast from Friday. It basically means can't use your hoses to water your garden to fill pools or paddling pools or wash your car. You can't wash down your powerboat or your leisure boat, apparently if you have a leisure boat. How are you going to cope?

How are you going to cope? How are you going to cope? How will you cope with a dirty leisure boat? I mean, shame and the community. So you've got to think of other ways. Mulsing. Lovely Louise Ness on Instagram. I saw she'd done a big thing about bark, mulch on the hydrangees, give them a good feed. I've got loads of pots of hydrangeers.

So I've done that. I've got me mulch. Hydrangeers are really thirsty. This is what I'm noticing with the garden, that there are certain plants that just are desperate for water all the time. And hydrange is literally just, you watch them evaporate in front of you. So mulching is a really good idea.

Salvias are the same. If I was going to recommend any plant for people to put in pots, it's pelagoniums because they just seem to survive so well with so little water. So if anyone's going out there, and I don't know whether there are many to buy, but I think they're probably still are at the moment. So pelagoniums are really good in pots, but hydrangeas are quite challenging. So I'd probably hold off buying any new ones at the moment. But mulching is so good. And also it makes your borders look really good.

That's what I did at the weekend because it just gives it this dark richness and then the plants pop out and look really good. And then, of course, it's helping to hold the moisture. And I will learn to do that earlier on in the season also because I've got these squirrels who come. So I've got these gang of foxes, cats and squirrels. that basically shit in all the borders. So I'm desperately trying to fill all the gaps where they poo. So I go in with my glove, I clean up the poo. I walk it to the dog poo bin because I'm thinking, do I put this down the toilet?

Is that weird? Do I put it in the dog poo bin? No, we've done that. I mean, it's all got to go somewhere. It's disgusting. And Fox's poo is huge. Gross. Anyway, I digress.

So I clean, so I'm trying to put in lemon time and all this stuff. And then mulch over the top. But the squirrels are now coming, digging up their monkey nuts. and the bulbs they nicked off me, which they've dug in other places. So they're now digging through the freaking mulch. I mean, this is warfare. I am going to sit at dawn with some kind of pop gun

under a blanket aiming at them. And they're really, they're bold. They come up to me. They're like a little gang of shitty schools. It's obviously quite a party going on. People need to give us some advice then about how to deter all these animals. I don't, I just don't get this at home. I'm really, really lucky.

Managerie. Yeah, no, I don't have that menagerie, yeah. Okay, so Pelagoriums, they are going on the list. Bee Blossom as well, quite good for prairie conditions, isn't it? Bee Blossom doesn't need loads of waters. And the gora, as people call it, I think that's a technical term, is doing, it's so pretty and they're like little dancers. I love those in the garden at the moment. So shed's still to be built, but I have got a water butt,

which I'm quite excited about. I think I need to get another one. Yeah, I perhaps need to get one of those. I had an irrigation system fitted at the end of last year, and it's been the best thing I've ever done. I'm not quite sure how that is affected by the host pipe ban. I haven't looked into this yet. You're allowed those.

How are you? Is it? Big tick. Oh, look. He's back. This is Wilbs. This is Wilbs with the Lion Cup. Okay, so a lion cut means that he's got a mane,

but then his body is just shaved. It's really shaved. You've got loads of... You've got a cat that goes and walks with you. So we've got two dogs and two cats. We have a golden retriever who's called Django, who's five. We've got Brodie, who was at Chelsea Flower Shash. in the dog garden and he's getting on a bit, he's 12.

Then we've got Simba, who's the old lady of the house. She's a Bengal and she's the noisiest cat you will ever hear in your life. She also eats more than any creature I have ever seen. She's like the slinkiest, skinniest thing alive, but she will eat, you know, packets after packet, after packet of cat food. And then we've got Kiki, who's a rag doll. So she looks like Wilbur. She's like actually tiny underneath, but masses of fur on the outside.

Yeah. And they all come for walks with us. Quite a gang. How often do you have all your kids home? Because I guess now as well, you know, they've got partners, so they come to. So is it, you know, how do you know how much food to put in your fridge of a week? No, I'm just, all. I'm shopping day and I'm morning, noon and night and just trying to keep the fridge stocked. Yeah, because we've got partners here as well. So quite often there are eight in the house, which obviously I absolutely love. It's such a good thing, though. I was told really early on by my lovely neighbours who had teenage boys, be there. the home that they want to bring their friends back to because then they will always come around and they'll bring their friends and their friends feel coming. You see, because Nell and Woody's dad, Norm, lives down the road. So at the moment, he lives on the beach. Okay. So he's got paddleboards. So at this time of year that I'm like, hi, hi, hi, remember me. Uh, want to come over? I want to come out. I fill the fridge. Can you come and get your bloody smoked salmon, Woody? Um, because they go

straight there because he's on the beach. So I've been feeling a little bit forlorn recently. I really miss my kids. Why aren't they here? I give a word for you. I know, no, because they're brutal, aren't they? I mean, kids are selfish. They just want to live their best life.

So they will go and do whatever suits them. And we are just there to fill the gaps in, you know, kind of juggling, doing all the tricks, feeding all the food, doing whatever we can to entice them in. But ultimately, they will do what they want to do. And we just have to, like, bite our lips and go, okay. And I have to say, I often say to my dad and my lovely stepmom die, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that I disappeared on you because I did that. I'd never phone home.

I'd never come back. It would just be like, you know, sort of three times a year. And now I really feel it as a mum. I'm like, oh, can you just check it? Woody is actually quite good. I know the time to text him. It has to be after 1 o'clock, never up before then. And then there's a key moment, probably about 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night.

He will always respond immediately. Hi Madre, you know, and he'll tell me all the gossip and stuff like that. He calls you Madre. He calls me Madre. He calls me Mum and Bass. Mum and bass, Madre and some other abusive terms. Oh, this is good. No, this is good to know from people what their kids call them. Because everybody has nicknames, don't they? Mum and bass is my favourite.

Where is that from? We're also, because I like drum and bass. He loves drum and bass. But also, we're Mumford and sons. Nice. I'm Mumford. He's sons. He's rave monkey.

Yeah, he's also bear. He's a lot, he's got a lot of names. He's also, oi, you little shit. Why have you not paid your car insurance? And I've got the bailiffs at my door. So, Joe, I have Hampton hacked. And I'm hoping that I've done the right thing. So the lavender was, you know, it's been a bit,

they've been very busy the lavender bushes and the salviors. But the leaves of all, you know, the flowers are all gone now. And the bees are moving on to. the Gora, et cetera. So I've done what I think is the Hampton hack and taken them down. Have I done the right thing? Do you know what? I didn't know about lavender because my lavender was looking amazing and it's just gone off and I don't know what to do with it. So you're telling me we can do lavender. So maybe I'll Hampton hack tomorrow. I only know this because I've looked at other people and I'm freaking out that I've done the wrong thing. But Salvia definitely. Yeah. No, no, I think

lavender absolutely. But it's scary doing these things, isn't it? Because I did the Chelsea chop and with my geraniums because they can grow so leggy and they look so beautiful. And then you still have a few flowers and you're like, oh, it looks really nice. However, I've got to be brave and I've got to properly cut it like to there. You literally go like there and you cut it back and it looks so scrubby and spiky and there's no flowers and there's just lots of bare soil all around it. And you think, oh, I've ruined my garden for the year now. But I can tell you, having done the Chelsea chop, you know, however many six weeks later, it's all come back now and the leaves are here and And I think I'm going to get a fresh batch of flowers.

So I will back you up and say, yeah, you've done the right thing. You will get flowers. You just have to go through about two or three weeks. I'll be looking pretty shocking. And then it will be okay. But then it will come back. Yeah, I'm going to do my estrantia at some point this week because that looks terrible now as well. I was worried about my astrantia because gorgeous Joe Thompson, who we love amazing

garden, good gardener. She had a fabulous garden at Chelsea this year. She introduced me to Estrantia. And it was lovely seeing him in your garden. They get so big. I put them in mine and they've looked a little sad some of them

and I was freaking out because it's like oh my God the flowers are gone already but those lovely flower heads when they're dried I'm flicking those seeds all over the garden

I don't know I'm making this out oh my god you're going to regret this no you're going to regret this no are they going to go everywhere oh no

I've just got so much a strand here honestly I'm taking it out oh really because it's is it a bit of a thug yeah I think it is I know

okay but my are also look at me, a strand here are looking a bit crusty around the edges. Yeah. That's why. Now, do I, do I snip those leaves back or do I? I think you do like, well, this is, this is why we need people's help, right? Since why we're going to ask people to help with choir dancers.

I'm going to cut mine back, I think, right, to like I did with the geraniums down to about there and then see what happens. If they all die, I'm fine with that. That's absolutely fine. I'll get some more plants and put them in next year. But I think they, when they go brown, that you don't want that in the goal. and do your brown flowers. So I think we cut those. Maybe leave a few leaves.

Yeah, leave a few leaves sticking out. But then I think you can be quite brutal. Okay, thank you. And stop throwing the seeds everywhere. Next year, I'm not going to be able to get out there for a strand here, am I? What have I done? You'll be wading your way through a strand here. Six foot tall.

But if anyone has any tips on, you know, or if anyone says, no, don't Hampton Hack. Don't Chelsea Chop. Maybe try this. We're always up for learning new stuff, aren't we? from friends and people we follow and socials and stuff like that. So any tips do share with us, gang. Yeah. The best thing I've been doing with my roses,

and I know you love your roses as well. And I saw Monty say about, and everybody who knows about gardening says that when you prune your roses, make sure you definitely go back to the five leafed bud. So you go, or the joint there, you go just above the leaves where there are five of them sticking out. Don't go higher than that.

Make sure you're quite savage. And then there will be another chute that will come out and you'll get your roses. And that is just happening now. So I cut back my lark ascending. And again, it was just looking bereft of anything, but the past couple of days,

everything started flowering again. So it's all about having confidence, right? And learning, when I came to your garden and you showed me the roses and it's like that's where to cut. And I've cut a few back because they've all come at different times. And there are new buds coming

and it makes me so happy. And I've got a lark ascending just outside this door, which you bought me, which I absolutely love. And the red roses that I are planted for Billy, for my mum in the garden, have all gone crazy just this last couple of weeks. And it makes me so happy to see them because all the flowers in my garden are for different people.

Yeah. And they're the same. Yeah. And they just remind you of those people. You're just like, oh, look, Tim is blooming beautifully. Willie is thriving. Look at the flamboyance there. And it just brings those people back into your lives and they're there for you in your gardens. Yeah. It's the most joyous thing. Obviously, we could talk for days. and we are in future going to talk for many, many more hours. But we've had to wrap it up for this first one, I think. If you would like to get in touch, we would absolutely love to hear from you. It's just the greatest thing hearing for you, getting involved in the show.

All the details are in the show notes. So what do we want to hear from people? Hi, come over here. We want family nicknames, okay? Yeah, I think that could be quite fun. Yeah, one of your kids call you. Yes, exactly. Do share social anxiety, which we talked about.

Tips for breaking the ice at parties, please. would be great. Yeah. Also, wild animals. If you've got animals that have a party in your garden, what do you do? Zoe's obviously the one who needs the help here. That would be very, very useful. How do you deal with that? Find out how to get in touch with this on the show notes. And also, we do love a WhatsApp voice note because it'd be nice to get some of your voices on the air. So if you've got a question or you've got a story you'd like to share with us, do send us a little note and you'll find the number, of course, on the show notes. Don't be shy, speak to us. We'd love to hear from you. Yes, please.

Look, Wilbur's now giving you a full catwalk. Oh, he's doing the whole full thing. He actually looks so handsome. I feel really bad if we've all been fat-shaming him and he's actually tiny underneath. Our dog, Brody, he's really poorly and we don't know how long we've got him for. And recently he was looking like literally,

we were thinking, oh, maybe his time has come. We're going to have to do something now. And I took him to the dog groomers and I got him groomed. And it's like transformation. So all he was, he wasn't dying, he was hot. And now he's like a puppy again. So we've got him for a bit longer.

You've got him a whole new lease of life. Yeah. Thank goodness. Oh, don't. I know. Pets. Losing pets is a tough thing. It's tough.

That'll come another time. Well, bye Joe. I'll see you Monday. Yeah. I guess, I mean, chat in the meantime, right? But we'll actually talk to each other on screen. Yeah. What are you doing next?

What's happening next for you in the next couple of hours? What am I doing next? I've got a saw out my water butt, and we're doing. a photo shoot, aren't we, this week? Oh my God, yeah. And we're doing a telly show, aren't we? With, there's a whole crew of us going to do a quiz show, help us. Yeah, for the next 24

hours, I'll be solidly watching the weakest link to learn what the programme's about. Bank! So I've never actually seen it. You've just got to say bank a lot, and then the money goes in, and then they can't vote you off because you're not the weakest link. We'll let you know how it goes. Oh, you're so going to win this. All right, see you. Bye. I'm not. Bye. Digit is a Persefonica production.