The Ins & Outs - Floral Hacks & Extension Wisdom

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Polly gives us some great advice on how to keep cut flowers alive and Jojo helps us with some amazing tips on dividing up a new build extension.There's been some drama on the road for Jojo, while Polly gives us the latest developments on Mr Big.Plus loads more of your interior and landscape design questions are answered!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.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Hello Inns and Outies and welcome to this week's Inns and Outs with myself Jojo Barr and the very very lovely Pollyanna Wilkinson. This week we're talking about my dramatic car break-in, Polly and I getting our colours done, tips for keeping our flowers, our cut flowers alive, how to divide up a new build extension, we're talking all about Easter and Polly is teaching me the difference between perineums and perennials. And of course, what is the latest with Mr. Big? So without further ado, let's get cracking on this Easter special.

Hello. How are you? Hello, my love. Sorry. We're only about 37 minutes late. I'm sorry about that. Classic. How are you, my love? I'm well. How are you? You tell me how you are first this time. I always go first. Catch me up. Do you know what? The reason, as you know, that I'm 37 minutes late is because my car was broken into by some absolute bastards this week I was took the team for some drinks after work and parked the car outside this pub in Notting Hill and got back into the car and actually I was on the phone to you wasn't I and 10 minutes down the west way I felt like the boot was open and I looked in the rearview mirror and

I should have it should have been the clinking glass and sort of the shattered glass falling from the hole that could have given it away but turns out somebody had smashed my window my back window and and been off done off with my fucking laptop bag with contents of laptop bag laptop ipad pro ipad pencil desktop, iPad Pro, iPad pencil, my AirPods, my diary. No, not the diary. Yeah, the diary. My paper diary is gone. Oh, no. Maybe it's a sign.

Maybe it's a sign. I mean, the best bit of that story was the fact that I was actually, yeah, I mean, I was on the phone to you and I was like, mate, I think I've left my, I think I've left my boot open. And then sort of this sound of crunching glass falling into my boot. And I was like, oh shit, the boot's not open. There's a fucking great hole in my windscreen. And I ended up having to drive back at like 9.30 at night to the pub with a broken window,

which was embarrassing. Because then by the time I got back to the pub, the parking space where my car had been smashed, gone, someone was parked in it. And then I had to, the parking space where my car had been smashed, gone. Someone was parked in it. And then I had to find a parking space. Oh, no. And then, of course, we had to call the police. And we're, like, running around trying to track down on, you know, find my phone. Trying to find where my laptop had gone.

And Caroline, who works for me, is, she was an ex-police woman. So she's like, I'm on it. We're going to go and find them. And I was like, oh, my God. This is, like, like you know all rather dramatic fun we ended up in a park looking through hedges to see if they'd thrown it where where it said it was on my on my um the very least the paper diary I'm almost the most upset about that everything else is on the cloud I know and then I had all I had all these little pictures that

Ziggy had drawn me saying I love you mummy a little coloring like little drawings that they were all in the laptop bag as well it's a lesson and lesson learned i say these things of course we won't but i'm going to regularly clean out my bag and not leave stuff in my car do not leave things in your car anywho couple days away from easter how's your chocolate consumption going do you know about blood sugar levels very little i've really weaned myself off the mini eggs. I think that kilo bag sort of, you know, scratched the itch. Put you down. What are your plans for Easter?

Got anything fun planned? We are. We're going to Wales. We're off to Wales. Okay. We're off to a place called Tenby. What about you, my love? Well,

mine's a bit different to yours. So, the ex-husband and I are dividing and conquering. So, I've got the boys for much of the time prior to Easter and Good Friday. And then I'm actually going to the Caribbean with Mr. Big. Oh, shut up.

You are not. I am. Are you really? You jammy bitch from Wales to the Caribbean. What sort of egg hunting will you be doing in the Caribbean? Will Mr. Big be looking for your eggs? Absolutely not. I know where he'll be finding those.

Oh my God, Jojo. You filth bag it every turn. I am such a filth bag. Oh my God, I'm wrongly. Thirsty, thirsty girl. But really. Stop it. Okay okay all right then um okay so that's lovely right let's get going then now there's something there's something i want to talk to you about which has been um bothering me i've spent too much time on tiktok again obviously and something

that i've noticed is coming up a lot and i think it was really big in the 90s is having your colors done have you had your colors done before oh is this when you you mean like they put the glass in front of your face and then you can see no they put like suede like swatches of fabric under your neck and they hold it like red and orange or green or blue and they're like oh you're an autumn because you see your autumn colors or oh you're a winter oh and I really want to do it where'd you get where'd you do it I'll do that with you I don't know but we should go and get our colors done oh my god can we we could just do it to each other we could just buy a load of fabric and I'll shove it under your face and then we'll actually to be fair why are we paying someone to do it let's just do that we could tell you what

let's just go shopping together oh no even better come to my studio and I'll just cover you in fabric samples. Okay, done. That's it. I'll wrap you up in a curtain. Can I ask a question about cut flowers, please? Because, you know, I've obviously got this growing obsession for tulips. And actually yesterday, my lovely Karen bought me the most beautiful bunch of these French tulips. These big, big, heavy headed tulips and they're so heavy that

they're like all that two of them have just snapped because they're just so big um anyway uh i'm wondering why is it that some cut flowers seem to last ages and others just don't and it could be a variety tulip variety i've got tulips in the house that I've had for 10 days and they're still looking sexy and others that maybe last five days well it totally depends on the well that's the thing I guess with all cut flowers they all have different longevities and that's why there's so many pros about cut flowers who'll tell you sort of the ones which last the longest but it's how you condition them so do you do anything with your flowers before you put them in the vase I just cut the ends off right so if you cut the ends off. So do you do anything with your flowers before you put them in the vase? I just cut the ends off. Right. So if you cut the ends off, but then if you have anything which is a bit sort of sappy or a bit floppy,

if you put the ends in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then what that does is it... I don't understand how. Perks them up. Yeah, it does. But it perks them up by... It's something to do with it opens the capillaries so that the stem is able to take up more water. And obviously it's taking up the water, which makes it turg love that word and it makes them stand up more so if you've got floppy flowers the best thing you can do is cut them and put the the lower part of them in you

know just a little bit of the stem in boiling water for 30 seconds so the stems gosh i don't i think i just fill up the fill up the thing with cold water and just shove well this is it and then you need to change you need to be cutting and changing the so the water first of all your vase needs to be spankingly clean it can't have any sort of residue in because that's going to get bacteria so they're going to uh rot or fall off um but also put in a little teaspoon of bleach or you could do yeah just a teaspoon of bleach is good um or you can do oh god what is it i think it's vinegar or a teaspoon of bleach is good. Or you can do, oh God, what is it? I think it's vinegar or a teaspoon of sugar or plant food. Often they'll get given plant food to put that in.

But you need to change the water. If ever the water stops being clear and starts going cloudy, that means that there's sort of bacterial growth in the water. So you need to change your water every two, three days. And you also need to snip the stems every two or three days. Right, so every time you change the water, you snip the stems yeah because you're essentially you're enabling it to take up more water and by cutting that fresh stem it's you're enabling it to to come up so that's why when you said uh last week that you've got a client who's got flowers in every room i was like that is a that's a lot of

work quite bougie i have to say i bought myself some uh hyacinths and they're sitting upstairs around on my little porthole window. I bet that smells good. And every time I walk through the landing, oh, it smells delicious. But Brad was like, oh, don't like that. Oh, really? I love it. And I didn't know. I can't get over how delicious the smell is.

It gives me joy every time I walk up the stairs. Bliss. Love it. But I think it is one of those love-hate smells, hyacinths. It is. We've got loads outside because I've been growing loads from the um bulb collections and there's a white one which is oh my god it's the best smelling hyacinth I've ever it's my new favorite so I'll keep that one just walk through like a wave of hyacinth I just can't believe just a flower can produce a smell that

strong it's just delicious although talking of tulips I'm absolutely gutted I planted a thousand in the garden I think and so far of all the ones I'm looking at right now they all have tulip fire that's the one I used to use put it you posted a photo it's got like a burn down the sort of side of the leaves doesn't it yeah so the leaves start to go brown and spotty and if they're really bad it actually looks like they've been burnt hence why it's called tulip fire but the flowers also have got like brown pot marks they the flowers are distorted why does that happen so it's really interesting because i've been doing loads of research on it it can be that it's in the bulb that was supplied but there's no way it was for mine because i got my bulbs from all over the place so that it's definitely not that it was um a bad batch but what can cause it is warm wet

weather and we have had a warm and wet winter yeah um but it's a nightmare because once you've got tulip fire it takes about four years for it to clear from your soil so you can't plant tulips next year they'll be back so this is my first tulip fire so that's um but usually it's when you plant your bulbs too early which i didn't do i didn't do them till december so gutting so if any else have it out there, then don't blame yourself. It's warm, wet weather. Oh, can I pick your rain on a flower? Yes.

There's this brilliant Dutch gardener on Instagram that I follow, this older guy, and he's got this brilliant Dutch voice. Is it Klaus Dalby? It's amazing. Yes, I think that's him. Like the king of pots.

Is that him? Oh, yes. Oh, right. I don't know. But he's talking about these amazing little um little daisies they've got a funny name and he's this great big perinope perinope not perineum it's definitely not a perineum it's a bit in your fanny isn't it it's the funny it's like you rub when you're having babies yes with oil so it's not the perineum it's the perinope perennial

so he doesn't he's not talking about his perineum he's not talking about his perineum. He's not talking about his perineum. No. I'm sure he's rubbed a few. Well, everyone has one, don't they? It's the bit between. It's the bit betwixt. Anyway, shall we move on? Isn't it a girl thing? No. Oh, the bit between your balls and your arse, your barse.

The gooch, if you will. The gooch or your barse. Your what? Barse is called your barse. Barse? Or your balls and your arse. Oh, nice. The other bit. What's the female version is called your bars. Bars? Or your balls and your arse. Oh, nice. The other bit.

What's the female version? Perineum. It's just... Vars. Your bunt. Oh. It's your vars. I was about to say something else.

What were you going to... Your bunt. Copyright that. Copyright. Okay. It's your bunt. dear anyway back to you um anyway back to they do andy confirmed it uh our podcast producer just stepped back in for like two seconds his ears were peaked he liked that we tickled andy literally not on the perennial back to balls and i mean not balls but sorry can we talk about class he's an incredible gardener let's move away from this yes what was he talking about well he talked to these beautiful parent perennials darling yes yes and there was this big bushy little daisies and they

were pink and white and it was just this gigantic mass of these things and I was like that is what I'm going to plant in every available pot in my garden Mexican fleabane that's it yes yes yes I thought I might put that my zinc container but I wouldn't put it in on its own pal I use it as an under planter and it's amazing it gets um itself seeds and it will get into all the sort of nooks and crannies of walls you'll always see it in sort of really beautiful old houses you know that have brick walls sort of tumbling out of the walls and down around the cracks of oh heaven what does it come in is it coming to plant do you buy it as a plant yeah but you could grow it from seed but yeah you buy it as a plant as well but klaus is klaus does the most amazing displays of pots and he uses small

pots but loads of them loads and loads and loads of pots and he does them all on staging and it looks incredible and that is the only exception that i will give to using smaller pots as if you are klaus oh there you go incredible klaus right everyone go follow klaus uh right paul we should probably hop into some questions uh we could just babble on all day let's jump in from an outie i've got from julia howell bailey uh why have all my bulbs so far come up with no flowers crying face giant snowdrops daffs iris rectal reticulata reticulata thank you all planted freshly last autumn in heavy clay soil. What am I doing wrong? Oh no, Julia, that's so disappointing. So disappointing. Look, the reason that bulbs come up blind, as we would call it, blind being no flowers,

usually is that the bulbs were planted too shallow. So you have to plant a bulb at least three times the depth of it. So it could be that they were too shallow. It could be that they were too overcrowded. Or it could be that they were too shallow it could be that they were too overcrowded um or it could be that they were too dry but if i mean if they're in the ground and the winter we've had i'd be supposed to saying heavy clay well that's what i think so that's your final thing is well so bulbs come up blind if planted too shallow too densely if the soil is too dry or you've planted them too late in the season you haven't said that you did it in autumn um or it can be bulb rot so it might be that they rotted in your soil if if it's very very very very wet

soil they may have rotted god it's just a minefield out there isn't it i feel for you julia because i've got clay soil and it's a absolute sticky nasty oh and it could also be not enough sun i don't know where you've planted them in your garden but those you know some of those need need more sun so try again great add loads of organic matter to the soil next time make sure it's got some drainage some grit or try it in pots if not i'm sorry julia that's disappointing oh sorry julia i'm gonna throw another one at you paul lizzie saying morning love the show i would love to know what is a couple of the best options for evergreen pleached trees to offer year-round privacy overlooked garden keep it up thank you so much this is one we get asked a lot and it's getting harder and harder to do because they are like hen's teeth is a pleached evergreen tree um

and pros and cons let me just say this because when clients ask for an evergreen i will say are you sure you want that because the downside of a bleached evergreen is they are uh they're green all year round but they're also a bit boring all year round and they're also very expensive um in terms of they'll be almost not quite double but almost double the cost of a deciduous option and you need to ask yourself do you need that screening all year round or do you just need that screening when you're out in the garden in the summer? In which case you could go for a deciduous option. So that was a long way of not answering your question. So the best ones that we use are if you want something really rampant, then laurel is a good choice.

It's not my favorite, but it grows very quickly. Portuguese laurel is also lovely. And I really do love that. Prunus lucitanica or Portuguese laurel is lovely lovely and I really do love that prunus lucitanica or Portuguese laurel is lovely for an evergreen screen um I would avoid fotinia like the plague it gets pushed everywhere but I really hate the red leaf on it it ruins it for me so um anything but fotinia would probably be my answer on the evergreens and if I can persuade you to have a deciduous just go for a hornbeam they're great great. Right. Should we do some inies?

Oh, come on. Let's go indoors. Right. Let me take you indoors. Right. This is from Mimi Hanley. Hi, Mimi. And any question, please.

You know that feeling when you walk into a nice hotel or spa and that heavenly smell hits you and you instantly feel happy and calm. Maybe you could help me in my eternal quest to find the perfect scent for my home. you have a go-to scent that you use in your projects and i love the podcast it's an interesting one isn't it because i think of smells it's a bit like art it's very subjective the smells that we like are so subjective and um and therefore what i might love somebody else might not i tend to always go for something a little bit spa and as you've said spa I think you might like the same sort of smells as me I don't like anything with vanilla I don't like anything sweet um I don't actually like fig smells funny enough I find them a bit overpowering so I love smells with sort of geranium in so a couple of my go-to's would be dalesford organic do the most beautiful bamford spa smells and they really are like walking into a spa but they have a homely

scent to them so i'd say check out dalesford they do some i think it's geranium and oh i can't remember what the other smell is but it's it's divine and also the thing i love about them because aesthetics is as important as smell um is the bottles that they use these lovely sort of recycled brown glass bottles and therefore they're totally inoffensive and you can get those lovely diffusers the sticks i was going to say are you talking about diffuser sticks here yeah so you get the you get the scent that's in a bottle and then you pour it into this lovely brown bottle and then you've got your diffuser stick so you can stick it in the corner of a room and it just it just is a lovely smell so i'd say dalesford bamford is is probably my go-to

for smells um i'm quite seasonal with smells though as well i would say i think when when winter comes around i do love a winter candle um i We can talk about that more when the winter months come around. But, you know, White Company do delicious winter candles. But I do always want to go for candles that I feel like are sort of strong enough that they're going to do something that are going to last. Neom. Oh, I mean, Neom do delicious candles, don't they? I love everything Neom does.

Oh, Neom is really, really lovely candles. And actually, remember what Dr. Tara said, which is to mix up your spells. Your spells? Mix up your smells. candles i love everything neom does oh neom is really really lovely candles and actually remember what dr tara said which is to mix up your spells your spells your smells that's right she did say yeah mix up your smells so don't feel like you have to have the same smell you'll actually your brain will sort of get used to it you'll get used to the smell so it's important to mix it up and also she did say have different smells in different rooms like that so i always that. So I always think going into a downstairs loo is a lovely place to have a little candle, you know, or something. But yeah, I'd say definitely mix it up.

Great. Oh my God, you're not going to believe it. It's the fucking cat again. Oh, which one? Obviously Clarence, isn't it? No, I don't think it is. I think it might be Alabama. I can...

One sec. Oh, it's Jolly. Oh, darling. Come on in. I want a podcast. Come on. sorry about that okay i've got one from sarah hello i'm an outie but i have an innie question we're renovating a 1930 semi and replacing the current extension family of four husband and two young children how do you stop an extension just being a white plastered box attached to the house with furniture plonked in the extension will have a dining and living area with the kitchen in the existing house but all open plan i hope that makes sense p.s i adore you both and the podcast thank you for keeping us

educated and entertained love it this is such a such a good question i love this uh so many modern extensions are exactly that they're just a big white box stuck onto the house without real careful planning considerations so architectural interest and things like that so the way that with things like furniture and lighting we can add we can create zones because i think she said there was a living space and a dining area in this extension and therefore you want to zone those two areas so i the amount of times i walk into these rooms and you're standing there in an open plan kitchen living dining and it's just this it's just just this one great big room so the way to zone off a big open plan space like that is to use,

architecturally use the right, use lighting. So lighting to zone spaces, for instance, if you know where your dining table is going to be and it's not going to move from that place, then an overhead pendant light in above the dining table is a really lovely way to create some fucking cats. What? Oh my God.

She's going to drive me mad. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry everyone listeners the cat is running away from jojo it's hiding behind a massive headboard which she is now attempting to shift sorry sorry about that do we need to put them on a lead sorry sorry sarah you were saying lighting pendant lighting so pendant lighting uh think about wall lights if you've got any wall space put some really lovely wall lights

around the room as well because you can use artwork as well to sort of separate separate you know the space as well but then the number one thing is furniture itself rugs is a great way to zone spaces so you want to get a great big area rug underneath your living furniture and then over in your dining area get another rug and don't feel like those rugs need to be the same because again you want to create rooms individual spaces you know you want to create interest in those two spaces and separate them so that's that's how you're going to do it so furniture the way you space using rugs is one way of doing it lighting is another and also oh yes lighting make sure you get it on different circuits so put the lighting in the

living area on a different circuit to the lighting the dining oh clever so that you can switch off the dining room when you're not using that and send you know oh you can maybe dim you know the dining area when you're sitting in the living room you know vice versa nice this episode is brought to you by google pixel i'm jessie crookank. 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. Thanks, Sarah. Right. Another one for you, my darling Polly Polly here we go let's delve back out into the garden and I've got one here from Alex dear Polly and Jojo I love love love your podcast balancing motherhood and having your business really resonates but I love that you talk about with lots of joy and a touch of filth yes you do um I've learned a lot from the podcast and wish that

I'd found you before being persuaded by him indoors to put a navy kitchen in oh sorry i do live in a man cave anyway polly in your designs you often have wooden arches along the side of a garden i would like to incorporate but the aforementioned him indoors can't be persuaded could help by giving me the rationale for having them please rationale for having arches in a garden so it's arches along the side of the garden i'd love to incorporate yes so we don't just put arches in for the sake of doing so i tend to use arches where we're balancing out a garden so um because obviously they're giving us a height they're giving height and vertical interest usually on one side of the garden i wouldn't put them sort of slapped down the middle if you're gone and we're normally doing that

potentially because the garden is on a slope and the other the opposite side might have some terracing it might have a slightly higher wall it could be that it's got some sort of feature like an office so it's it's a vertical use of of height which brings it up if you were to just have um if you had the very typical rectangular garden and you just put arches down one side then you would feel the garden was was sort of on a tilt because you've given height and vertical interest on one side and nothing on the other and that doesn't mean it needs to be matchy matchy if anything it means that you might want to bring in some multi-stem trees on the other side because that would then bring up some height on the other side.

So it's all about balance and journey. So where we put them is where we are leading someone to a destination and making it very obvious that we want them to walk down there. So it's not sort of a subservient path. It is the path you were invited to walk down. So it really is framing the space. It's inviting you. The whole point with your garden design should be to invite yourself and others

further into your garden. And doing the arches is a way of going, you should walk down here because there's something worth visiting. So tell him indoors that they are a beautiful feature in their in-right. To do as he's told. Yes, to pipe down.

Just make sure it's balanced is what I would say. So don't do it for the sake of doing it because you like the aesthetic if you're going to do it do it because there's a journey down and through to something that you want to get to should we go back to the indoors we'll be sticking in the out yeah come on let's go back indoors it's getting chilly all right make a cuppa naomi we're renovating a very old farmhouse and making it much more open plan not many doors keen to use old original looking materials but worried running stone the whole way through will feel cold and not

homely what would you do oh i know what she'd do come on then you think i'm gonna say wood floor i wouldn't i wouldn't necessarily say wood floor i'm a massive fan of stone. I love big old, in farmhouses, big old flagstone floors. Yum, yes. Delicious, tumbled edge, rough and ready flagstone floors. Delicious. Love them. However, they will feel cold if you haven't got underfloor heating under them. So if you have got radiators, you're still going to find it hard to warm those things up without rugs and therefore you've got to consider you

know consider if you're gonna have big stone floors do you want rugs all over them or can you put underfloor heating i think if it's an old farmhouse maybe it's unlikely that you'll be able to do that um and therefore why don't you look at as an option going with something more like a reclaimed wood floorboard that's really a bit more sort of gnarly and naughty and loads of character that's not so modern. And that will give you the character it needs. Equally, I know it's I think I think she said it's quite open plan. Yes. Not many doors. Yeah, not many doors.

Don't be afraid if you have taken doors off and it is open plan if you have a bit of a nib wall and there's a sort of opening don't be afraid in say the entrance to come in and have tumbled stone uh tiles on the floor in the entrance and then have a lovely threshold detail where perhaps the wood then but you know it's turned and then you go into wood don't feel like just because there isn't a doorway you can't have a threshold of flooring it's okay to have two different types of flooring in an open plan space as long as there's a sort of little nib on either side of the door can i leap in there with a fact about thresholds do you know why a threshold is called a threshold because aren't you being carried over they say no this is so interesting this was learned on

tiktok tell me so in the olden days to keep the floors warm and to insulate a house they would put thresh which i think is a bit like straw on the floor of the houses and you would walk on it but to stop the thresh moving between the rooms they would put a big old chunk and they were bigger than they used to they are now they were like a proper chunk of timber to hold the thresh in the room threshold brilliant i love that that's great knowledge yeah so so i think that this is the thing these days when between a doorway now usually what you see is you have tiles and then immediately have carpet and it's just this and this sort of just a slice through the middle

or you might have a carpet and then you've got a wood floor and it's just this little metal horrible metal threshold strip you can be so much more creative with thresholds you can introduce another material altogether you can introduce a much wider like think about the size of a door frame yes it's they're wide don't feel don't feel like you can't flip the wood board board and create a really nice threshold yeah you could do an you could do an antique brass strip as a threshold you know get creative like you don't have to just yeah so um yeah a couple of options there for you but i'd'd say don't, I wouldn't shirk at stone, but it depends if you've got underfloor heating or not,

because it will feel cold. And oh, and one more thing to add, very, very much dependent on the colour of the stone that you choose as well, because obviously a feel that you get when you look at stone, like if it's a dark grey or if it's very dark, it's going to feel colder. Then a nice sort of warm honey buff sort of colour. Exactly. Then if it was exactly a gray or if it's very dark it's going to feel colder than a nice just visually

it will feel colder exactly than if it was exactly a lovely sort of buff limestone or something it's going to feel a lot warmer so and softer right i've got a really great one here for you paul i love this this is from shirley my 82 year old neighbor repeatedly tells me gardening is a lifelong lesson in patience. However, asking for a friend, if you're not blessed with patience, is it OK to fill a bed with trees, shrubs, flowers and bulbs for instant impact with a view to thinning out and relocating as everything matures over the years? So a bit like having a two year plan, a five year plan and possibly a 10 year plan. And if you're planting trees, thank you. Andy will like subscribe and share i love it yes the message this is brilliant um this is a fascinating question so when we design gardens and when we plant them we'll put in trees um some that are fairly instant, that look amazing straight away if budget allows, some which we plan to let grow to sort of more of the size we hope they eventually get to.

And same with shrubs. So a lot of this is budget. If you've got the budget to put in a mature shrub, go ahead and do it. Now, the bit that is making me trip up here a little bit is where you're saying that you want to plant things really densely and then move them I mean the answer is yeah you can and actually there are some design studios out there who will do that who will sort of stuff a border so that that first year your garden looks amazing but two years later it is going to be so overcrowded that you're going to have a job on your hands lifting it all and and moving it so you can and it sounds like you're willing to do the work so the answer is yes but i mean your trees should be fairly instant

anyway they'll grow but you know a tree is a tree um your shrubs unless you buy them teeny tiny i would go ahead and just buy the shrubs that you can afford to buy but shrubs tend to be slower growing and then but perennials i see very little. Most perennials hit their stride within a year. If you buy two litre pots. Now, sorry, I'm getting really into it now. If you buy a P9, which is a nine centimetre pot, that's a little pot, sort of the size of a mug. Then that is not going to do much in its first year.

It'll be all right. But the second year is when that's going to come on. So it depends what access you have. If you're buying little plants, then you'd put more in. And yes, you can thin them out because eventually that's going to come on so it depends what access you have if you're buying little plants then you'd put more in and yes you can thin them out because eventually that's going to be overcrowded if you're buying two liters which is sort of the size of a mixing bowl or sort of if you think of a plant pot it's probably the sort of typical size you'd expect trying to think like a cereal bowl but deeper that's a sort of two liter um then you really you don't need to overcrowd it it will look

amazing within year one and i'm just sort of thinking of your budget and also the amount of maintenance you're signing up to so yes with the shrubs yes with the trees and yeah you can fill it as much as you want as long as long as you're willing to clear it out when it gets overcrowded yes you can be relatively instant did you meet do you mean doing the classic thing where you actually take the pot and plant it in the ground no i don't i mean so you know we've talked about before how when i when i say to plant plants i do like don't just plant one salvia you plant say three or five together yes it sounds to me like this lady's and and those those five aren't going to fill the space year one it's probably going to be year two three four and onwards it they will fill out

but it sounds like she's saying can i plant even more so that you get like insta garden a bit like how we would plant a show garden like at chelsea we plant way more plants per square meter than you would dream of planting in a real garden because plants grow okay that's that's a really good question that's a really good answer thank you so much thanks shirley paul i'm gonna do one more here because i think this is a really fun one this is by the home batch bitches great name which is just the best name the home batch bitches i love your podcast so much it just gets better and better thank you don't suppose you have any advice on footwear for wearing in the garden i have those clogged type slip-on shoes and they're quite quick to put on but can't get my socks wet grateful for any suggestions and best wishes to

you both from alex i know we're gonna say we both wear the same thing here don't we old girl it's got to be a blundstone bloody blundstone it's a bloody blundstone but they take some bloody wearing in let me tell you girl they are so painful to break in but once you've broken them in they're the best boot in the whole bloody world they are they are brilliant i don't wear anything else whether come rain or shine they are brilliant invest in a pair the 585 model is the one i wear and very popular i've got the same as you they're lovely well then shall we shall we discuss what what's your in what's your out as an in for interiors uh quite thrilling for me because a trend that's very in at the moment i'm not even at the moment because i believe that it's always my world's been in is natural colors and textures and it's it's all about nature inspired design and it's greens and it's like you know there's rusties and

natural colors which is basically house nine so i'm thrilled dude i love this and that's actually really weird because my out was going to be, and I'm sorry, this will offend some people, is printed tiles outdoors. Oh God, yeah, I hate that. Anything too man-made, because I was going to say, I much prefer those sort of natural materials,

natural inspiration. So I think there is a real move towards less sort of a man-made feel to interiors and exteriors. I agree. Which is all about sustainability. I'm with you on those patentiles. all move towards less sort of a man-made feel to interiors and exteriors and and i agree yeah it's all about sustainability and tiles pattern tiles outside don't work for me yeah i think moroccan tile it had a moment a few years ago and i i think that moment is now gone and people are leaning far more towards more more naturally inspired spaces let's wrap this up then paul shall we oh yes so

oh i was thinking about this who should we share it with this week who should we share come on so please don't forget to like subscribe and actually the most valuable thing you could do guys is actually share it thank you so much to all of you who share um your favorite bits of the podcast on social media it means a lot we see every single one of them and it makes our day but also yes so share it with your social media and also um share it with your family who you may or may not be spending time with over easter you know something to talk about share it with your mum friends at the school gate because i had a really lovely mum come up to me that i didn't know carolina i think her name was she

came up to me and she's like by the way she's tapped me on the shoulder and said jojo you don't know me but i absolutely love the podcast anyway at the school gates yes well that's something to chat about because I often find that really awkward and don't know what to say um so just just you know strike up conversation and say have you listened to this podcast that's a normal thing to ask straight off the bat to a stranger all right then you lovely lot. Happy Easter. Happy chocolate egg gobbling and Polly, have the most fantastic time gobbling something else in the Caribbean.

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