The Ins & Outs - Dead fish, walk-in wardrobes, and not working for free

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

In this episode we tackle your questions, covering March pruning, instant hedging, walk-in wardrobes and wildflower meadows. Jojo shares some big news and Polly says goodbye to an old friend.  This episode is proudly sponsored by the glorious Oka, creators of globally inspired, British-designed furniture and accessories, crafted with beauty, comfort and unique style in mind. Listeners can use the code OKASPRING15 for a 15% discount at www.oka.com. Valid until 16/3/26. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Green, the color of you see, I've been waiting for you, waiting for them. Welcome to the latest episode of The Inson Outs with myself, Polly Wilkinson. And myself, Jojo Bar. In this episode, we're having a quick catch-up, but then we're diving right into your questions because there's a whole lot of them. We are talking painted floorboards, walk-in wardrobes, what you're going to want to do in the garden this March. We're talking dahlias, hedges, evergreens, some very questionable.

returning fashion, and JoJo's got a little bit of news. Let's dive right on in. I'm really proud this week to say that we are being sponsored again by our friends at Oka, and we thought it would be fun to pick out a few of our favourite pieces from their spring summer collection, which can I just say, colour-wise, is exactly that you look at their collection, which, by the way, we've got their little catalogue through, and I've been having a little flick. It's like that sort of totally delicious little palette of sort of sort of sort of. soft colors that are really actually quite, I'm going to say on brown, pole. The sort of greens and those lovely sort of mustard yellows and no one does pattern quite like Oka. They're just good with

pattern. And whenever people ask me, how do you mix pattern? If you like pattern and you don't know how to mix, I would say Oka do sort of that maximalism quite well, where they actually mix big patterns and it just works because the colours and the tones work so beautifully. together. So Paul and I are picking out a few of our favourites from their collection. Polly, what's your favourite? Well, if we're on pattern mate, then first of all, I know we talked cushions last week, but they've got this, oh, God, I love it. You know, I've got a poppy tattoo on my arm. They've got a new cushion cover and it comes in, and there's like a pink and a yellow and a red, the imber poppy, and it's these beautiful poppies, like quite big format on these cushion covers,

which I am completely obsessed with. And then just to keep it still, gardener, because ofbs, they've got the most stunning desk. It's called a hilltop desk. And it's got like bobbin legs. No, stop it, Polly. That's what I want to get for the cottage. Isn't it amazing? I've got it sitting in my basket. Well, what I quite, I like, I might need to get it then before you. This goes out because I'm worried that everyone's going to want to go and buy it now. It's inspired by Beatrix Potter's Cumbrian home, which as soon as I read that, I was like, end of, game over. I shall be having that. So are we going to have a cute little match? We are. I love it. I'm so pretty. I'm so proud of you for liking that. I'm actually going to go with

the, there's a little mini greaswood. I hope I said that right, Griswood, Gricewood wall lamp and shade. And it is, I just think it's a really, really cool little wall light and I really, really love it. I don't even know where to start and stop, to be honest. They do, they do an Edereen-Linn-Ottoman, which is this round ottoman with this apricot linen top and then it's got this little wiggily base, This sort of the scallop bay. It's so, it's so pretty. There's a lot of lovely stuff. The Hambling wall mirror, natural wall mirror. I'll share these guys, but there's some beautiful stuff. And for all our lovely listeners, Oka are giving us a 15% off discount code, which is Oka Spring 15. And that is valid until the 16th of March. So get in there, gals, and order

your Oka beauties. Well, hello. Hello, my darling. How are you this week? this fine, not so fine week. I'm very well because I have exciting news. Tell me, pray tell. I've got a new bike shed. We'll shut the front door. Mm-hmm. That is riveting stuff.

I know. Well, actually, I've got two new bike sheds. It's a double bike shed. Well, hold on a second. Hold on, can we just get a rewind? Do you ride bikes, Polly? I don't. No, Jo-Ju, I don't.

So why are you so excited about said bike shed? So since the Renault, which I think, I think we're nearly two years since the start of the Renault now, aren't we? I've lost track of time. I don't even want to think about it. If it's two years, that's frightening. But yes, I think you're right. There's been a shipping container in my front drive for nearly two years now. My front drive resembles a building yard.

Okay. It's sort of one day I'll redo it, but, you know, gardens are expensive. And these two bike sheds are not. now going to house the crap, much of which is my beloved's, I think he would allow me to say. It will house his bikes, he has more than one, as does his small human, and tools, and camping garb and a kayak. Oh, okay. How often do you go kayaking?

Never. I don't care for water-based pursuits. No. Are you still doing Pilates? No. You gave up on that. I found it dreadfully boring. Well, that means you're not going to a good enough class.

Do you know what? It's actually, I found it quite hard. I have no upper body strength. Well, that's because you haven't been doing probably that comes with time, pal. That doesn't just happen. This is the thing. It's a snake's eating its tail, isn't it? But they were moving on to harder stuff.

And I was like, no, no, no, I can only do this once a week. And she kept saying I need to do it two or three times a week. But that would be hundreds of pounds a week in Pilates' classes, which would be lovely. but I know. You don't care for your upper body strength that much. I care violently about it. And I also know everyone says, don't bother with the cardio.

It's the weights and the strength at this age, isn't it? Well, let me just tell you what I've just procured for myself. Tell me. A weights vest that you just go walking in. We talked about this last season, these bloody weighted vests. Finally, bring myself a weighted vest. So it's supposed to be about 10% of your total body weight. It's not like a whole vest.

It's just like a sort of, I don't know, a bit that goes sort of around your boob, a bit like a, what would you call that? And it's heavy? No, pal. Like our mum's used to wear on our ankles when they do them. No, it's a feather. I know, but is it to the point where it's, I think it, I have such bad posture at the best of times. I wonder if it would just crush me. No, I think the idea.

Well, all of these things you're talking about, Paul, is because you do no exercise, mate. I know. Your posture is bad because you don't do things like Pilates. Look at you, you just went like that. You just corrected yourself. Did you see you want? I know, but I hate it. It's so boring.

The thing is, it's all very well correcting your posture. But unless you have a good core, you're going to keep doing this because you're not going to have the strength and the core. Oh, I know. I will be bent over double. I'll be an absolute shit show when I'm older. I'm fully aware. You don't have to do it. I think people think they have to do reformer.

Reform is really expensive and it's not always that accessible. And also, when you go and spend $30,000 on a class, then you turn up and it's shit, which has happened multiple times to me. I get really cross. You can see shit. They were absolutely lovely. I have no critique of them. I just found it boring. Powell, roll out a mat.

But I find all exercise boring. It's nothing to do with the instructor. You literally need to do 15 minutes every other day with some heavy weights on your bedroom floor. It sounds boring. It seems boring. Put on a podcast while you're doing it and just get it done. Get the job done. Fine.

Okay. I'll send you. I will. I'll send you a little routine that you can do. Okay. Go on. Let's share it online. Some sexy stuff for you.

Catch me up. What have you got going on? What I will say is that life is just really, really fucking busy, isn't it? Do you ever feel like you're just gripping on white knuckling through? And whenever people are you like, what are you up to? I'm like, I've just been like at a desk or like cooking stuff for my children. I don't know what to tell you. And when people are like, oh, just get out and smell of roses and, you know, get your feet on the ground and just breathe the air and, you know, be it one.

It's like, I can't. I literally haven't. got time to you breathe in the morning. I'm like literally like what the fuck? I'm like, my God, it's insane how busy life is. I mean, it's just, I think for everyone, it feels like everyone at the moment is just really like white knuckling, aren't they? It's especially who are juggling, like, kids and work and trying to be a good friend and trying to, you know, be a good partner and, you know, trying to plan holidays and make ends meet and just get food on the table every day and not fuck up things. It's a lot. Honestly, my life admin skills, which I also now understand

is one of my total downfalls. I have piles of papers and receipts shoved in every single like little pocket you can compartment. That is very ADHD of me. But I, I'm so, so bad at life admin. Like I forget doctor's appointments. I don't fill out forms for doctors. I forget to get my polling cards in. Like I am just such a... But then I think I'm not going to beat myself up because with everything else going on, that's what you've got to almost do, just accept that life is mad and it is for everybody. I genuinely think life is just so busy. And... I think we're all just doing our best.

We've almost just got to be like, you've almost just going to laugh at it. Sometimes I'm just like, What am I doing? This is not. How am I achieving this in one day? But I think many of us are like that. And I think that's life is just really messy. Oh my God. I actually have massive news for you and I'm so sorry I've forgotten this. I buried the lead. Fish is dead. I'm so sorry. RIP Fisher. So the great big garden cut back. So I came to cut everything back a weekend or so ago. And the pond is more or less covered by grasses and stuff. Cut it all back and I was like, do you know what this pond is? full of shit. I should probably take the, I've got chicken wire over it because the neighbour's cat tried to murder Fisher, as we all remember, picked up the chicken wire to sort of give it a bit of a clear out and remove some leaves. And Fisher, who I think has been dead for quite some time

because he was of a pallid colour and not entirely intact, was floating on the top. Oh no. I'm so sorry. How's Pichel doing? You know, we didn't land on Pichel. I know you wanted to go with fisher and pichel so that we were very on brand. Fisher and pichel, why would you not call your fish, especially if it was a pike, even better? It wasn't a pike. I don't think I could fit a pike in that tiny little pond. Is it the dick pond? A missed opportunity. It's not the dick pond. It's just a regular shaped pond. I think we should bring back the dick pond. That will be my next range that I'll bring out. You can continue with your really classy Ottomans and I will specialize in

phallic-shaped ponds. Yeah. Something to workshop with the team next week, perhaps. Anyway, I told my kids and they could not have given less of a fuck, so I'm glad I spent lots of time on that one. Oh, okay. On to the next. Can I just talk about as we're out in the garden and we're talking exciting things?

Yeah. Such as this. I am really excited because my little documentary that I've been making, which has been a real process, by the way, and a bit of a labour of love. But thank you for anyone that's actually tuning in because YouTube's a weird place. I don't get it.

I don't get it. But anyway, I'm really enjoying it, and I'm kind of loving being on this little journey. I did actually a week in the life, which was actually showed a mild, sort of just a little window into the insanity of my life. But I spoke ages ago about turning the paddock into a wildflower meadow because we definitely didn't want horses or anything.

And for the documentary, I've already spoken to a wildflower seeding company and a beekeeper. It would look. so beautiful. And I don't know if you remember we had, obviously, where we planted Dad's tree, we've sort of created this little meandering mazes around the paddock of little walkways. And when the grass, which at the moment is just grass, it grows, it grows up to sort of head height, long grass, but there's just no wildflower meadow. There's no wildflower in there.

So we're going to sow the wildflower, which can obviously, like, you know, take a good year. But we will have it. If we do it this spring, we will have it this summer, which is a are you going to strip back all of the grass? You're going to degrass it first, right? Yes, we're going to degrass it. It's a big job. It's a big job. So we're going to get, I'm basically going to get these guys in to talk to us about how it works, all the flowers that we can put in there. And I'm just so incredibly excited.

It's like, I'm absolutely buzzing about it. So, and then the buzzy bees. And then we're going to bring in the little bees. But it is the most perfect place for them. And it's just, and for the bees, this will be their home. This will be, and we can have our own honey. And my favorite thing in the whole entire world is honeycomb, honey. I just want to love them.

Oh my God, I'm so jealous. This is sort of the frustrated suburban gardener in me who desperately wants to be in the countryside but calmly because of life circumstances. Oh, gosh, you lucky thing. Wharfly meadow and bees is just on the wish list. So that's really happy. That's our sort of happy news that we're going to be exploring.

Also, pal, we've got coming up. It is, ladies, International Women's Day on the 8th March. This Sunday coming. This Sunday coming. So for anyone interested, I'm going to an event and all should come with furnishing futures and it's being held at their atrium. And there's still time to buy tickets. So if you're up for coming, it's a native furnishing futures.

And there's all sorts of amazing things. It's an evening of poetry and music. So if you would like to come, please buy tickets. Okay, let's do some questions. Okay, should we start with what to do in the garden in March? I think it's a perfect time. So March, this is when it all starts kicking off in earnest. So you can be cutting back everything in the garden now.

So anything you've been holding off for, so your ornamental grasses, any of your seed heads, even your hydrangeur, you can start preening. I would say with your hydrangeur, if you just keep an eye on the weather forecast, if you're going to get, sometimes we get a little surprise snow in March, don't we, on a cage? We do.

So keep an eye. If you live somewhere really cold, hold off and towards the middle of the month. But cut it all back now because you should be seeing signs of new growth. Time to cleanse and replenish, let everything come through. if you haven't been sowing any seeds for your cut flower patches, now's the time

to start on that. You're going to show all your seeds. So order them, say them. If you haven't ordered your daily as I suggest you do, because we're going to pot them up this month, get them started. Order your gladiolae-cosmias, those sorts of fun bits too. Also, little tip, if you have lavender in your garden, and I know many of you do, you're going to want to give that a little light prune now to get rid of any

of the stragglers. So anything that might have been like frost damage or if it's looking a bit messy, just give it a light prune, not like a hardcore cutback that happens in September, but a little like pruneroo of lavender. And then if you've got, this is really only applicable in smaller gardens because you can't expect you to do this in a big garden. You could deadhead some of your spring bulbs as they go over. So like narcissists and iris and things that, if you've got a few in pots or whatever and you want to deadhead them to make sure you can use them again, I would do that now.

If you're in a massive great garden and you've got sort of acres of narcissists, you're not going to go around with your nail scissors doing that. So you'll know. Okay. Up to you. So good. It's a busy month. Right.

Thanks, Paul. Super do-do-a. Let's go inside now. There you go. I kicked you off with a little garden deliciousness. Love that. Ooh, okay, good question here. I don't think we've ever talked about this before.

This is impressive. Okay, Jojo, give us the key things to consider when planning a walk-in wardrobe. Lucky you that you've got the space for one. Sounds amazing. It's a really good question, this. So when planning a wardrobe, there's a few things you need to consider. So first of, I would literally say almost get a little plan of your room. And first of all, there's a bit of a rule of thumb with how we send to proportion out your wardrobe.

So sort of 40 to 50% is usually hanging of things like shirts, jackets, dresses. Then you've got 20 to 30%, which is more like folded items. 10 to 20% is usually drawers. And then 10 to 15% is the shoes and bags. That's the sort of rules that we tend to go by. So, but you have to think how you want the wardrobe to work. So it might be that you've got loads of long dresses. So you've got to plan in making sure that you've got, you know,

more height. Yes, that height, exactly. Now you want to make sure you've got about a minimum is about 1.5 by 1.5 a floor area. So that's the area in the middle. Like a clear walkway you want at least, it's the same as a kitchen, really. It's sort of 80 centimetres as your minimum. You don't want less than 80 centimeters. Otherwise, it's going to feel a bit squished.

Got it. Especially if you want to have a mirror and you want to sort of stand back a bit. So I'd say about a metre is necessary for sort of walking, like, you know, walking around comfortably. Colin counted my jumpers the other day. Oh my God, I dread to think. What do you think is like a reasonable number of jumpers to own? I would say, I'm going to say 15. I thought I had about 20.

Okay. He counted them. Go on. 55. What the... I really like jumpers. You can't like that. That includes cardigans.

But no, where do you put them all? They're all on the top rail. I literally one rail of the entire room is knitware. That's an insane. I have it on my Instagram as my handle. I'm an ardent knitwear enthusiast. And I've got a jumper for every week of the year. You do indeed.

One last little tip I'm going to give on walk and wardrobes. If you put a chair or a stool or anything in the middle of the room, which can always look really nice, it is going to end up. piled up with clothes. With shit. Yes. Yeah. So do you really need that in there just to maybe sit down and put your shoes on?

No. I would say they can look lovely, but they're going to just end up with stuff piled all over them if you were like me. 100%. Okay. Right. Back out to the garden. Polly, what's the process for dahlias from now until planting? This is from the next.

So hopefully you've ordered them by now. If you haven't, I would because they do, they sell out and we need to get on with it. So with daylars you've got two choices. Either you can hold off until all the frosts of plas probably sometime in May and plant them straight out. But you're really behind the curve if you do that because essentially it's only going to start growing from May. So what we tend to do is they'd arrive about now and we're going to pot them up probably towards later in March. So just put them somewhere they're not going to get frosted for the next two, three weeks. So like, I don't know, under the stairs, in a cupboard.

They can be in your house. They can be in a shed. just know where they're going to get frosted. I left mine in the greenhouse and they were destroyed. And that minus six weather over December. My mistake. When it comes to potting them up, you need quite big pots. You need like a three-liter pot.

So I guess that's the size of like a, I don't know, a mixing bowl. Okay. You know, we're not talking, you don't want a small pot the size of a large mug. It's bigger than that. It's sort of more like large cereal bowl situation, a three-liter pot. And you're going to do one delia per pot. You put them in. And when your dahlias arrive, they're going to look like,

like weird sort of potatoes attached to a stem. Get rid of any that are squishy or wrinkled. We don't want anything squishy or shriveled and wrinkled. And you put the whole thing in with some compost. And then the stem, which will be the sort of stalk in the middle, sits above the soil. I'll show everyone how to do this. But essentially, you're doing that. And then you're going to leave them somewhere like a shed or a greenhouse,

somewhere where they're not going to get hit by the frosts, which hopefully are easing. And they're going to start off. So that just means that basically they're starting to grow in that soil. So you're essentially getting like a six-week head start on waiting to put them in in May. Does that make sense? Yes. So that's all you're doing for now. Job's good.

Great. Thanks, Paul. Okay, next one. A painted floorboard's still okay. Putting new boards on top won't work, sadly. Okay, so this is clearly someone who's got some floorboards and they're stuck with them. Can they paint them? Absolutely.

I love a painted floorboard. I think it's a real, like, do it properly because obviously you don't want to have little bald patches where the paint starts wearing off. So obviously get it properly primed and stuff first. But yeah, I think they look, I think they look great. And if you've got healthy floorboards that you can still use and there's no other option and you love the look of timber flooring, then absolutely painted. Lovely. Again, don't worry about trends and, you know, following what's right. Just do what looks right for your home at the end of the day.

So I love a painted floorboard. I think they can look really fun. It's a yes for me. I love a really nice cream painted floor, timber floor. I think that can look really lovely. Anything to avoid? Gloss. Don't go shiny.

So you want to go to really decent egg shell, very hard wearing. Obviously it's worth pointing out that anything light will show more things like dark hairs. Going dark, really dark, will show things like footprints. So just consider what colour it's going to be. That's why oak is so brilliant as a colour in general when you're doing actual floorboards because wood hides not just dirty footprints and hairs falling on the floor and cat hairs and God knows what. It's a sort of middle colour. But white will obviously show everything, every little bit of scrap of dirt and hair.

And obviously dark will show dust and footprints. Got it. So, yeah, good tip. Okay, another one for you, my love. What are your favourite evergreen plants to start? with. Love this. The one we use probably the most is you, Texas, you, just because it's quite formal, it's easily clipped, you can keep it in check, but it is one of the most expensive options. Love a pittosporum, but I would watch out where you use those because ever since

we had that cold winter, gosh, probably three years ago now, not 100% hardy in very cold areas. So pittasporum is something we would probably use more in towns, where we know it's that little bit warmer. Certainly we'd use it in London, borderline in Surrey. But if you get real cold winters, I probably wouldn't reach for it quite so much. But said it a thousand times, love a sarka cocker for a shady spot. Love a sara. Smells amazing. And another one, exactly. Another one which is actually a little bit different for you, which I have talked about before, but euphobia, particularly there's one called euphobia, Karakias, Wolfeniye. That's an evergreen, but it's not like a dome. It's much more,

that's going to be looking absolutely banging right about now with really zingy green flowers. But we use loads of euphobias, some of which are evergreen. And that's one of my absolute favourites to use. So that's one we definitely deploy frequently. Love that. And then I'll also, Paul, I'm going to tuck a little cheeky one in here. Because another question that came in was, hello, my hubby chopped down a lovely hedge and now regrets, how to replace it quickly.

And I wanted to get your take on this, because is there? such a thing as like a fast-growing hedge. Yeah, she said her hubby chopped a hedge down and now regrets it, how to replace it. Okay, so I need to understand this. By chopping down, as in literally to the ground, we're assuming... It sounds like the hedge is gone. The hedge is no longer. Hedge is done so.

But the use of the word chop down makes me think that all of the root system is still there, which is just giving me hives because if it's a mistake... Do you know what I mean in terms of you've still got the massive trunk of it? underground which you need to deal with. Well, this is a hedge. Has that been dug out? My hubby chopped down on the edge. Okay, but potentially, if you, if you cut down a hedge, you'd still have like the big

old root ball underground. So it might start growing again. Let's assume hubby chopped it down and then he removed root ball. Let's assume. That's just like, we're just going to hope that he did that. Because is there. When? I know when.

When was he doing this? Why? Why? I can only imagine, because it's the sort of thing that Brad would do, we've got the most minging hedge on our borderline, as you know, Paul, it's munting. Munting is such a great word. I haven't used that in such a long time. Bring back munting.

A munting hedge, anyway, and it's all kind of, it's a haberdashery of hedges that have all sort of like merged together and it just looks a nest. Appreciate that description. He just wants to chop it down and it's actually going to be access to the contracts when you come to the house. And he's like, we'll just put something in its place. And I was like, it's not that simple, honey, because we're going to be able to see through it. We need privacy. Like, so yeah, hit me, Paul. This is, oh, God, I feel very triggered.

Not so many questions, but yeah, okay, to give you answers. Okay, because one of the questions we got interestingly was, can you tell me a cheap hedge that's evergreen an instant? And the answer is, no, like, much like I can't tell you of a cheap flight to Thailand, it's, they don't exist. So hedging, you've got two options. You can buy something called a bare route. Or you can buy a root ball. Root Ball is the more expensive. Rootball is basically like a jojo or poly-sized piece of hedge, as in it arrives. And it can be of any height.

It might be a metre tall. It might be two metres tall. But it's essentially like a barrel of hedge. And that could be you. It could be Portuguese laurel. It could be regular laurel. It could be beach. But essentially what you're going to do is put them in like little soldiers next to each other.

That is expensive and instant. And you can choose your height. If you are on a budget, which I totally get, you have two choices. Either buy a short root ball, as in so you're buying a half the size of a little short soldier, which will take some years to grow. And so you can save money by buying a shorter one,

the shorter equals younger. Or you can do the really economical option, and that is bare root. And that is when you will essentially be ordering twigs. It will arrive when you go, I have been sold an absolute pup here. It's just a twig and a rube and a rubegen. root, it's bare, it's bald, and you're going to go, what the fuck have I ordered? And you're

going to need to order loads of them, and you're going to need to be very patient. We do this where, if we're doing Jojo, for example, in your field, if you wanted a hedge, I'd be like, let's go mix native, great for the wildlife, and let's just do whips. They're called whips. And that's just going to be a big old bag of sticks. And we're going to put them in the ground. And they're great. They establish really easily because they're not big. They're like babies. So they're going to establish really easily. And you're going to be waiting for. four or five years for it to actually look like a hedge, but it's really cheap.

It's like, I don't know, three, four, five pounds per piece versus, I don't know, 50 quid a piece. Okay. So as with everything with plants, you are paying for maturity. Yeah, okay. Makes sense.

If only we could do that in everything in life. So the answer is if you need to save money, then buying bare root rather than root ball is the answer. And your window for that is closing. Bare root and root ball season. They stop lifting things when things start. growing. So basically March. You've got until probably the end of March to do this, or maybe April at a push, to do it, or you're going to need to wait until the autumn. Good. You want to pay a lot

more. So, wow. Didn't that turn into a good question? Sorry. I've got, yeah, I never thought. I'm more upset about the renegade and rogue nature of your partner cutting a hedge down. Very, very, unconsulted. This makes me uncomfortable. I hope he's sitting in a corner thinking about what he's done. Good. He's looking for a new hedge is what he's looking for. JoJo, I've got a really fun question to finish on. I have got a question from Kate, who is an architect, and this one made me laugh.

How do you politely bridge the gap between giving free advice to friends and family? Oh, that's a really tricky one. My sister, this is so funny. My sister, who obviously I love dearly and she loves our podcast, and she listens to it. She's fully caught up now. It's really funny. She was actually listening to like the last couple of episodes,

basically like a couple of weeks ago. And so she's all caught up. And she always laughs because she's like, I've basically done in my house everything you tell people not to do. Like from the grey sofa to the like single light hanging out the ceiling to like the feature walls. She's like everything you say. I'm like, just, oh my God, how's this my sister?

So advice giving to friends is a really difficult one because I think sometimes I don't mind giving the odd bit of advice to friends because that's what friends are for. I think it's when they're not great friends or they might be like a school mum friend and they might come to you for advice. And it turns into like, oh, you wouldn't just pop over and just like help me do this, this, this. And you're like, those are the ones, aren't they? I really don't. I can't even pop over to my mum's house. Like I'm that busy. I'm a popping over thing. It's a bit like a, I'll pop over and have a cup of tea and I'll open a glass of wine and just ask you everything about. mind you for information.

Yes. And because I think what people don't realize is that as a designer, you really have to switch on. Like it's like a real like, even after these podcasts, it's like the drain. Honestly, you're like, oh my God, I'm absolutely exhausted because you're thinking. It's like there isn't one size fits all.

And therefore every project comes with its own challenges and its own obscurities and it's and every room. I can't just pick and paint and pick a color and go, yeah, whack it in there. It's like, what would I do everywhere? So it takes a lot of thought. And also the pressure is for some reason more so, because I don't want to get it wrong. And then be like, well, you told me I should do that.

And then it potentially there might be like a, I mean, when would I? Then you're wrong for it. You know, it's really funny, pal. My bestest, closest, oldest friends never ask me for anything to do with their gardens. In fact, they've had their gardens built without talking to me about it completely. And I've been like, why didn't you ask me this? I could have, you know, helped you. discount or like steered you in the right direction like and they're like I'm never going to ask you

that that's not what I'm going to do and yet you get so really interestingly this really struck me it was a while ago now my son had a play date and the mum who I'd never met before was like I must have you over to talk about the garden oh we come over have a cup of tea we can talk about my garden and I was like I don't want to do that like why do you think that's what I would want to do I don't know you and and it's like what The problem is as well, it's really difficult because you're basically like a walking encyclopedia of design knowledge. And because it's also something we love, you do end up sometimes just getting into it, like where you just end up giving advice and then... 100%.

But then it's also like, I want to switch off for my job as well. Like I don't want to go around to someone's house with my kids for a play date and work. And that's what it is. Even if you think it's a bit of advice, we are working. Giving advice, talking about interiors, having our brains picked for just a little bit over a glass of wine, we're still working. So yeah, you can give me a nice glass of wine, but I'm still having to turn my brain on and work when I, you know, I don't always want to have to do that.

It's a funny one though, isn't it? Because it's sort of, again, the people please room wants to be helpful. If you had a friend who was a financial advisor, you wouldn't go, oh, you wouldn't just pop over with you. I've just got these books that need looking at and just, I'll open a bottle of wine there and you can do it for me. I would never do that, like to my friend. It's strange that design comes with that, doesn't it?

But it's interestingly, so to answer your question, because we're not answering your question, we're just sharing our lived experiences of it. I learnt really, really, really, really early, never do anything for free. And that's not making about money, but it's putting value to your time because people don't value free things. So for me, it's a question of, so I've had friends, good friends that I've been like, have me over for dinner. This is a transaction. Have me for dinner and give me wine and I will do this for you and I've consented to this.

It's a transaction. It's got to be a transaction. I have told you now, Polly and I have paid each other for our work. full stop. And that might seem really surprising. Oh, why don't you just get Polly around to design your garden? Because Polly's Polly's Polly. Like, she can, I've paid her for the time that she's worked on my garden.

Like she paid me to help with her house. And it's a funny thing of, if you, you, I want to treat every job as a job. The other, actually throwing on top of that, the, the hardest thing is, is also when you get sort of school mom friends, like, oh, you wouldn't just come and look at this job for me. And it's just, it might be, we only now take a, on really full-scale projects unless it's through our virtual service. And therefore it's really hard because sometimes I'm like, I just don't have the time.

And I don't want to be rude, but I can't. I know you're local. I know you're sort of a school mum friend or, you know, local friend. But I'm saying no because I genuinely can't. But then it's almost like they're offended that you say no. And I'm not saying no because I don't want to help you. I just don't have the time. So it's a tricky one.

I'm sure. And it's probably not designed. I think the advice is probably boundaries. It's boundaries. It's boundaries. If friends and family are asking, I mean, if it's your parents, for God's sake, help them out. I think in terms of actual tangible advice for you, try and put a boundary around it.

So choose who would you do this for and who wouldn't? And the ones you don't, you're just like, oh yeah, I'll speak to my PA and you can book something in. So actually often having an assistant who can shield you from that is helpful. And as for mates, I do have a sort of blanket rule of like, oh, mate, I'm really sorry. I don't do free advice because it's who do I say yes to and who do I say no to? Yeah. And if you didn't know that before, then you do now. Can we also pop this one in here?

Because I think this is really sweet. Someone wrote in and said, yes, in big bold letters, this reminded me how much I love Oka. And I think this is just so lovely because Oka obviously are sponsoring our podcast. It's so nice. This is the power of sponsorship

that we're getting a brand into your ears that you might have forgotten about. Oka have been around for a really long time. But they are a brand that's still around and going really strong because they produce such beautiful quality homewheres. So I'm really glad that we could refresh you into thinking about OKA. So thanks for that.

The thing I've been flirting with for ages, and I'm taking the leap now. I'm so excited. The botanical prints, obviously. Oh, you've done it in there. You know the downstairs loo? Yes, I know the downstairs. Which I did want to do in the jazzy wallpaper,

but I've not got round to it. I think I'm actually going to go with like a herbarium of botanical prints in there. You almost can't not, Paul. I feel like it's just like a given, you have to do that. Delish. You have to do that. So I'm going with the black, black background botanical prints. Oh, yes.

Yummy. Which leads us to say, Jojo, what is in and what is out. I'm going to go mildly basic bitch on this one. What's in for me. Let's hear it. It's actually just a cheek highlighter from Charlotte Tilbury. I'm actually wearing it now. Because it gives you your cheek like a highlight.

It just, just with. this weather just makes me feel instantly when I put it on alive like I don't look dead anymore because it gives you a little bit of a glow. Oh my God. But you know sometimes you just get a product and you're like that is just so good. I'll share it on my stories. I'll share, I'll share it. But it's just occasionally you get one of those products that's just like it feels like it needs sharing and it's a bad. I love that. There you go. Let's keep it on makeup then for my end. Keep it basic. Obviously went down a Wuthering Heights hole and I feel very valid. To see that my two favourite blushes were used on Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights.

And they are, you're my fave, the Merritt Beauty flush bomb. Margotry. Can we just talk about, she's probably an infamy? She's such a babe. Oh my God. She's a beaut, isn't she? She's just a stunner, isn't she? I love the way she commits to her press, by the way.

It's like, you know, all of the press interviews she's wearing kind of like baroque corsets. You know, for Barbie, she went full Barbie for the press tour, didn't she? And for this, she's gone for fun. Can we just talk about Wuthering Heights for a second? Are you going to... I'm going to see it tonight. At the time of recording. Okay, you're going to see it tonight.

I'm curious to know. I'm not, I don't know why it's not appealing to me. I don't know what it is. I'm curious to know what it's going to be like. Well, I went to, Emerald Fennell was in my year at school. We went to school together. So I like to watch what she does. She's great.

All right, pal then. What's out for you? My out? Well, it's more of a question. Is it in, is it out? Apparently, do you know what's coming back? Oh, God, go on. You know those khaki green sort of utility army jackets

that we all used to wear, like to festivals? Apparently they're back. This is why we should never, ever get rid of our clothes. This is why we should just pack away everything in a bag for like future generations. I mean, you'll find this all invented. But that's... You know, the full-on kind of like, I don't know.

The ones with the right in the back. Short length. God knows, probably. But the ones with a bit of a drawstring around the waist, big pockets on the side. What I want to know is, who, I want to know, who is it the very, very top of the trend triangle that sits there and goes, yeah, let's pull that back out. Let's pull a scarf as a belt out. Or let's pull that low slung sort of denim baggy gene at 90s. I mean.

Well, the low riding jeans are back. Something I saw the other day that I totally forgot was in fashion for ages. This one really tickled me. Do you remember when we all wore like Mary Jane shoes, the like circular heels with a strap, almost like a dancing heel? That was a thing. They would look horrific on me.

It would just look bonkers on me. I don't know if it's out or it's in, but let's talk about, yeah, khaki jackets. How about you? Actually, Jojo, I just wonder if I could just pop a little question in here, if I could just tee you up real nice. Go on them. Go on.

Said love Polly's book. very much. If you haven't bought it, it's still available and all good retailers. Is Jojo bringing out a book? Jojo's book is coming out this year, guys. You're going to hear the big release is happening next month. You're going to hear about it. We're going to get, and I need to encourage you. I didn't know this is a thing, Paul. Can you tell me about this? And I can't tell you anything about the book at the moment, I'm afraid. I have to wait a little bit longer. Can you just tell me what the whole pre-order thing is about? Because obviously I'm being told that you have

to push the pre-order. So you guys, if you support me and you love me, you're going to have to buy this book. And I know it's like cringing and annoying for me to ask, but you have to go get it on pre-order because I think it's apparently something to help with the getting up the charts or essentially you're whether you get into, you're most likely to have a bestseller in the first week of release, right? It's most likely. Unless it's some sort of absolutely banging fiction book, which sort of, you know, is a sleeper hit.

And then boom. So it gets featured by a book club. something. So the pre-orders, essentially, it's the biggest, you're, I don't fully understand it, forgive me if you work in the book industry, but essentially each week it's calculated by the number of sales, but the pre-orders all count towards the first week of sales. So obviously, if you're getting pre-orders for some three to five months before, they aren't counted then. They're counted, boom, in the first week. So if you want a chance of being on a bestseller list, your best chance is by getting as many pre-orders as possible

because then you've got all of them plus whatever you sell in the first week. There you go. I knew you would know, no, Paul. So anyway, so I'll be doing all that grovelling coming up soon. But I am so excited and I'm actually just so honoured and I still keep pinching myself because I can't believe that anyone would even want to read what I've got to say or buy a book that I've written, which is just so bizarre.

It's going to be probably one of the most pinch me moments, I think. What fun. I think the thing I'm most excited about is seeing what kind of you've chosen. Oh, yeah. I'm sure the content of it will be absolutely banging, but something tells me it will also be real pretty on a coffee table. That's what's giving me the most amount of nerves, funny enough.

I'm happy what I've written. It's the cover because people are, you know, just, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I want a nice spine for the bookshelf, sweet cheeks. I want it to a sexy-ass spine. I'm going to give you good spine. Right, let's let these good people go about their day, shall we? Yes, be gone.

Be gone, my loves. Sling your look. you so much for being here. We love you all. Go like, subscribe and share with your friends. Goodbye. Bye.