The Ins & Outs - MASTERCLASS on FLOORING & a bulb announcement.

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Jojo gives you a flooring masterclass on this week's episode, covering everything from oak orange to terracotta.Polly has bulb announcement and a big update on her bath saga.Plus we cover nativity plays and the best accessory for puzzles!This week's episode is brought to you by Best Heating! Whether you're planning a renovation or searching for your perfect piece, Best Heating got you covered. Make sure you check them out at https://www.bestheating.com/ and us the code INSANDOUTS15 at checkout to get a MASSIVE 15% DISCOUNT.Best Heating discount Terms & Conditions •⁠ ⁠£500 minimum spend•⁠ ⁠Single use only•⁠ ⁠Valid until 28/02/2025•⁠ ⁠Works on sale items too!InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/Pod Rowe Productions - https://www.podrowe.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, that coffee smells good. Can you pass me the sugar when you're finished? Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? That's salt, not sugar. Let's get you another coffee. Feeling distracted? You're not alone. Many Canadians are finding it hard to focus

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Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Green, the color of true elation. Pine on a summer's day see i've been waiting for you waiting for you hello in these and outies and welcome to this week's episode of the ins and outs with myself jojo bar and the ever so lovely pollyanna walkinson this week's podcast is sponsored by our good friends at best heating keeping us toasty all winter long. And Polly has now received her very own radiators, haven't you, Polly?

That's right, actually. These were ordered a long time ago, well before our wonderful friends at Best Heating were our sponsors. But I actually have the Milano Windsor, which is kind of quite a traditional horizontal column radiator. They're going throughout the whole house so I've gone for a variety of colours actually depending on the paint colours so I've gone for white and then I've got a few anthracite and then I've got a few bronze which I'm particularly fond of they're absolutely beautiful well a lot of people think that when you think of radiators the sort of white or black they have an enormous range of colors and finishes honestly i can't tell you how many even sort of light blues and pinks and olive greens and reds and

whatever you want guys best heating have them so and also different styles from sort of modern to you know towel rads to all sorts go and check them out bestheating.com and polly i hope you enjoy your new your new heating wares but i tell you, it's lovely to be warm. I bet. Finally. Finally. So on this week's podcast, Polly is giving us an update on her bath saga. We're talking nativity plays, puzzles. I'm going to give you a flooring masterclass from oak orange to terracotta. And Polly has a big bulb announcement. Get out the klaxon. Let's jump on in. Good morning my sweetheart. How are you? Oh I'm just fantastic pal. I mean look who I've got with me. Look who you've got with you. We've got we've got an addition to the pod this morning in the

form of a very small tiddler. A little tiddler, a little poorly tiddler who's sitting on my lap, looking at Aunty Polly, aren't you? Yes, if you hear any sniffles, she's, I honestly am so incredibly over this time of year for sickness, for sick bugs. It's just absolutely, it's relentless trying to get work done when you've got little ones that are just, you know, up and down,

up and down, up and down. Did you ever have one of your kids that was always poorly and then the other was like always fits a fiddle one was more one still is more predisposed to illness than the other but i wonder why that is you're still in the trenches you're still in the the germ petri dish of very young kiddles it's all it's all worms and vomit isn't it at that age so yeah it is a bit well we had we obviously had the vomit but we had the vomiting on the weekend and now it's a sort of it's this temperature that doesn't ever amount to anything it's just these little viruses aren't they it is what it is we've got to roll with the punches i'm very fortunate that i can obviously work from home but i've got client zooms today so i'm having to warn them that this is... She doesn't really like to do a lot.

She just likes to sit on Mummy's knee when she's poorly. Look at her little girl. Oh. Little girl. How have you been? I've got an update on Bath Saga, which has been quite exciting, actually. One of our innies slash outies has come to the rescue. Oh.

has come to the rescue oh so the amazing sam who works for betty which is the brand of the bath that i've bought has found my bath she's tracked it down the actual bar the actual bath the actual order she found it and um she has managed to arrange for it to arrive it's arriving today fun fact so is my backup bath which I told you by the way not to order did I not say hold out until Monday don't order anything I did hold out till Monday but you believe in the universe more than I do I do I also well I think it's because I'm I obviously do a lot of procurement in my business whereas you don't do so much the procurement so I always know that there's always a solution like we can literally be installing the next day and we will find that thing that we need we always find a solution we are firefighters anyway so it's wonderful Sam from Betty so Sam has saved the day so the bath

is arriving today as is amazing which will need to go back um to where i ordered it from the trust pilot is filling up day by day by this company draw a bath it's more and more people realizing it's very fishy i presume not shame i know so so all because of one of our amazing listeners i have a bath because i know you're all deeply invested in my hygiene. We are. And also just not, and your health, not slipping over. The problem with the bath is that it had an anti-slip coating. And that's what was the big thing. If you're showering in your bath, my loves, especially if you have like a water softener or, you know,

all that slippery conditioner, you can really fall over in the bath. You might be fine now, but just think about, you know, long-term. You know, it's these little things. This is it. This pal this is it you know there's a lot there to think about there is and i mean a lot to soak in it's day six without so bad such a dad joke oh i want to slap my knees on that one yeah do you know that um ziggy ziggy finds out today what she's going to be in the school nativity how did you bury the lead on this okay what are we hoping for well i think i sort of i'm really hoping for mary because i think that's what we all hope for for our you know for our children but i think she i think she's also she's really kooky ziggs is a super kooky kid so she she always goes for the really uh the sort of the things that

other people almost don't want to be because she thinks it's really funny so she like she's quite drawn to the idea of being a donkey or perhaps the tree or prawn that's absolutely hilarious if we're a little bit more love actually well exactly so i mean who knows what's around the christmas table um so you know nativities are quite modern these days aren't they so it could potentially be a lobster but no the tree this is like there's a there's i think an actual tree and she's like really gunning that's a cool one being the tree but i said but obviously there's a lot of responsibility for being mary or indeed angel gabriel you're gonna have words so i was like do you want words i mean like she could be the king why shouldn't she be the king why can't she be one of the pink you know she could be king i would love to hear from teachers how they make

these decisions because i have a very weird core memory of being four and sitting on the floor in my form room and then going through the parts and be like who would like to be mary up went my hand who would like to be innary up went my hand who would like to be innkeeper up went my hand because i was that kid um you know and they were giving the parts out as they were asking these questions and they were like who would like to be a wise man hand up who would like to be and they were like polly put your hand down i was like but why you're not giving me a part and like what did i end up being bloody angel of course and one of you know along with the other 15 one of hundreds of angels and I was just like okay why why ask if you're not going to give it to the kids that put their hand up so I want to know

how they make this decision like is it their favorite kid that they give to Mary it's the popular kids I'm sorry but I I could have I could have told you exactly who the Mary and Joseph was going to be last year and it was them but we find out today please keep us posted because that's i will keep you informed because it's obviously very it's a it's a big day it's a big day i'm hoping for tree i think tree's iconic my kids were only ever camel yeah oh ziggy was a camel last year it was very funny got one of those enormous those camel outfits with a great big head that like hung over her head and apparently she loved it so much yet she used to wear it when we got home oh and actually raffy was fire oh wow really he was a big school i know and then there's this other kid that was the match you were like great it's really cool

actually had like little cheerleader pom-poms in orange and red so i'm quite into that i think that's quite cool no no do you do that thing where you prepare? I think because I was never like the cool kid necessarily at school, or I didn't ever feel like I was going to make that lead part. I would always be sort of, I'd sort of, I'd almost just accept that I was, wasn't going to be that.

And therefore, so I think I do this psychological thing with my kids where I'm like, you know, but it's really cool to be a tree. So instead of being like, no, you will be, you will be Mary. Cause there's obviously a lot of parents that would be like, I want you to be, you're going to be a tree so instead of being like no you will be you

will be Mary because there's obviously a lot of parents that would be like I want you to be you want to be married you've got to be married you've got to go to school and say I want my child to be Mary I'm sure there's some pushy parents like that for sure but anyway that ain't me that's not me I just I love the I love the kooky quirkiness and whatever she wants to be is cool by me as long as she's happy oh i'm so excited for her i know speaking of tense weeks um tell me my oldest is doing all of his exams at the moment which is oh hold on what age is that like what age is that oh it's the 11 plus so sending love to all the mamas supporting kiddos through that because it's got a lot for them. Do you feel like through your kids' learnings when they've come home and done all their homework, that you feel like you yourself are learning things all over again?

Well, yes, but largely because I don't understand any of the maths, the fractions they're doing. That's the thing I'm terrified about. I had to have maths to have maths you know extra maths i don't understand any of it i can no longer do much of my child's maths and actually some of the english stuff what's a preposition i don't know do you i'm surprised you don't know that pal you are like you're like a walking encyclopedia you're like a walking walking dictionary thanks do you know what preposition is absolutely don't nor do i i know a proposition do you know what a proposition is oh yeah i know shall we answer some should we answer some listeners questions well that's a great proposition i like what you did there slid right in there slid in there let's do it let's get let's hop on in oh hang on

don't leave me hanging piano oh our piano teacher was off this week oh have you been practicing yeah there's an there's a really cool app as an app which of course is an app for bloody everything and there's an app which is helps you so you put the app in front of your piano and it literally just teaches you to you know comes up with a note and you've got to play the note and then it'll give you like a ting if you get it right or if you get it wrong so that's been really good practice it's kind of like this week we've just been doing practicing no songs i'm afraid don't worry i still know what my challenge is oh i i've got such an important question for you yes i'm ready for it it's it's a i'm going to push to the front of the queue i'm afraid

everyone on listeners questions because i have an outie question obviously my plan is to start the renovation in round about march april now that's when all of my bulbs would usually be springing up and i'm thinking what is the point in me planting anything outside my house when that's going to be happening would you advise me if I'm doing a renovation to not bother planting any bulbs at the moment I wouldn't plant bulbs anywhere that's going to be disrupted so all of your lovely front borders that are quite near the field I would definitely do them there because I don't think they're going to be interfered with at that time but I wouldn't do anything in like the borders immediately around the house which might be meddled with that would be nuts but the whole place is going to look just

like a building site is it not just a bit pointless having anything planted should I just leave it and accept that it's just I'm wasting you can do you can do the old like oh I'm just not going to bother with anything this year because what's the point but you might want a bit of joy a couple of nice pots couldn't I just a couple of pots if you like I'd still do the borders because you're still living in the house aren't you you're still going to be looking out on it and I don't think anything there's going to be touched for a while by the way everyone Polly when she last came to my house she she was walking around the garden and wrapped around the back of the house by the barbecue is all these piles of like, it's like a pot graveyard of all the little pots. And she just looked down at them in absolute disdain.

She just looked at them and was like, I would just get rid of all of those. Like this. They do not belong anywhere. She's like, those have got to go. And I was like, right, gotcha. Clutter. No clutter. I know, I know, clutter no clutter I know I know I know I know you also

had two absolutely terrifying brightly colored dogs on a bench which they just shocked me to my core I'm not even going to explain where those came from horrific they're now hidden around the back of the house they do not work so actually my friend your question leads on to the klaxon and I've been holding on for this. We've had some cold weather this week, haven't we? Some people have had snow. We've had some minus numbers. We've had some firm frosts.

It's tulip time. It's tulip time. She says it. There's a bell. If there's some sort of, like, klaxon dance, if you do a little ball dance, it's time. It's time. It's time to plant your tulips. Get them in the ground. Get them in's time okay it's time to plant your tulips get them in the ground get them in the ground it's time to plant your tulips okay i i decree it

it's it's cold enough it's actually time oh my god get out there guys this weekend is the one i cannot wait to see your explosion of tulips i have to say next spring in your new garden i'm actually despite the fact I've said you can plant them now I'm not going to do it until boxing day I love it uh boxing day for me just because of the tulip fire last year which savaged everything but also just time I'm a bit like I just I'm just going to wait till it is cold cold cold and I've got super sandy soil so be easy I think it's because you also for us I guess you just want to wait until it's actually like a holiday like it feels like we're on holiday I'm going to go out there and do some stuff yeah I feel you I feel you so okay well you've jumped the queue

there with your first question but the answer is if you're doing renovation don't bother planting anything where it's going to be disrupted obviously if you're living in and you're going to be staring at your garden you might want to put some further away okay oh also I'm just going to throw it out here a bit of free advertising but um i've got two very large very beautiful olive trees that i bought which um my landscape designer told me are completely inappropriate for my garden so if anyone would like to buy a couple of lovely mature olive trees from me that are in pots ready to be taken away yeah get in touch yeah all of trees have no place in a countryside garden do you a good price i'll do you a good deal right let's move on to an any question this is a flooring question which we've got a few so i'll see if i can combine them but laura is saying help i've

just had my hallway and stairs surrounds painted in a lovely creamy clay color but what that's done now is made my oak floors look really orangey we've maxed out our budget so we don't want to go and repaint the walls as it cost us more fortune but are there any simple solutions or do I now have to live with my mistake oh do you want me to get quite do you want me to get quite nerdy on this do you want me to go nerdy yes I don't i think a lot of people when they get oak floors um expect it to remain that color forever and it doesn't oak is a natural material and it contains natural tannins which basically are responsible for the color and the grain character and therefore over time over with exposure to things like you know even just the oxygen in the air the wood will

darken or take on a sort of warmer tone it's like it's basically like it's almost like it's it's still aging so when it's down on your floor it's going to continue to age and then it will change color there's a number of other factors that can get in the way such as uv light uv any exposure to sunlight or uv will also change the colour of the floor and it will start to it will start to go more orange um and then the number one thing which is is really it's the finish or the stain on the wood floor so a lot of a lot of times in older houses like old farm houses you see it's got a sort of before all the sort of modern technology varnishes they the

varnish used to be quite sort of thick yes it's it was like a polyurethane um varnish that is a sort of it's almost got like a yellow sort of tint to it so that again in itself becomes more orange over time so sometimes you walk into a house my house when i took this house over the doors the architraves skirtings everything was this bright orange pine it was awful now when that pine was originally put in it didn't look like that it looks probably like a sort of nice sort of fresh white sort of like you know nice sort of cut cut pine but over the course of time with the varnish it goes this really really bright orange color now basically there's there's things you can do to sort of suppress that nowadays with flooring when you buy flooring if you're buying flooring for the first you know for the

first time you almost want to get obviously varnish is coming a long way and tints and oils and things that you can get down to your floor but what what you want to do is almost go with a treatment that's been done on it where it's sort of almost been brushed. And then it has a slightly white oil brushed over it, which will almost suppress the orange coming through. But it will still change over time. Your orange floor, especially in a room where you've got natural light and, you know, it's going to start breathing and it's going to change. It will become orange. Now, a way to overcome this if you already have an orange floor. And that's exactly so right there.

What happens is that when you change the color of your walls. Yeah. If there's any yellow, perhaps in the color of the paint, like a sort of, you know, like a clay and it's got warmth in it. It's going to only exacerbate the color of the flooring. So it's going to only exacerbate the color of the flooring so it's going to become even more orange looking so you almost want to counteract that by almost going with something not so warm on the walls but anyway if you've gone clay and you love it that's fine the way to overcome this is basically you can essentially get sort of someone in to do it or

you can actually hire the machines yourself and you can actually sand the floor back so it's sort of a big sander like a big round sander and it takes the sort the floor back so it's sort of a big sander like a big round sander and it takes the sort of top layer off with the sort of with the varnish and it will sort of suck all the you know the sort of um wood dust up into like a giant sort of hoover and then you can actually then retreat it um with a sort of oil that has a so you can cool it down a little bit you can cool it down exactly so there are things that you can do but you've just got to be really careful because depending on the type of flooring that you've got you can only really do this one two three times depending on the thickness of that top layer of flooring so if it's an engineered you can maybe only sand it back a few times so

it might have already been done and therefore you want to be really careful that you're not sort of damaging the floor that you've got so So, sorry, a few facts to think about there. But I would say almost do like you could almost do like one room, a bit of a patch test, see how you get on. Or you could indeed call in an expert to do it for you. So get someone to come and have a look at it. Okay. In the same vein, my friend. There's not a quick fix.

Yeah. Whether renting, renewing a mortgage, or considering buying a home, everybody has housing costs on their minds. For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances, visit Canada.ca slash ItPaysToKnow. A message from the Government of Canada. 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. We've got a question from Isabel, much the same. She has inherited orange-toned varnish wooden floors in her bedroom, which she hates. And she says, what should she do with the floor? It feels like a waste of carpet. Could she stain the boards or go for a big rug you you can't just stain unless you

want to paint them you're still gonna it's a bit like painting a door or painting your architraves you're not you can't just suddenly paint you can't put paint or a new stain on on top of another existing varnish anything that's got especially anything that's got eggshell if you're painting a wall and it's emulsion you can just slap another emulsion over the top because it's porous it's not it doesn't have a sort of varnish over the top if you like anything that's got an eggshell it's got it's got a sort of almost like a coating over it so you've got to get that off so you've got to sand it back so you will need to sand back your floor before you even consider painting it yes it's been treated so she could sand it if she's inherited orange wooden floors then

you can standing it would get some of that varnish back so i can get get some varnish yeah um you can do it yourself it's obviously you know you want to get it really right so you might get patches if you don't do it really well but um and mate while we're on um floors i'm gonna we're gonna stick with the interiors for a bit because we're on a good vein here and actually i want to ask this question because i want the answer to um so selfish lucy has said um she's got a question regarding hallway flooring okay so she says i live in an old cottage and i want to brighten the space i love a rustic farmhouse look and i love the idea of layering a baked look terracotta tile my question is how practical is this will it start

to look dirty over time due to being porous what do you recommend and i'm jumping on this question too because we've just put the most beautiful terracotta tiles in the pantry haven't we and i'm not sure how to treat them because they my goodness they're porous they're like they're like a little sponge can you treat them they should be treated they should have been treated before they grow out them i really hope they did i'm sure they will have done whatever they will have done they absolutely will have done um you will need to um you will need to seal them yes terracotta needs sealing much like you would do with any natural stone and it's and it's always sealed before you grow out so i'm sure your guys did that they'll. They'll know to do that. But so terracotta is extremely porous.

You don't want to use it anywhere in like a sort of a boot room that has direct access to an outdoor area. Actually, I had a conversation with a client this week about it because they're absolutely hell bent on having terracotta in this boot room. The access to the outside is directly off this boot room so muddy boots coming in wet dogs yeah that is going to literally soak up mud like a sponge and you can't clean it so it will it's just not it's not practical unless you like that really muddy look but where exactly where you come in it's going to look trashed pretty quickly and it's going to be very hard to clean so where you might see i've used it before in a boot room the boot it's a dry boot room so you've got wet boot rooms and you've got dry boot rooms yeah um same with things like utility rooms just

be very careful where you're using it it's brilliant in things like bathrooms on first floors because you're not coming in with muddy boots it's just moisture she's saying hallway flooring um i mean if you've got a giant it would work in a hallway if you've got one of those very very big recessed size um recessed choir mats yes at your front door okay um but just you're just gonna have to be still a little risky isn't it because you're gonna have to be like brushing your feet over and over and over i wouldn't have it on would you would i be right to say upstairs hallway fine but maybe not immediately at your front door i don't think you'd want an upstairs feel a bit cold on a first floor landing on the i feel quite nervous with my spawn having a terra grotta tile near my front door because like

football beats that sort of thing i think it depends if you haven't got kids and you're not worried about you know that sort of thing but you are going to have to and i think probably a bit of a bit of advice is that if you do want to have it, and you do have it on the ground floor, have a hoover nearby that you can suck the mud up. Don't, for goodness sake, make the mud wet. Let it dry, suck it up with a hoover. But you can't even, you're going to have to keep sealing it. I was going to say that. Can you do, even though after grouting, can you sort of seal it once a year or whatever, just to make sure it's... Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you can also, after you've grouted it so when you obviously first lay terracotta it's quite it's quite pitted you can see lots of pits and little holes yes yeah when you brush just wash your grout

over it obviously the grout will sort of sink into those holes which is lovely it's the grout as well in those little pits that's going to get dirty so it's that that's what you're going to sort of start to see as well will become dirty and obviously the grout wears down as well so all those things just think about yeah it's um love terracotta it's got that lovely warm warm feeling to it actually just almost going back on just throwing something at you but um i would say if you've got going back to the wood floor subject, if you've actually got an orange floor and the oak has sort of gone that sort of yellowy tone, it's sometimes quite good to sort of almost lean into the warmth and introduce colours that are warm, like sort of lovely burnt, you know, that sort of lovely okra fabrics and terracottas and things like that because that will actually help make the floor make sense if you suddenly put something like gray on the walls you've created a complete contrast which is going to look really really wrong and that's probably where you've almost

got to go with one or the other if you're sticking with the floor and you're not going to change the floor then don't for goodness sake suddenly start putting things like grays or blues or cool colors with that floor because it's going to stick out like a sore thumb it's very hard to work with so almost go the other way and actually just lean into the warmth go with like lovely warm you know colors with lots of lovely warmth in that is a master class my friend right i'm going to pop outside with my oat milk flat white this morning in my brand new House 9 cup. House 9 cup? Plug. Plug.

I'm not familiar with these. You are not yet. Well, you've got our own cups coming out. House 9 cups. I know, it's gorgeous. You're going to love them. Good Lord, how exciting. They are for display, I tell you. Okay, my love, I've got one here from Abby whilst on the subject of bulbs.

Just wanted to say i absolutely love the pod and have shared it to so many pals thank you abby i have an outie question i planted out my spring bulbs last month and can already spot some that are sprouting early probably due to the mild weather we've had down in kent what should i do to protect them or do i just accept that they might not make it through to spring and any question if i may oh i won't do that one but i love that you slipped a little innie in there i'll um i'll let polly answer her outy question uh the answer is you do absolutely nothing don't worry about it it's all good uh if they're sprouting uh people freak out about this all the time they go oh no they've jumped the gun uh nothing they're fine they're fine this is this

is what they do yeah do you know what abby i'm with you because i was out in the garden yesterday and i suddenly noticed under this one one bed that's got like two spring bowls have popped up and i was like oh my gosh that's peaking perfectly normal for them six months early pal do they then just stop growing do they just exactly yeah i mean it's a bit like i've grown a load of half hardy annuals in the greenhouse and they're all springing up and you think they won't survive the winter they'll be absolutely fine and yeah no so you can chuck down doesn't matter they'll be all good you need do nothing oh that's good to know okay yeah oh that's a super simple one can i i'm actually sort of just going to ask a quick question as well it was whilst on the topic of sort of

garden winter gardening dahlias yeah because they late they're very late flowerers aren't they so when are you supposed to when are you supposed to deadhead dahlias deadhead or lift not you know not deadhead just because they've got the flowers when you clearly missed my reel last weekend didn't you imagine so with dahlias there's this massive debate and it's one of those the really fun thing about working in the gardening community is people like to tell you when you're wrong so you can leave dahlias in the ground if you live in a really mild area and you shove a load of mulch on them but i personally don't do that anymore even though i am in a pretty mild area because of our winter wet so um and they'll rot in the ground so no they, they might not freeze, but they will probably rot.

So what I do is I've just lifted mine, actually. What you're meant to do, the sort of guided principle, is you wait for them to be blackened by the first frost, which means it's a frost and it all goes a bit shrivelly and sad, which will have happened, I'm just near certain, everywhere in the UK after this week. So then you dig up the dahlia, cut off all the foliage so it's just like that sort of little collection of um tubers that's the word sorry i couldn't get that one out it looks a

bit like a claw and um you're going to get all the mud off it so you just brush it off or you can even sort of hose them or take them in the sink get all the mud off let them dry somewhere sort of cool and warm not in a sort of freezing shed that's sort of sub-zero let them dry off then you wrap them in newspaper whack them in a cardboard box and leave them I don't know in your garage in your shed in a quiet corner somewhere right okay and the reason I do that is because I did lose quite a few really nice ones last year because it was just such a wet winter so everyone that's a bit smug goes I live somewhere warm I never lift mine it's like well done but if it's a really wet winter, they might well rot off.

What if it's in a pot? Well, so dahlias, the way I see dahlias in pots is they hand over from the tulips. So when the dahlias are ready to lift, the tulips are probably about ready to be planted. So I would never leave dahlias in a pot permanently because that's valuable real estate. Oh, I see. Right. So you lift them, you put your tulips in, your tulips flower. never leave dahlias in a pot permanently because that's valuable real estate i always see right okay so you kind of you lift you lift them you put your tulips in your tulips flower and chances are by the time the tulips are over you've probably potted up your dahlias and getting them going and you can swap them so it's quite a nice cycle there it's an awful lot of work all this gardening

malarkey isn't it it is it doesn't stop yeah no it's a lot of work it is a lot of work but it's meant to be very good for your mental health mate so you know get out there i just my garden is not good for my mental health it will be we're working on it i know i look at it at the moment i tell you my head goes into absolutely i go into a head spin yeah you and me both lois and i were sitting down looking at it this week being like right levels oh god anyway it's coming okay I've got one here from Elizabeth could you name some small trees for a small yard I think you are both fab thanks Elizabeth yeah there were quite a few questions about small

trees weren't there um yes I can and I'm going to give you some part shade trees this time because i've i've talked quite a lot about some of the smaller ones you can use in full sun but ones that i think are absolutely brilliant and ones i've probably not mentioned many of these before you could go with asa so people either love aces or hate them but you could go with um an asa rubrum which looks absolutely incredible in terms of autumn color as well so that's really beautiful or asa palmatum palmatum is in palm so it's the leaves look a bit like your hand and so both of them are epic for autumn color and they don't get too big and then obviously one of my old favorites which i have talked about a lot cornus cusa and you could go with the likes of china girl which

is one of my faves again or weiss fontaine white fountain weiss fontaine those are amazing because they're going to give you those beautiful white bracts in the spring their autumn color it's not quite so exciting but they also have these really cool berries that taste like custard they don't taste like custard they taste a bit rank but some people say they taste like custard but then I've got another couple for you that are a bit different and I cannot pronounce this so the first one is Sersilephilum japonica also known as the Katsura tree but that's really beautiful because it's got this leaf that's a bit like a duck's foot but the colour is amazing in the autumn and it doesn't get it gets to like six meters in

20 years so i think i would describe that as not an enormous tree um but really really beautiful bit more unusual and finally this isn't a tree but it's something we use in loads of gardens when we want to sort of um have something interesting in a space but maybe not so big as a tree you could look at a forest pansy okay which is just fun fun name but that's like um so that is a purpley leafed shrub that's got heart-shaped leaves it's really beautiful heart-shaped leaves um but great autumn color as well but just a really good doer in a garden and it's kind of what you would describe as a large shrub or a small tree. So maybe you can't fit a tree in,

forest pansy is a great choice. Hmm, brilliant. Thanks, Paul. You're welcome. 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.

Welcome. Okay, I'm going to chuck one in here for you, pal. This one is by Anushka. Anushka's asking, okay, so Botanical London, aka Mr. Big, goes Falco and Polly goes Nowacki. I've just completed a big house and garden reno and about to buy tools. Where did we land on this yes you are my favorite Tuesday guilty pleasure followed you since 2020 and the early Instagram lives join to see the evolution thanks Anoushka and OG obviously you know what I'm going to say on this. I'm going to fall on the side of Niwaki because I have loved them since day one.

Loads of gardeners, mostly men actually, absolutely love Falco. And they are a brilliant brand and they do really, really great secateurs. They do. They're wonderful. You can't go wrong with a good Falco. But I just love everything Niwaki.

They just do so many good tools. I love their Hori hori more than anything. I've got several pairs of their secateurs because I want to lose them. And the golden spade. And also, I guess there's something really fun about sort of collecting what they have because everything is just beautiful and works really hard. And so it's a bit of a joy, I think. I think, funnily enough, I was asked recently what my top Christmas gift would be,

and it would be the Niwaki Hori Hori, the new serrated one. So, okay, one, I'm just going to end on one really quick innie from Hannah. I love the podcast so much. Thank you for everything you've shared. I have a question. Good.

We've recently moved to a new build. I'm decorating. Thanks so much for all the advice. We've upgraded our door hardware and sockets to a beautiful bronze and sort out lovely light fittings my issue is the plastic of the alarm the smoke alarm detector and the doorbell do you have any advice on how to disguise this great question no you can't i'm afraid absolutely no way to disguise it as as much as we all hate them and anything that's white plastic it's a bit like with a fire exit sign it's a bit like with

a fire exit sign it's there for a reason i'm afraid building regulation requires that it's not covered up they are ugly they are white plastic but you can't even paint them no they have to just they are what they are you just have to accept them i think you're probably looking at it because you're looking at everything else in your house that's absolutely gorgeous they are in every single project we ever do they're on every single ceiling they are just i'm afraid they are what they are they are what they are my love i'm afraid they don't nothing you can do about it they're there they're there to save lives fair enough so on that note um on that note uh quick one then what's in and out this week my darling okay in for me is puzzles.

Is puzzle time? Yes. I'm doing puzzles too, pal. That was going to be my in. No. We did a dinosaur one yesterday. It was 300 pieces. Did you?

And it was two days. It was so, oh my God. Yeah. When you say we, are you talking about with the kids? With the kids. Oh, no, I'm not talking about with the kids. Mr. Big and I absolutely bloody love a thousand piecer. Oh, we've got some good ones coming up it's very therapeutic one do you know i really geeked out here pal because i went to inspired by my lovely friend lucy i went to um my garden center and i bought a puzzle i don't know why there but because i've got a great gift department

thanks not cuts um there's a puzzle table a puzzle it's not a puzzle table it's one of these black puzzle mats it's just a big giant puzzle mat and i tell you it's game puzzle table it's not a puzzle table it's one of these black puzzle mats it's just a big giant puzzle mat and I tell you it's game changer so if you like a puzzle and you tend to do it all over the floor the good thing is I put it on the footstool

is it firm? it's firm and it's black I want one you can see all the pieces you can get the ones that roll out also great Christmas present guys if you know someone that loves a puzzle buy them a puzzle and a puzzle mat because it's real game changer and you could also

pick the pick it up because it's oh stop it you'll get it because i usually take a picture off the wall and turn it over because you know you need something big and flat exactly but because it's solid you can actually move it from the dining table or you can move it to the floor or stop it's too exciting too excited that's what's in that is what's in yeah it's such a time for puzzles um what's what's out um do you know what i mean for me it's just bugs isn't it i'm just please can they just please can we just be over them now it feels like i'm i've i've had enough i've had enough i've had enough of the bugs come on i need a break mom needs a break you do need a break you do need a break

you do need a break no I don't want the Christmas holidays just yet not yet they don't need a break just yet no no just yet what's out for you uh what's yeah what's out for you out for me although it's an in but it's because they're out now is the terrible Christmas films on Netflix I love them more than anything in the world i've just watched hot frosty where a woman falls in love with a snowman which was truly the worst best film i've ever seen and then this week i also just watched something like merry merry men of christmas and i don't know it's got chad michael murray from one tree hill and he's dancing around and it's terrible you must watch it i have to say i do i love a cheesy

i love a cheesy crap christmas film there's nothing better than the netflix christmas films appalling i agree okay on that note don't forget to like subscribe share with absolutely everyone share with everyone when you go and see your children perform as trees, camels, fire and lobsters in any form of plays coming up. And hand out leaflets around the nativity play. Please do. I really think that's important. And with that, I'm going on a frosty site visit now.

So wish me luck. I need to bundle up. Okay, good. Good. Have fun out there, be safe i will i will oh by the way no putting hands when you're walking and it's and it's frosty don't put your hands in your pockets don't they say that do they say that because if you slip you can really hurt do damage

well there we go we've ended with a nugget of wisdom there you go all right i love you i love you guys. Take care. Bye. Be safe. Bye. The color of true elation. 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. Got a mortgage? Chances are you're thinking about your payments right now. Need help? Ask your bank about relief measures that may be available to you. Learn more at canada.ca slash it pays to know.

A message from the Government of Canada. 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.