Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball - Should You Put Magnets in Your Bra?!

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

This week, Zoe’s recommending magnets in bras and men in tool belts, while Jo’s knee-deep in kitchen paint charts. They weigh in on Alan Carr’s betrayal, share gameshow tactics, and Jo plants a tree with a touching twist. Plus, gardening expert Ish gives us October’s ‘what to cut-back?’ guide. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE SUBSTACK Stay up to date with Dig It — new updates every Friday straight to your inbox. 👉 https://digitpod.substack.com/subscribe GET IN TOUCH 📧 Email us: [e-mail] 📱 Text or Voice Note: 07477 038795 💬 Or tap here to send a voice note or message on WhatsApp:⁠ ⁠https://wa.me/447477038795⁠⁠ GARDENING EXPERT: ISH 👨‍🌾 Plant lover and garden creator Ish (aka Gardening with Ish) tells us what to cut back this October.  Whether he’s pruning dahlias, saving seeds for next year, or explaining the difference between what to cut and what to keep, Ish makes gardening feel easy and joyful — no jargon, just great tips for real gardens.  Follow Ish on Instagram –https://www.instagram.com/gardening.with.ish/ SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS This episode is brought to you by QVC, Airbnb & Stripe and Stare ✨QVC - Click below to discover QVC’s range of menopause products and support. And don’t forget to use the code QDIG10 for £10 off your first purchase (minimum spends apply, see QVC website for full terms and conditions) - https://www.qvcuk.com/content/menopause-your-way.html?cid=PR-PR-Digit&e22=Digit 🩷 Stripe & Stare — The world’s comfiest knickers, designed by women who actually understand what we want. Made from soft, breathable wood fibres that stay cool and last wash after wash — no tugging, no VPL, just comfort. A certified British B Corp doing things properly, with sizes XS–4XL and new pyjamas and layering tops too. Get 20% off your first order with code DIG20 at www.stripeandstare.com 🌍 Airbnb — Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at https://www.airbnb.co.uk/host/ CREDITS Exec Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan Assistant Producer: Eve Jones Technical Producers: Oliver Geraghty Video Editors: Danny Pape and Jack Whiteside Dig It is a Persephonica production

Coming up on ticket, Alan Carr in that cast. Oh, he is giving me life so much. Paloma said he had a choice, and I think he did have a choice. If I was in there and you were in there, I would not have done it to you. Saw this great hack. You put magnets in your bra. Oh my God, that's genius. Got a real thing about men in tall belts. Anyway, I digress.

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Where does the phlegm come from? There's just so much. I feel like they should invent a machine where you put your face in it and it just drains it all out of you. I mean, that sounds disgusting. Something like out of alien. But it's just got to go through your system,

hasn't it? All the phlegm. Yeah. Gross. Sorry. When I get a cold, I have like Qatar for about six months. And I'm now learning to hold back on the dairy products. It genuinely really does seem to affect the snotiness. But oh, God, it's a lot.

of pain. No chocolate or cheese, yoghirts. Dump those for a little bit and it does help. Show and tell. You can watch, by the way, if you want to see what we're talking about, what we're wearing, all that kind of stuff. I'm always really encouraged how many people watch. I know. I've had lots of friends tell me that they watch and friends of friends and lots of lovely messages from our diggers saying that they do actually watch. I've had photographs of people doing their ironing whilst they're watching us. Do you know what? Whatever way you take us long for the ride, whether we're going on your walks with you or your car rides or when you're doing the gardening or you just need a bit of time out for yourselves, thank you very much for taking us with you. Just it works in different ways for different people, doesn't it, in their lives?

It does. I've got something to show you. Oh, yes. Can I just show you this? So this, these are two little dolls and they are the spitting image of you and me. And this is the photograph that we very first did when we did our press shot. And this is what people will have seen standing by the minuscule of sound. So you're in your lovely coral orange shirt with crinkly hair and I'm in my blue shirt and we've both got our jeans on and these dolls were made for us

by an amazing woman. It's Jennifer Jackson dolls. I'll just read you out the message. So Jennifer, thank you so much. Jennifer, thank you. I love these dolls. She does like Kirk Cabain. She does Freddie Mercury.

She does David Bowie. She will do whoever you want to be immortalized as a doll. She makes them into the coolest dolls ever. I've got a little goth doll. She's great. Get your ordering quick because she's very. busy, but she sent us this really lovely card and it says, Joe, thank you for this adorable request because I wanted her to make us into dolls. You and Zoe are so fun together, but part of

me really wishes that you called the pod Joe and Zoe's Big Bushes. I haven't laughed so hard in ages when I heard that. I think it is the unofficial title of the podcast, isn't it? It is. Talking about Zoe and Joe's Big Bushes, I have seen an advert for this sort of weird, shavy contraption that has loads of different heads and you have a different head for your legs and different head for your area. For your bush, right? Just that alternative title to our podcast has made me think, has anyone got one of those? Because, and is it good for your area? Talking of big bushes, do I need to get that? Because the advert keeps coming up and now I've talked about it, my phone's listening, I'm sure it will come up more. I'm looking at thinking, do I need this contraption?

Do I? Does it work? Does it work? Or shall I just stick with the usual methods? Hair removing green, waxing, whatever. Thanks very much. Did you watch? Celebrity Traitor? Yes, of course I've watched celebrity traitors. Yes. Oh my God. It's, I mean, it's an amazing show at the best of times with this incredible cast that they've got in with Alan Carr in that cast as well. Oh, he is giving me life so much. I have to say, the way they choose the traitors on that show. And I've heard Claude talk about it. They sit with the producers and all the execs. They sit in a room and they give it so much thought because, They have made such excellent choices. Yes. It's funny for us, isn't it? Because these are all people we know. Most of the cast, we know quite well.

There's a few actors you might not know that well as people. But to choose Jonathan Ross, like, yes, so good. I think comparisons have been made to Paul, Gorton, another previous brilliant traitor, red-headed Paul with Jonathan. Because Jonathan is so brilliant. He's a great leader. He's so deliciously devious. And he wants to win, doesn't he?

And he wants to win, and that's what you want. And when Alan's come in and he's all flustered and sweaty, he's like, pull yourself together. You're going to have to be ruthless. Get on with it. And Cat Burns, what a lass. I mean, you know Kat. She's an amazing singer. Brilliant artist.

But what a great traitor she makes as well. Yeah. Yeah, she's very considered, isn't she as well? Yes, so considered. Her game face. is incredible. I don't think I would, I'd be like Alan, I think I'd just be a sweaty mess. Just giggling and blushing and being embarrassed and obviously like having arrows coming down and you're going, it's me, I'm the traitor. It's so funny because obviously they're all friends and they're all really

nice to each other. But when you see things like Kate Garroway and Claire Boulding straight away, and think Tom Daly have both gone, okay, like she reacts, she overreacts to everything, she's obviously a traitor. And poor Kate Garraway is just going, no, that's me, that's my personality. That's who I am. I'm like. How crushing must it be when they sit around the table and they say that to her. I mean, that's when friendships are tested, right? Well, this is the thing with traitors and you often see it during the series that I think if you go on traitors in a way, Paloma devastated to go and we're all gutted to see Paloma go

because I love Paloma faith. But in a way, maybe it's better to go on traitors and be out early because then you're not embroiled in the terrible drama where you start to take everything very personally. Because, you know, we're just humans, aren't we? People are humans. And if people turn on you in, I know it's a game show. And I keep thinking, it's only a game show. It's only a game show.

Because that's what it is. It's a game. It's like a really intricate board game. But when people start on people, you know, I've seen it in Tom Daly. Oh my God. He's so great. I loved his funeral outfit with the shirt undone and his side eye to Kate Garroway when she says flabbergasted. And Alan's saying to him, you can't call someone a traitor just because they

got better vocabulary than you. He's saying, who uses the word flabbergasted? Actually, quite a few of us use the word flabbergasted. But it's so good. But that's the thing. If everyone starts turning on you on the round table, how hard is that to take? Because you shouldn't take it personally because it is just a game and it isn't about people hating people. But also when you watch it, the hilarious thing is I think it's so much easier to be a traitor because being a faithful, you're going on nothing except a facial expression. And we've seen famously, this is why the game works so well, that the faithful struggle, they struggle to spot the traitors because you're going on nothing. You're just going on someone being a bit camp or someone being expressive. And the fact that

they are sheep. And this is the thing that I'm loving already is, even in that group of really highly intelligent people who know what showbiz is like and they can see, they are sheep. They're all like, well, someone said Kate Garrett, well, yeah, do you know what? Yeah, Kate, she's being weird. And so everyone's like, oh, Kate Garroway. And it's amazing how quickly we are led as humans to believe, you know, what the general consensus is. Oh, yes, yes, I totally, yes, I totally agree. What evidence you're facing it on nothing? When you see people like Stephen Frye, who has, you know, the most brilliant brain in the world looking so traumatized and flummoxed and really in turmoil, just trying to make a decision, trying to deduce everything and trying to be logical, but you can see

He's really, really pained. Oh my God, it's so compelling. And then Paloma has obviously come out and said that she's been very, very disappointed in Alan Carr, as you would be if it's your friend. You would be. And they kicked you out. Who knows what was going on?

I think that Alan just panicked. I think he'd got a mission to do. He had to get that pollen onto someone's face. And she was just, it was easy to do it to her. So I don't think there was anything malicious in that, do you? Paloma said he had a choice. And I think he did have a choice. Do you?

loads of people that he could have touched. He was panicking and he was panicking and he knows and you could see him in the kitchen looking at Ruth, looking at Paloma, looking at Ruth. But would you take down your friend? I guess you have to be ruthless in there. But I mean, she's going to make him pay because she had so many outfits. She wanted to show off. If I was in there and you were in that, I wouldn't have, I would not have done it to you. Well, look at what we did on the weakest link with Radio 2. I did not take you down and I did not take Sally down. I would not have taken my girls down. When Scott said my name, I did feel betrayed.

I obviously looked at him. My breath was taken away. I was like, really? I thought you were my friend. Yeah, absolutely. It's not been the same since. And that's why I took Scott down because I thought he is my mate and he'll get it. So maybe that's an Alan for him of faith.

I love that thing where there's some amazing memes doing the rounds at the moment. Oh my God. Those memes have been so good. There's a really great thing that he's put up today actually where I think it's a cafe or a cinema somewhere has said Linda walked so that Alan Carr could run. It's like Linda was the dodgy faithful before him. I think they're going to become great friends, those two. Yes, I think so.

But also, can I just say Celia Imrey? Yeah. I am obsessed. If Celia Imre doesn't get down to the final three, I'll be, I want my money back. Yeah, she's great. She's so good. And Claire Boulding has spotted the obvious Alan Carr, if he's going to take anyone down, surely he would, you know, if you'd take your friend.

and down people will never suspect you. So come on, Claire, please don't let me down. Problem is with traitors as well. If you've got a strong personality and if you have strong opinions, people eventually take you down. So where do you sit? So I was watching, I think it was Wilf, Mina and Harry, three excellent traitors discussing this on Traitors Uncloaked with Ed Gamble. I watch all of it. I watch all the memes. I'm obsessed. And they were talking about, you know, how do you play it? How do you play it as a good faithful? How do you play it as a good traitor? Because as a faithful, if you're too, if you're quiet, it seems you'd get away with more. But, you know, if you're a big personality, people always assume that you're a traitor

and is that right? Maybe you need to sort of do the double reverse Brian. I don't know? You think it's so easy, don't you? You do. In your armchair watching. It'll be a brave person to take out Jonathan, can you imagine if either Alan or Cat decided to have a go for Jonathan, I don't think they'd stand the chance. I have to ask you, Joe Wiley, if you went on traitors, would you prefer to be faithful traitor? Faithful. I couldn't possibly be a traitor. I think we've chatted before about that my inability to lie instantly, you just know, I'd be worse than Alan Carr. I would just have guilt written all over me. If you're loving dig it, all you need to do is hit follow on Apple or Spotify. to make sure that you never miss an episode.

They will download to your phone as soon as they're out. No hassle, simple as. How is the kitchen renovation going on, Joe? You are changing up your kitchen. I saw you'd put some paint colours up. Tell me about your kitchen. What is it you don't like about it? What is it you want to change?

Initially, it was just supposed to be, let's tarp the cupboards up. Let's do a little bit of a paint job. And then the more you look at the kitchen, the more you realize the things that have been really annoying you or things that you're bothered about and you'd really rather change. So all of a sudden, the oven has not been working

particularly brilliantly for a long time. The door won't close properly. I said to Steve the other day, how long do you think we've had this oven for? And he was like, probably seven, eight years, I think. And then I just looked at him and went, we got this when Coco was born. So 16 years ago, we've had this oven.

I can't believe that it's 16 years. So it's a range. It's a range oven. And it's not functioning brilliantly. So I want to get rid of that. But I haven't told Disco that we need to get rid of the range oven that we need a new one.

I like you do that. You keep some things back. I'll just sort of back. So you need some range recommendations then? I do, yeah, because I'm not a chef. Right. Main thing, big oven. I want a really big oven.

I want a really big oven. Well, there's so many of you. Tell me about it. You know, an average weekend you're cooking for 15. Yeah. Christmas Day, we never have enough oven space. We always have little ovens on the side, microwaves, whatever. So something with really big oven space.

So that's very important. any recommendations people have for range of them, that would be fantastic. I would really, really love that. And then the colours, people have been brilliant. They've been sending me their own renovations. They've sent me their paint colours. Lots of interior designers have been getting in touch, give me advice. But everyone's saying different things. So I'm just in this state of conflict and turmoil at the moment. Let us all help you decide. I think if you take all our stiggers along on the process and we'll all give you our opinion because it's not like you've got a big family who are all going to be giving you an opinion as well. Can I ask, do the key?

kids have any say in the kitchen renovation because my kids were so sort of miffed at some of the stuff I did on the house that they quite like now that there's a couple of rooms left to do on the house and they have both claimed that their rooms that they use are like can we have a say we want to make decisions so I've put some things to them at the moment and it's been quite interesting Nelly is very opinionated but it's true it's like you know everyone lives in the house so you've got to have a say in all the I'm a bit of a control freak. You said it there and you said, I've said to Nelly,

I've given the kids something, I've given them some ideas. So it's basically you're doing it and you just want them to agree with what you've said. I just want to agree what I'm saying. That's what I do. Mum, you asked us. You asked her opinion,

but you don't like it. You're going to do what you want anyway. It is helpful though. Sometimes it's like when you ask someone you love about your outfit, you know, by them telling you the outfit they like, you are like, yeah, I knew that wasn't the one I wanted to wear.

I knew it was the other one. Yeah. So you'll be doing that with the kitchen. My brilliant friend Amy, she came along and she, like last week, we were going through all the paint colours. I'm also recovering sofa. So we're doing a lot of stuff at a moment. Anyway, and she looks at the kitchen. She went, have you thought about wallpaper in the kitchen? And I just turned out. No, but oh my God, yes. So now wallpaper's been thrown into it as well. So I've been getting lots of wallpaper samples. More decisions. Everyone else in my house seems to be very conservative. And I just want, I just, I would, I like being quite out there. So I'm reading, living in. etc religiously because I can look on Pinterest and I can look on Instagram but for me it's magazines it's seeing something flicking through the pages looking at them there that's where I really get inspiration I love all that L decoration home and garden kitchens bedrooms bathrooms it's like my porn it's all I look at all the time I just love it it is that's what I have and I very rarely buy magazines anymore to be honest to you because everything is there online but there's something really physical about seeing it taking it out ripping it out you know there my lookbook

I very much do it. And sometimes I do it for a bit of fashion as well. You know, I quite like red magazine, women and home. There's so many magazines where you're like, oh, I can get a recipe in there. Oh, and they've got a crossword. I can read my stars. And I've got living, gardens and interiors. I really love that people still buy magazines for things like that. And I always have a stack somewhere with all the inspiration. It's quite funny when you look back If you find a stash of magazines years later, you're like, what was I looking at then? Oh, yeah, I was looking.

Yeah, it documents your life, doesn't it? And you see how fashions change, how colours change. But it's quite good because you can do home renovations just with a bit of a change of colour. It's amazing. It's just making the place feel fresher. Will you get this done for Christmas? Or is it too tight?

The painter turns up next Monday. Oh, my God. You need to get on with it. I'm under pressure. I know. No, I have so much going on. and a painter starting next Monday. I'm having palpitations at the moment.

So I very urgently need people's advice. I feel like we'll all be involved. Yes. I love it. By the way, I saw a great DIY hack this weekend. You know when you've got to get up a ladder and you're putting screws into the wall or you're nailing something if you're trying to put up art or gardening? You've got to hurry a handful of screws.

Then you've got your hammer or your power tool. Well, I saw this great hack. you put magnets in your bra. Okay? What? Each side. This girl in question had used round magnets, shoved them in a bra,

and then you just pin all your nails and screws to the magnets. Oh my God, that's genius. Hands free, power tool. And then you just pulled it. Isn't that great? How have we never seen that before? That's so good. You can have that one for free.

Courtesy of Instagram. Thank you. It means you need to wear a bra when you're doing DIY, but that's fine. Yes. Ideally wear a bra. Unless you have a tool belt, I've got a real thing about men in tool belts.

Anyway, I digress. I mean, who doesn't love a good toolbell? I can safely say Steve has never had a toolbelt in his life and wouldn't even know where to wear it. Disco Steve, do DIY. No, he does not do DIY. No, he doesn't. We're going to take a quick break for some ads. If you'd like these episodes ad free, then why not become a subscriber to the potting shed?

You'll get longer episodes, bonus content and access to our members chat room where we can share tips. But most importantly, you'll be supporting our show. Do subscribe, head to dig it's pod.co.uk or simply tap the link in the show notes. This episode of Digit is brought to you by QVC. So I thought I was ready for perimenopause, but it still caught me off guard. The anxiety, especially really not me for six. Mine was brain fog. That was definitely one. Also, my emotions were all over the place. I really struggled and I had no idea what would actually help.

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supportive space. And expert content too, guided meditations, best sleep practices and protein-packed recipes. It's not just products, it's reassurance. So you feel prepared, not scared. To explore more, search menopause at QBCUK.com. And don't forget to use the code, QDIG 10 for 10 pounds off your first purchase. over 30 pounds. That's QDIG 10, QDIG-10 for 10 pounds of your first order over 30 pounds. For full terms, visit the QVC website. I went to Edinburgh and Glasgow this weekend. I was doing some Nighter's Anthem's shows and I had just the nicest like five-hour journey looking at this amazing scenery. I love going to Scotland on the train. It's just beautiful. We kept passing all these bodies of water and there were fishermen or fisher women. as well, I guess. Just sitting by the side of the river. It was really misty and it was dank and drizzly, but they were there fishing and then these beautiful hills and rolling mountains. It was just

so gorgeous. It was really lovely. Train journeys are really special, aren't they? When you just, you can look out of the window for hours and do all the life admin that you need to do, all the emails or the texts and all that stuff that you need to do. But I went to Edinburgh and Glasgow go to do my gigs. And it was, everybody there were just so lovely. I cannot tell you the positivity and the kindness and the friendliness of everybody in Scotland. We had the nicest time. And everybody I met just wanted to know why you were there, what you were doing. And it was just great. We had some great chats. But there was one lady. We went into a shop and Steve was trying on a jacket. And she was telling him all about the shop. And then she just clocked me, looked to me. And she

just went, oh my God, I can't believe you're in the shop. I was at your gig last night in Edinburgh. And I was in the middle of the crowd and I had a really great time. I was like, oh, that's wonderful. And then she went, and I went on my own because I had to. I've got kids and I, you know, they love music, but I had to go on my own. I had no one else to go with. And I went and I sang and I danced and I left that place and I felt completely empowered because I went on my own to a gig and I haven't done that before.

And I nearly cried. I was standing in the shop. I was like, oh my God, if you feel comfortable and safe enough and you love music and you want to go out and dance and sing your head off for a night. The fact you can come to one of my shows and do that. That's job done. That's life done. I'm so happy.

So, Fee, that was her name. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. It's really funny because I'd seen this thing on socials, which was saying, if you can go to a gig or go to a theatre or go to a theatre or go to a theatre or go to a theatre. Because I love a cheeky matinee on my own, you know, when no one's around. It's really quiet in the cinema and there's, you know, no kids, but you've been crazy or anything, not that I don't mind that. But if you're going to go and see quite a moving film, sometimes it's quite nice to have a little cheeky matinee if you've got the luxury, you've been able to do that. And it was amazing the people's responses. And then you responded saying, oh, my God, I met this lady and she'd come to my gig.

She said, I was just looking around at other people. And they all loved the music just as much as I did. And everyone was really friendly. and I just felt like I was actually with people. So if people are watching this and you are friendless, you feel like you're friendless, then you just have to put your big girl pants on. What did your mum say? Steel pants.

Put your steel pants on. Go to the gig. Go to the cinema. Go for the meal. You will meet people and you'll feel empowered afterwards, just like fee was. Hey, should you talk gardening? Can I just say some lovely colour in my garden at the moment? My smoke bush, which I may have called a cloud bush, my smoke bush.

I did keep thinking, what is a cloud bush? I've never seen a cloud bush, so I'm so happy you've said smokebush. I will always call the plants the wrong names. But yeah, my smoke bush has gone this delicious orange colour. And my Amalankia trees, Amalankia. I have to think of Amalitre. Amalankia, yeah. They are slowly turning a red,y orange.

They're only babies, they're only little baby trees. But the colour is just so fabulous. And I've been a bit poorly, so I haven't managed. to make it out, apart from to walk down to the seafront to get some fresh air. But I spoke to my friend David, who's got a dog. I was like, please, can we go for a walk in a forest this week? Because I just want to go and crunch the leaves.

I think I'm going to start my own dog walking service so that if I can borrow other people's dogs in the downtime, then I can get some walks in because nature is really showing off at the moment and I absolutely love it. We've had such a warm and gentle summer and it's been really hot that we're in for an amazing autumn that all the trees are just turning these flame colours everywhere that you go.

It's just gorgeous. I'm really enjoying. Like the train journey that I went on and any car journeys at the moment, I'm just stuck looking out the window the whole time just and pointing to the kids, look at that. Don't miss this. Look at that tree. Look at the colours.

I'm such an autumn bore, but God, it's so gorgeous. It's like being in an art gallery. It's such a delight, the pleasure that we get from nature. You know, you don't feel it more than this time of year. You get in the summer, all the blooms. and the greens and in spring. And then in autumn, we're really lucky to have such seasons. Yeah.

At the moment, just seeing autumn down by the sea in Brighton, you get these incredible autumnal sunsets. And I think it's something to do with the colder air coming in. They are so red and orange and vibrant. And you see everyone putting up pictures because it's just lights, the whole beach, it's glorious. But I am very excited because I've been using my brand new rake. Thank you very much to Adam,

view from the potting shed for sorting me out with a Kenton Stowe three ways rake. So I'd had these two kind of things to scrape up my leaves and he's like, so I can go one better. And he's sent me a three ways rake, which is basically you can have it as a wide rake. So it would be sort of like that kind of width to scrape up your leaves. You can use it by taking one bit off and then use it in a narrow space and then you can take both bits of the rake off and use them sort of like hands to scoop up your leaves it is a game changer i see your rake and i raise you um our leafblower press we get our robot mowers from them oh my god so much fun hours of fun your leaf blower is it sort of like a ghostbusters kit where you wear it on your back you wear it yeah oh my god

is it so much fun it's just so much fun yeah yeah yeah I mean, it's quite heavy on the shoulder. When you've got dodgy shoulders, I tend to delegate a little bit. And when I say delegate, I pay cast to go and do it for me. So I watch him dress as a Ghostbuster, blowing leaves around the garden because that works for me and it works for him. But they need to go into a massive pile in it, and that's what it does. So that's what's going on in my garden. But also, I'm having a tree planted today because it's a really good time to plant stuff.

So Jamie Butterworth is bringing me a Cornuscuser, which will be arriving any second. now I think. What a fantastic sentence to be able to utter Joe. Yeah. No, I know. Jamie Butterworth is bringing me a, what's it called? A cornoscopia. Cornus. No. Cornus Cooser, I think. A cornice coozo. I ordered it in spring when it was all beautiful and in flower and look gorgeous. But then we've just both been so busy. It's not been the right time. And also the dry weather, to be honest, meant that we couldn't really put it in the ground. And now it's all soggy and moist and the ground is ready. And yeah, it's going in today. And I'm going to put the ashes of our pets there. That's always been my plan just to have the tree and then so

Bouchie's going to go there, Simba's going to go there. And then they will grow into this gorgeous tree that we'll be able to see from the garden from the windows in the house as well. So that's happening today. That's very exciting. That's a beautiful thing. Will you be making a speech? Will it be like, you know, when you're opening a building, launching a boat? Will you make a little speech and smash something against the tree? Maybe we'll do that. Maybe I'll tie a yellow ribbon. That's what I'll do. I'll tie yellow ribbon round it. Will you put pictures up so we can all see, please? Yeah, I feel like it'll be the completion of the garden

because I've got big borders either side and then it's just a bit, there's nothing on the horizon. So this is going to just frame the garden beautifully. That is my plan anyway. But we were talking the other day about this time of year, what to do, which plants we need to cut back and deal with because the roses have gone on so long. My salvias, I've just got like these clouds of pink from the salvias still.

They look beautiful at the moment. And it sometimes gets really confusing as to know what to do, what to cut back, right? Yes. Should we be cutting things back? Should we be harving things? Should we be growing new things from our old plants making our gardens work for us? So many questions. Can we get some help, Joe? Do you know what? We've got a handy expert who's going to tell us exactly that. So gardening with Ish. Tell us all. Yay. Hello, Joe and Zoe, it's Ish here, and I hope you're both doing really well. Now, I understand you want to know what you need to cut and what not in the garden around about October time, and that's exactly what I'm going to show you. So, first up on my list is the Delia. Now, when you start to see brown foliage and it's starting to crisp up, chances are

is reaching the end of the season. And you want to get this before it gets frost, because that will unfortunately finish them off. What I like to do is cut the tubers right off of the base, leave about two, three inches at the top, And there you go. You can pop that in a brown paper bag, store that ready for next year, and it'll be just as good as it was this year. Now, in this country, borgonias and geraniums are usually treated like annuals. But what a lot of people don't realize is that if you dig these up and take off the roots and a couple layers of the flowers in order to just leave the foliage, hang them upside down, a bit like garlic, just to take some of the moisture out. You can store these

in a box, plant them up next year, and they'll grow again. And to give you an idea of how successful they are, these are my second years. Hardy herbaceous perennials like my salvia hot lips or my penceman at the back there will start to die off in the next month or so. And when it goes brown and crisp, you've got two options. You can cut it back to nothing and mulch it straight over or leave it be.

Let it work as a bit of a thermal barrier, cut it around about March time and this will grow back looking just as good as it did this year. As the summer comes to an end, it's incredibly tempting to want to prune back some of your deciduous trees, like your aces, apple trees, even your cherry blossoms too.

But fact of the matter is leave them alone until around about winter time. This is incredibly hardy. It will lose its leaves and store all of its energy right down in the root base there, meaning nothing is here in the winter. So when it gets around about January-February time, you can prune this back quite hard,

causing very little damage and as a result, from about March-April onwards, you'll get that fantastic foliage or even that blossom in real full force because it's going to focus loads of energy on new growth. One thing you may have noticed around the world is it's started to get just a little bit warmer, especially in autumn and winter. And my flower beds are looking just as good as they did in July in around about October,

which is a little bit concerning. But what you want to look out for is signs of stress and it dying down ready to be cut back. So for example, my cosmos will start to wind down and that's where we can cut this right back to nothing. Because it is an annual, what I like to do is store the seed heads and use these seeds ready for next year. So I'm not buying any. They're all ready to go with free. plants next year. So those are my do's and don't of what to cut and what to not. Take care. Oh, thanks, Ish. Can I say Mike had a beautiful hat on last week, which he adorns with flowers and Ish, I was very much admiring your gardening apron there. Yes. Which may have an official name,

but, oh, I just had handy pockets for all your tools as well. For your power tools. Get a power tools. What was that tool he used to cut something there? It was like, that was a bit saucy. I like that. Oh, I love his energy. He has such great energy. You're so true. You know, collecting your seeds. So you've got free plants next year. I need to collect seeds from my garden. Ish, thank you so very much. If you have any questions for our fantastic collective of gardening experts who are always on hand, do get in touch with us. Any questions you've got for them. Just get in touch by checking out how to on the show notes. Should we do some great digging now? This week I am actually giving you a book recommendation because we haven't lost another great in the world. There are news at the weekend that we've lost Diane Keaton, who we all love and adore. For me, right from watching her in Woody Allen films, you know, like Annie Hall.

She's so fabulous in that film. And Reds and then going on and making films like Baby Boom and something's got to give. and the first wives club. She's just such a fantastic actress and she could play serious and comedy so brilliantly, but also as a woman. I mean, there are so many things

that she said in life. She's like, why should we grow older and have to be quieter? I just want to be wilder and live life to the full and she has such amazing fashion sense. So my crate digging this week is actually a book.

It's a book she wrote called Then Again, which talks about her young life. She talks about making movies and her relationships with Woody Allen and her relationship with Al Pacino. She talks about living with bulimia. And she talks about her incredible family. There's quite a lot in this book about her wonderful mum, who was quite an inspiration, an incredible character. She comes from a really smart family, Diane Keaton.

And it is such a great read. She writes exactly as you'd imagine her to write. She is delightful. So if you are thinking of something to pick up and read at the moment after the great loss of Diane Keaton, then again by Diane Keaton is a beautiful memoir. I think something amazing that she always said was, you know, I didn't want to be married. That wasn't the life that I wanted. And she adopted two kids at the age of 50. I need to read this book.

Did it her way. And what an amazing lady. She was a very epitome of stylish. Yeah. My offering is the bit of vinyl that you can see behind me. And this is the new one from Richard Ashcroft. It's called Loving You. And he signed it because he was in session for me for my show.

And he signed it. It just says to Joe, music is still power, love and peace, Richard Ashcroft. And I thought that's it. That is absolutely it. Having done my gigs and seeing the effect that the music that we play from the 90s is having on those people who come and have a night of nostalgia, it makes them feel really happy and inspired. And then for Richard Ashcroft, music is power.

It's so important, isn't it, music? What it does to us in so many different ways. And this album, I think it's a reflection of the past few years for him, of going through COVID and thinking of different generations and his own journey and what was going on. There's a couple of really great tracks. There's one called Live in Hope or Live With Hope. But I felt really emotional when I listened to that.

It was just about, you know, it's tough times at the moment. Everything's quite grim and quite bleak. But you have to live in hope. You have to have hope in your heart. Because what's the alternative? There's a dance track on there. really varied eclectic album and his voice is sounding better than ever. Excellent choice. If you want to find all of these songs selections in one place, our Dig It playlist is part of our weekly

substack newsletter, which will be in your inbox every Friday. Essentially what we've been reading, wearing, listening to, all that kind of stuff. Anything we're obsessed with, we will share it. The link to subscribe is in our show notes. That's what we've got time for today back again on Monday to dig in and hear what you've been saying. If you have any questions, tips, funny stories or general thoughts to share with us. Do contact us. We'd love hearing from you. Our WhatsApp and our email address are in the show notes. And also, if you are loving the podcast, which we really hope you are, please leave us five stars on Apple or Spotify with a little review as well because it just really helps other people to find our show. Have a great week, Joe. See you on the other side.

Bye.