The Ins & Outs - Fixing Compacted Soil & Picking Paint Colours

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

On today's episode Polly explains how to deal with compacted soil and when you should be pruning your Wisteria.Jojo enlightens us on how you should pick your paint colours for inside the home.Plus, Polly's Blue Tits are out in the her garden and Jojo's missed calling as a jockey.This week's episode is brought to you by Alitex Greenhouses. Alitex make the most beautiful modern Victorian greenhouses. Visit https://www.alitex.co.uk and check them out!InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is brought to you by Google Pixel. I'm Jessi Cruikshank. I host the number one comedy podcast called Phone a Friend. I also have three kids. I need help making every day easier. So I switched to Google Pixel. It's a phone powered by Gemini, your personal AI assistant. Gemini can help you summarize your unread emails,

suggest what to make with the food in your fridge, and it helped me achieve a family photo where everyone is smiling at the camera. I didn't think it was possible, but it is with Google Pixel 9. Learn more at store.google.com. Breaking news happens anywhere, anytime. Police have warned the protesters repeatedly, get back. CBC News brings the story to you as it happens.

Hundreds of wildfires are burning. Be the first to know what's going on and what that means for you and for Canadians. This situation has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. CBC News. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are.

So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Hello Inns and Outs and welcome to this week's episode of The Inns and Outs with myself Jojo Barr and the very lovely Pollyanna Wilkinson. I am so excited to tell you that the brilliant Alitex greenhouses are our sponsor. Now if you're not familiar with Alitex already they make the most beautiful modern Victorian greenhouses. These aren't just a greenhouse. These are rooms of their own standing. Yes, you can grow in them, but also, my goodness, you can put an armchair in there,

sit amongst the geraniums and have a cup of tea. And I myself, I'm so excited and so proud to be putting an Alitex greenhouse in my own garden. You guys have been hearing my garden design journey. And I finally, after years as a gardener, I'm going to have my very own garden. You guys have been hearing my garden design journey and I finally, after years as a gardener, I'm going to have my very own greenhouse. So if you're in the market for a greenhouse or you just fancy a little swooneroo, then head to alitex.co.uk. Thank you so much Alitex. We love you. On today's episode, we're going to be talking about bank holiday lowdowns, my missed calling as a jockey, picking paint colours, when to prune your wisteria, how to deal with compact soil and Polly's blue tits. Let's delve in.

How are you my darling girl? What's been going on? What's been going on? The lowdown. Well it was half term wasn't't it so oh my god it was so hectic when I had the boys it's as I said last week it's photo shoot season so I could only get to these plant nurseries the trade nurseries before I started work or before I had the boys so I had to load the boys into the car okay last week get all the seats down other than the ones they were sat on and park in the trade nursery and then I had to fit a hundred plants in and around the boys around them bless them they were like welcome to plant land yeah that was because fortunately nurseries open at like 7 30 a.m which is great

but stuffing them all in the juggle of trying to work whilst also doing child care um gotta love a half term they come around so quick we completely forgot half term we i don't know what happened i think we've just been so busy obviously we both run our own businesses and it's been such a busy time that suddenly this half term came around and we realized on like the wednesday before that we had half term and ziggs had the whole week off and of course Rox is still at nursery so it was just like you just get that sort of terrible guilt managed to find a camp that would take for a day doing like gymnastics but yeah um yeah just uh it's it's just juggling at home I've had so many meetings and zooms and obviously you know when you're mid zoom and the little one comes in she's like can I have some more chocolate and then I don't know what she's

been eating out of the cupboard it's all gone um so I feel terribly guilty I'm gonna make it up to her tomorrow but I so let me ask you pal do you know how many bank holidays we have in a year so bloody many and when you work for yourself bank holidays are not welcome do you know I actually don't I personally don't mind because i could do them myself so there are eight bank holidays in the year do you know what they're all for no banks would you not think this is a really sad fact because if you go to most countries around the world like i don't know say sweden midsommers or you know even in the states fourth of july they really really celebrate they're out on the streets like we the other day was st pat was um was what's ours St George's Day we did nothing nobody celebrates it it's not a culture of that really is there do you know what from personal perspective I don't love bank

holidays ever since the divorce because they're really lonely because most people are doing things with their family so I find myself either on my own or on my own with my babies which is obviously lovely but it's quite nice to hang out with other people so I just find them quite a difficult day to be honest uh do you sort of think of lots yeah I think you say that but actually I find bank holidays are usually just an excuse to kind of go and do some gardening or get the go to the dump or do those things you don't get a chance to do in a normal day but it probably feels like that it feels like that it's it's one of those things that i think if you're on your own and something actually my granny used to talk about if you're on your own there are certain

days that feel really lonely and now i understand that so yeah let's move on to happier things definitely happy things let's not talk about the general election then um so jenny lex the jenny lex let's i love that abbreviation jenny lex it's it's not the best time is it let's be honest let's be honest let oh wait we're supposed to so let's just say for a minute this podcast and we could so easily jump on a political bandwagon and polly and i have so many conversations about this off yeah off the podcast off the record and as anyone will know we both care a lot but we actually just feel like this space the podcast it's a place for escapism it's a little escapism a bit of levity in a

hideous hideous time in a shit show show of a time, I'd say. Yes. Please don't think we're not thinking about it, but hopefully this is some light relief. Yes, indeed. So apart from that, Matt Powell, give me a little catch up on anything whizz me around the house, anything new, anything fun.

I will whizz you around the house. Well, just, you know, it's in a sort of weird state of flux at the moment where it's sort of things are not going as quick you know it all happens really quickly at the beginning and now it's just a the sort of slow trudge so it's very noisy it's dusty I still am really enjoying the process so it's uh and you know starting to get into decision making which is fun so you know it's I'm used to I quite like having people around. Are they nice boys? Are they good boys? They're a dream. They're lovely. Are they? They're lovely. I don't feel I give enough biscuits. I think I could

probably be giving more biscuits. And the garden is finished in the studio. So that's, and now I just have to sit and wait for that to grow. And I've got loads of birds. I've got loads and loads of birds. I've got tits. I beg your pardon? I've got tits. You have got tits. You sure do. I've got tits, baby.

I've got tits in a can, I lie. Oh, and I've got a jay. And then loads of pigeons, which I'm obviously less excited about. Oh, I've got a question for you. We were coming past Hyde Park the other day. I was heading to Marlborough station and we came through high park and saw this flock of pigeons all over the floor and this crazy bird lady you know like the one from uh what's the film where she's feeding what's the name what song is that it's uh mary poppins mary poppins of course isn't it mary poppins

mary poppins anyway so there she was birds all in her hair and everywhere feeding all these little pigeons and also flying down sweeping down with these little parakeets these little green parakeets so for anyone that doesn't live in london that might not know that we have green parrots living in central london um But it's a really bizarre thing to see because obviously on a rainy day when you've got these grey pigeons, very London looking, and then suddenly you've got this sort of

shocks of bright green little parrots flying around. Do you like them? Because there's people that love it and there's people that hate it because they don't think they're native. Obviously they're not native. I love them, but I think they're a pest now, aren't they? Hold on, I'm just going to ask Mr. Big because he knows these things. Oh, Mr. Big. Mr. Big is... native i love them but i think they're a pest now aren't they hold up just gonna ask mr big

because he knows these things oh mr big mr big is our parakeets a pest now parakeets yeah oh i don't know oh he doesn't know either he doesn't know he doesn't know useless did you know that red squirrels used to be native to britain and red and the silver squirrel is actually came over from america and wiped out all of our lovely red squirrels so did you know that i didn't know that oh here we go parakeet control parakeets are classified as agricultural and horticultural pests by natural england in 2010 These birds do still enjoy the legal protection afforded wild birds, and it remains illegal to kill or interfere with them

other than in exceptional circumstances. Obviously, we're not allowed to kill them. Well, they're a lovely pest, aren't they? Let's be honest. Oh, I think they're fab. I like their feathers. Otherwise, no real exciting news other than, yeah, the greenhouse.

My Alatex greenhouse. I'm going to go and pick out all the accoutrement that goes inside shortly. But it's coming in September. I've got another question for you. What would you have been if you weren't going to be a landscape designer? What would you be, Polly? Did you ever think when you were younger, I really want to be that? I wanted to be a fashion designer.

Did you? I wanted to go to St. Martin's and I wanted to do fashion. Oh, so you were one of those creative and intelligent people well I didn't like to say I was not uh I was not an intellectual I wanted to be either a jockey or a racing car driver I think you were a bit too tall for those pal that's what happened I think we could fit two jockeys in you I know probably could oh dear

they have not been in there I'll tell you that now right anyway I meant a high one definitely right anyway so yes i didn't i didn't definitely oh the visual of frankie detore under the bed covers oh god we've gone off on such a tangent here sorry everyone should we should we jump into

some questions oh actually um we did have a question actually somebody was asking me because since my color theory thing i did um somebody asked didn't they about what cool skin tones what fake tan you're supposed to wear yeah i tell you what it's made the world of difference it's not even the brand name i'm not gonna i'm not gonna throw a lot of brand names out there but i would just say look for anything with a purple hue so you get fake tans that have the sort of the brownie yellows go with the ones with the purple so if you've got cool cool skin tone you need to go with something with purple in it or you know violet they call it violet so that was from katherine wasn't it so do you just google fake tan for cool skin I did exactly that I stood in

boots and I went to fake tan fake tan for cool skin tones and it literally came up with all the names and it's anything with a violet undertone violet yes is there is there anything else you can update me on on the 6th of June we've got some really exciting news coming out to do with paints and that's all I'm going to say you're the first to hear it first to hear it here paints I love telling our our innies and outies news first it's nice I like it let's dive into some questions and we're going to start with one from Hannah because it's about paint I'm speaking of paint colors so Hannah says hello and any question please.

In desperate need of some help before I paint the dining room the wrong colour for a third time. Whoops. And my other half loses his mind. I'm looking for a neutral slash white paint that doesn't look cold and greyish when there isn't much sunlight or in the evening. I'm also scared of going too far the other way and ending up with something resembling magnolia. For context, we currently have Farrowball Schoolhouse White. Oh, I love that one. And it's all kinds of wrong for this room.

Oh, okay. In some areas, it looks orangey and in some, a not particularly nice shade of grey. Please help before I bankrupt us on paints. Thank you, Hannah. Oh, you know me. I love me a neutral paint. Did she say which way the room faces? She doesn't, I'm afraid, my friend.

Well, this is the thing. You can love a paint colour, but it depends what room it's in because it can end up looking quite gloomy. So if you want, say I always think schoolhouse white can be lovely in sort of dark corridors or in a second bedroom, but actually it can look a bit, see the colour I've got on my walls behind me, I didn't choose this, but this is a bit schoolhouse white. It can look a bit see the color i've got on my walls behind me i didn't choose this but this is a bit schoolhouse white it can look a bit sludgy it can look a bit sort of yellowy sludgy it looks yellowy in the picture it looks yellowy exactly so schoolhouse white

has a yellow sort of undertone oh you gotta so imagine when you're looking at when you're looking at a paint chart you you can you can visibly see when looking at a paint chart that you have columns of some have purple in them some have yellow in them some have hints of blue some have pink and then there's some which are just literally almost they almost look sort of brown hues that's sort of in between the brown and the gray that's where you're going to find your most neutral neutral whites essentially so that means that most things are going to go with them um so my advice well this is why we created our paints with coat which is the neutral paint range which is jojo's white and then the home is and then the fresh start you've got it on your walls pal haven't you yes which one do i have you've got Jojo's White all over your walls.

I've got Jojo's White. You've got Jojo's White. What it is, you want to find, and I'm not trying to sell my paint colour here, but guys, have a look at it, get some samples. Essentially, it's a really neutral, warm white, I'd say. It's got something going on, but it's still got a warmth to it. If you go too cool, if you go down the grey spectrum, it's sort of got it's got something going on but it's sort of still got a warmth to it if you go too cool if you go down the gray spectrum it's going to feel cold so I wanted to create a neutral a neutral essentially white that is still warm but that

goes with everything so you can put everything with it you can warm it up or you can cool it down essentially and it goes with everything so that is why i created this range so sorry that wasn't a sales pitch guys but it just really look for neutral get get samples that fall into that neutral category if you're going with anything that's sort of yellow i know you haven't told me the direction of the room but anything in a very if you think about a lot a room that's got no natural light if you put something like yellow in it's going to feel quite sludgy and it's going to feel a bit mushroomy i hate this color in here i don't like i've never painted this room since we've moved in um because this is going to be an extension but i don't like this feeling of sort of

a sludginess you want to go something a bit more a bit more upbeat a bit more fresh i think because then you can bring in don't forget in a dining room you're likely to have dark furniture and you know oak um in your table and perhaps your chairs. And therefore anything like a sort of anything yellow in might end up feeling even more sludgy. You're almost creating a sort of slightly, it's not going to feel very, I don't know, very invigorating. Gotcha. Sorry, pal. That was a real, that was a real long winded answer.

But let me hop out into the garden. I think I was very drawn to this question because the profile picture is of Lucy Lucy Whitefield um and she's smashing back a glass of red wine in her profile picture so girl after my own heart so this one from you Lucy um such a huge fan thank you so much for making me cackle out loud on my journey home from work every Tuesday I got a huge hug from a colleague the other day for introducing her to your podcast too. That's so sweet. My question is,

having followed all of Polly's excellent advice for my wisteria in February and pruned it back hard, it has now gone crazy. The flowers looked totally amazing last week, but now the leaves are taking over. Can I prune it again or should I wait? Also, is there a trick to keeping

rhododendron jungle under control? Everything has gone mad at the moment. So wisteria. Yeah, so we prune it normally in July. So it's a little early. So the reason being, and we prune it in July because they do go like a triffid and they like get in your gutters and cover your windows. But if you do it now, you probably need to do it yet again in August.

So just hold off and let it do its thing for the next month. cover your windows. But if you do it now, you probably need to do it yet again in August. So just hold off and let it do its thing for the next month. And then come July, we'll cut the entire wisteria, all of that whippy growth back to about five buds from the mainframe, which is going to tame it. It's still going to start regrowing,

but it's really important you do that because otherwise it just gets into like an absolute chaos mess. So I'm so glad it flowered though. Well done done i've had loads of messages saying people followed the instructions and they've had a really good good show this year that's amazing so hold back on pruning wisteria until july so general rule is um two and seven february and july this episode is brought to you by Google Pixel. I'm Jessi Cruikshank.

I host the number one comedy podcast called Phone a Friend. I also have three kids. I need help making every day easier. So I switched to Google Pixel. It's a phone powered by Gemini, your personal AI assistant. Gemini can help you summarize your unread emails, suggest what to make with the food in your fridge, and it helped me achieve a family photo where everyone is smiling at the camera.

I didn't think it was possible, but it is with Google Pixel 9. Learn more at store.google.com. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push, find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Okay, I've got a question from Marion.

Hi guys, love the podcast and you've given me so much inspiration and knowledge. Ah, good. I'm in a pickle about my upstairs flooring. At the moment, I have bright orange, knotty pine floorboards in all bedrooms and on the landing. Is there any way to make them look pretty? Is it possible to tone down

the orange and stop it from coming back and what finish shade should i give it i just don't know if it's worth salvaging or should i replace all the flooring and blow the budget please help i love you guys oh thanks marion oh good question you can have some fun here so it's worth saying any any flooring that's like a pine orange, as we know, I detest orange pine. Most of us do, I think. But what happens is when wood is first obviously dry treated and it's a sort of quite fresh, nice, it's actually quite a nice color. Over time and with varnish, it will turn that orange color. So I think I've said it before.

You don't buy it off the shelf looking like that. It just over time becomes darker and more orange. And varnish won't be helping that either. So if you were to sand off the varnish, it'll go light again. And then you put the varnish on, it'll go a bit darker. Over time, the same thing's going to happen. So the only way to counteract that from happening is by applying a color. So the only way to counteract that from happening is by applying a color.

So either a sort of an Osmo wax with a sort of white in it that will hold down the orange so you won't see it so much. So you can either essentially stain the orange with a bit of white, which will help to lighten it. Or to be honest, if you like the boards that the actual, you know, they're in good condition and you don't want to spend the money on ripping them all up why not actually just paint them yeah just get an actual a really nice wood paint and paint your floorboards because it can look really really lovely um you know just any color like a lovely off-white can look really cool if you have different boards as well so say one room is a sort of oak and the other rooms are pine and then you've got you're never going to get them looking the same even if you treat them the same they're never going to look the same

so you might be better off just painting them and seeing how that looks before you go and rip them up and replace them with something else from a sustainability point of view it'd be nice to try and keep them wouldn't it because that's it was got wood floorboards it seems a shame to take them up just to replace them with it does and honestly go and have a go nip onto pinterest and have a look at painted floorboards sort of white painted floorboards and you can do some amazing things you know you can even like do a checkerboard pattern on them if you want which looks really fun mate is there a way of protecting them because i've i've seen painted floorboards in the past and it might just been that it was done you know in i think it was i'm very much thinking student times right now so it might just be that they weren't finished properly

but usually when i see painted floorboard they're like quite chipped yes you need almost need to put a shellac varnish down so if you really want to keep the paint it's essentially that's what shellac is that's what shellac is yeah it's essentially like a wood varnish to stop things chipping so you're if you want to keep the paint looking good for a long time obviously it don't go with anything that's glossy so you want to go as satin matte as possible so that you don't have shiny floorboards um but yeah put put down some sort of you just paint with a sort of eggshell over time footfall wear and tear you will it will start to wear off so if you want it to last and stand the test time you are going to have to put some something a bit hardier down what kind

of colors would you paint a wooden floor i'd go like a lovely off like a really nice creamy off white something really but then i like i said i have seen you know so many people doing checkerboards painted on painted floorboards it looks so fabulous checkerboards a real thing right now isn't it it's sort of moved from stripes it's a real thing but it's always been a thing checkerboards has always been a thing I've been using black and white checkerboard marbled tiles since I started 17 years ago so I think like I said I always talk about this. We've got social media now, which highlights trends. Yes. And therefore things seem trendy, but they've always been around.

Designers have always been using them. So it's actually... I mean, checkerboard's very classic. Checkerboard's a classic thing. And it's fun. You know, it's a really fun way to add character and bring some colour in. So yes, that's that one. Right, I'm going to head outside.

I'm going to grab a cup of tea and a biscuit i'm coming out into the garden this one is from martin gabriel uh martin gabriel how do i help my compacted soil it's a small garden no other choice than to use it as a dumping ground during the renovation so oh gosh that's a really good question actually soil really good question and i'm cringing as i see the diggers on admittedly only a small portion of my garden but they have oh my god i could just see the compaction so compacted soil is soil where all of the air has been squished out of it usually by machinery or very heavy footfall or materials being stored on it and you don't necessarily

know your soil is compacted until you try and dig it and when you do number one it feels like digging concrete and when you do finally get a spade into it it you dig it up and it stinks i really i cannot tell you the smell of compacted soil trust me you'll know if you have it it smells like sewers and it's the reason you don't want compacted soil and this is this is the point when i see people that have had builders to build their garden that I just go oh and this is why I say use a landscaper compacted soil means there's no air which means if you put a plant in it their roots can't move so it's going to die it also means that water cannot flow through the soil and down it's going to sit on the top or it's going to sit in the top you know x number of centimeters and flood your soil so like it's going to sit on the top or it's going to sit in the top, you know, X number of centimeters

and flood your soil. So it's catastrophic for your plants, but also for drainage. So now that I've educated you on what it is, what to do about it, you need to get air back in. And that can be in a small garden. It really depends how deep that compaction has gone, but you can start with, you know know a garden fork or similar and you know literally forking the soil to try and get air in but that might not be deep enough because that's really only dealing with the first what 20 30 centimeters so it might be there are lots of lawn companies out there that will be able to essentially they come and they essentially sort of drill holes in your in your ground and if you

think about it it's a case of getting the air in so that the soil can then redistribute what you want is it to loosen up enough and then you're hoping like the little worms will come and help too but really you need to aerate it and you can try doing that yourself and if that doesn't work then you can bring in a lawn company or landscaping company to help you with that but well done you for addressing it because a lot of people will just try planting into that and and then wonder why all their plants are dying honestly this is such a great question because i did not know that i did not know that and i've been out there i the amount of times i've gone into the flower bed and i've stuck plants in and they just die and i'm guarantee i'm digging like through this thick and it's so I don't know if it's also clay it's very

thick and heavy although there are worms in there but it might well be clay but this is the one thing and I bang my drum about this a lot and I wish people would listen is clients that go oh we're gonna have the builder do the garden because they're here anyway and you know they're very good at paving and you're like yeah but are they good at looking after your garden at the same time and they go we'll just get someone to plant the plants after the builder paving and you're like yeah but are they good at looking after your garden at the same time and they go we'll just get someone to plant plant the plants after the build is finished and you're going what you're handing whoever this poor soul is that's going to come and plant the plants after the build is finished is a bit of a shit show in terms of the soil and then they're going to be angry at the landscapers that the soil isn't good enough

when actually the damage is already done so it's why i'm so passionate about the fact that you can't treat the garden like an afterthought and just wax and plants in the soil is everything and if it's ruined then it needs to be addressed before you can plant it such good advice god you are good aren't you paul you do know your stuff i tell you i am passionate about soil tell you what but you're going to get us all sort of excited about soil as well this is what i love this is why i love this podcast i just learned so much it's so important so important oh my gosh anyway love it i've got a question from Hello, love the podcast and everything else you do. My plain new built home is inspired by Jojo

and I love it. Garden still to be tackled. Classic. Question is, we have a dated holiday home on a small island off the coast. Can you hear the disgruntled garden? Yes, I can, Polly. Yes, I think we all can.

Always after the house. Right, question is, we have a dated holiday home on a small island off the coast in Scotland and planning to shiplap panel the bedrooms, but do we do horizontal or vertical? How do you know what direction? My current bathrooms at home are vertical because that just felt right, but I'm not sure about the bedrooms. Do you know what? I love this question. As you know, I love panellinging so much i'd panel my car if

i could um now paneling has the ability to completely transform a room by making it feel larger making it feel taller making it feel wider so you want to make sure we get that right so obviously if you have a vertical board that's that like you've got behind you poles so vertical is going floor to ceiling verticals floor to ceiling horizontal is sort of left to right um vertical boards will obviously draw your eye up so it'll make a room feel taller the skinnier the board the more busy the room is going to get and it's going to make it feel smaller so if you want to make the room feel, you go with a wider board and you go vertical. So if you want to make the room feel bigger and taller,

go vertical and wide on your boards. Nice. Yes. When you tend to flip the board horizontally, that's actually quite a nautical way. You tend to see that a lot down by the sea, by the coast. It's quite a nautical design. by the coast it's quite an optical design and or you see it on the outside of houses so you see it a lot on your notice on sort of shiplap on houses that's when it's flipped horizontally so if you're going to do that in a in a bathroom or

in a bedroom it can look lovely but just be consider about the thickness so if you go skinny and you're going horizontal you're going to make the room feel more squat squat you know what i mean you're pulling the pulling the ceiling down so go bigger if you're going to go it goes of 200 millimeter v groove on your boards if you're going to go horizontal i love the look of it i really like it but um i do think it's and actually i think she said it's a seaside did she say it's a seaside she did she said yeah so so it can look really fun and don't feel you can't mix up those two styles so don't feel with with any sort of v groove or tongue and groove you can flip go into one room and have horizontal go into the other room have vertical nothing wrong

with that whatsoever the only time i'll say to think about what paneling to use where is when you're suddenly going from a very sort of ornate molded paneled room and then you suddenly go into a room that's sort of v groove paneling which can feel a bit more contemporary so there isn't really a do or don't with um with horizontal apart from just really consider how it's going to make that room feel so it's already got quite low ceilings and you want to have a horizontal board it might make the room feel a bit more squat and just to jump on that we're cladding my ceiling in the kitchen aren't we we are cladding your ceiling yeah we are why do you do that it's a visual interest if you think about kitchens usually have the biggest expanse of ceiling and it adds architectural

interest to a ceiling and uh character um it protects the ceiling and just visually interesting are those little very subtle lines all over your ceiling actually almost break up that enormous expanse of white yeah it's just a nice it's a visual visual interest a bit of a bummer about my extension which i didn't realize these are the things you just don't realize i'm gonna have um because i've got a whopping great steel 10 meter steel it's gonna protrude down in the ceiling and come back they're gonna have to like box it in that's a nice we can make we can make something special of that so you have if if you do have a beam that runs across

a ceiling and you have to box it in we tend to then incorporate more beams across the ceiling i'll get into ceiling beams one day we'll have a conversation about that but that's really fun but that's you've got to be so considerate about the size of them and you know what the materiality is and things okay now this one's from sheena hi polly and jojo an outies question from me i have a very small london front garden which is southeast facing i'd like to put a beautiful bush up against a very low brick wall and would love some recommendations. Thank you, Kiss. A beautiful bush. I'm going to interpret that as a shrub.

I'm going to talk about one I don't think I've talked about before. And that is Calicanthus. Calicanthus. And specifically, I enjoy Calicanthus aphrodite. It's a really great shrub and one that I don't think gets talked about that often um so it is it's a deciduous shrub so it's going to go yellow in the autumn and it's got these sort of oblong green glossy leaves which are what they are but what's really special about this shrub is that it has a very beautiful flower so So it's got, the Aphrodite in particular has got this sort of deep reddy purple. It's not like a violent red.

It's sort of more of a crimson-y, purple-y flower. And it's about the size of my palm. They're big, chunky flowers and they flower around now. My neighbour's got one and it's beautiful. Oh, okay. It's not dissimilar to a magnolia actually in terms of it has a sort of magnolia vibe to it um it's about now ish it's June it's out now yeah and the reason I think it could be good is number one it can do sun or part shade and it can

handle most soils and it doesn't get too huge it gets about two and a half three meters and about spread again about two and a half three meters but i mean obviously you can prune it to what you want so i think it's a lovely one it's quite surprising not everyone knows it you know it's not like oh that one again so go with calicanthus and look at the aphrodite which is one of the recommendations there are calicanthus with a white flower as well, if you didn't want the sort of pinky red. And what does she want? Yeah, I was going to say,

what does she want? Just a plain green bush with nothing in it? Why would you want that? Is that boring? Why would you? Why would you want that? You're right. Shut up, Jojo.

I guess for screening, right? But if you wanted, if you're putting in one nice bush, Calacanthus is a good one. That's plenty, I think. That's quite enough for this week. That's quite enough. Now, has anyone come back about my proposal from last week?

Oh, yes. Come on. Let's talk about it, Dave. Dave's going to give you £5,000. Was it every week? I think it was every fortnight, wasn't it? It was every fortnight wasn't it it was every fortnight for anyone that didn't hear polly had a very very kind offer from a listener or follower sorry very kind offer who's actually willing to give her five thousand pounds a week

for doing absolutely nothing so we don't know what to go back to him to say because obviously enormously generous offer. So have we had any listeners? Andy, have we had any have we had any responses from our listeners on what we should reply to Dave? One of our artists has said, why don't you say yes? That sounds lovely. But beforehand, could you please like, subscribe, follow and give us the five star review? Actually, I think think is only fitting. The next listener said, hi, David Hunn. Whilst I'm flattered by your offer, I'm going to run it by the fraud squad first.

Okay, Hunn? I'm sure he'd be absolutely fine with that. Keep it above board. Oh, Jojo, here's one for you. This one's good. This is from Kate. Instead of the £5,000 every two weeks, could you just come over and help me with some edging now i know what edging is you can keep your money

now what is in and out can i tell you what's in is surely it's got to be oh you've stolen it no you tell me what was yours no you go you've stolen it. No, you tell me. What was yours? No, you go on. Oh, you're so sweet. No, you tell me. Mine was potatoes. Oh, God. You're so domesticated these days,

making rhubarb bloody margaritas. Don't tell me you're growing your potatoes. I'm growing potatoes. And they'll be... And what's really fun is I'll have them for the whole of the summer, but also I'm growing some that will be ready for christmas day have you ever made a hassleback potato i never have and i really like to i'm going to do that honestly i'm telling you now it will blow your mind they are absolutely looks a bit like a sort of hedgehog doesn't it slivers of potato exactly try that look that up listeners so potatoes are in also elderflowers i've made a

load of elderflower cordial as well because i just feel i've just been call me a forager i'm a lady of the land what's out this week my hangover my tits my tits are out my hangover and your tits fantastic i think on that note my blue tits there's just this just just just to be clear i'm not just hanging out topless you might do in your new garden in your new vegetable patch hanging out in your courgette patch with your tits out

and my cabbage and your cabbage no your lettuce I'll show you my tubers oh god right which leads me to say my darlings don't forget to like, subscribe

follow, share, leave a review thank you for those that have written reviews this month, I've just read them all and they're gorgeous and this week I would like you to share the podcast with your local MPs. Yes. You know, let's keep it Jenny Lex.

Jenny Lex, get out there and shout at your MP for lots of other things. But then just on the back of shouting at them, do obviously let them know to go and listen to the podcast and like and subscribe. Hand them out leaflets. Go on Canva, make some leaflets about the In's and Out's podcast and hand them out to your local community alright come on that's enough

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