The Ins & Outs - Roof Cleaning, Grey Sofas & Toothbrush Holders

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Jojo's had her roof cleaned while Polly has strong opinions on hanging baskets.What to do with your toothbrush and grey sofas.Plus, Jojo back from holiday with more helpful hints and tips. This episode is sponsored by Plankbridge, makers of fine shepherd’s huts and cabins. At their workshop in the Dorset countryside, Plankbridge creates beautifully handcrafted spaces, from garden studios and saunas to bespoke guest accommodation, whether for holiday lets or visiting friends and family. Creators of the famous Pig Hotel garden wagons, their huts blend traditional craftsmanship with timeless design, and are the only huts endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society.Check out their full range at www.plankbridge.comInstagramPodcast - @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.

Green, the colour of true elation, Pond on a summer's day, See I've been waiting for you, waiting for you. Hello Innes and Outies and welcome back to this episode of The Inns and Huts with myself Jojo Barr and the lovely Paulina Wilkinson. This week we are sponsored by our brilliant friends at Plank Bridge, the makers of the most heavenly shepherd's huts. Now Plankbridge are rooted in heritage design

and they are the only shepherd's hut makers to be endorsed by the RHS. And you may remember that I had the absolutely spectacular Plankbridge bothy in my RHS garden in 2023 when we were celebrating heroines in horticulture and that beautiful little Bothy now resides at RHS Wisley so if you ever want to go and check one out for yourself you can always go and look at that there. So thank you so much to Plankbridge for sponsoring us and you

can check them out at www.plankbridge.com On this week's episode I'm giving you the lowdown on my latest holiday. We're talking entertaining kids, roof cleaning, toothbrush holders, grey sofas, hanging baskets and pelagoniums. So let's jump on in. Hello old bird. Oh my darling, I'm back. You're back? I've not heard from you in a week.

I'm back. I had a little sneaky week off heard from you in a week. I'm back. I had a little sneaky week off, didn't I? Snuck off. Tell me all about it. I kept this very quiet. I snuck off to Crete. We went on a all-inclusive family holiday to Crete with some school pals,

and it was just what the doctor ordered. I tell you, it was just what the doctor ordered. I tell you it was really really nice. It was our first proper experience of an all-inclusive first off and it was just so nice to not have to worry about picking up wet towels and cleaning up after kids and and it just meant that I could actually really switch off quickly switch off you know I mean I do think there's a funny thing though, isn't there? So obviously half term, this half term is only a week, isn't it? Yeah.

So it's like, it's one week. So I think, I don't know if anyone else feels this, I don't know if you get this poll, but when I go on holiday, it takes me about three, I have about three days of anxiety. Yes. Yeah. Love those. Those are the funnest ones. Yes. The major anxiety is like, oh my god, I don't know what are we even anxious about? It's just almost because we're so used to being working on this high level.

When you suddenly stop, you're like, there's something wrong, something's going wrong. It's not everything. And then you start, then you almost start to get a bit down before you then kind of lift back up again. So it's kind of day four, you start to get a bit down before you then kind of lift back up again. So it's kind of day four you start to really relax. Which in a week isn't really very helpful. It's not really that long but I will say what I did do this time around and it

was something I really made a conscious effort and Brad was like, babe you've got to, you know, you've got to look after yourself this week. Yes. Just as much as the kids. I got up every morning, so six out of the seven nights, six out of the seven days I worked out. I went and worked out with one of those, you know, because they're all inclusive, they have like a trainer that's just there at the same time every day. So my friend and I, Emma, went to work out with this guy every day and he just put us through our paces. And so I actually felt like that really helped me. I kind of kick-started me into action. but it was just really nice to get away

and get some sun and switch off from everything. I mean, your idea of looking after you and looking after me at very different exercise and holiday do not go hand in hand with me, but I am delighted for you. And also tell us where you went. So where did we go? We went to a place called Domes of Alunda.

Where I went two years ago with my little dad. Which we only discovered afterwards didn't we? I know after you'd booked it. Yeah, it was really nice. I had everything we needed, everything we wanted and it was just great. It was really nice, we had a really great time and kids loved it.

We were away with seven girls all under the age of seven and it was absolute chaos like the just the loudest kids in the whole joint I tell you but it was brilliant and they just got all gotten so well and it was Yeah, it's just it was just great. I had a really good switch off. But then the sort of last day I've got dad's funeral on Tuesday. So when this episode comes out, I will be at my dad's funeral and I'm quite frankly shitting myself about it and it's suddenly suddenly literally like the day we're coming back and I'm on the beach with my laptop open just doing the order of service and a few other like last-minute bits. Oh mate. I'm dreading it pal.

Dreading it. Dreading it. Why are you dreading it? I mean other than the obvious. I'm dreading it for a number the obvious. I'm dreading it for a number of reasons. I'm dreading it because I'm going to be saying goodbye to him. I'm dreading it because of I didn't how many people are going to turn up. I'm dreading it because I'm doing a speech about how much he meant to me and I'm done if I'm going to crack and fall apart. Like I just think the whole pressure of it and that it's amazing how the organization of death admin and the funeral admin is suddenly building to

this crescendo of this one day and I know it's not about the day and I want to do him proud but I'm just just is feeling like super overwhelming to get to that day and then when it's over I know what's coming afterwards is the sort of then the acceptance really probably kicks in so I'm just dreading it I'm just I'm dreading it for my sister and my mom really for my mom as well like really like oh I feel so my sister called me in floods of tears yesterday and she said she went up the little path to my parents house and walked in she drops a car off there every day when she goes to work and she walked up to the window my

mom was sitting at the at the table kitchen table, on her own eating her dinner with a little candle lit in front of her and my sister just burst into tears just looking at her thinking, my god that's now my mum's, you know, my mum's life. Sorry, I've got to switch to stop being so morbid on this podcast, I promise I will guys. It'll be over soon, I stop stop boring with you all with it but um yeah anyway so it's just it's all coming to a crescendo basically on Tuesday when this comes out and then I'll be able to try and get my with my life back in some form of you know some shape or form oh

god I mean yeah yeah hopefully well closure is not the right word but I guess it's all been leading to this hasn't it? So I think it will be leading to this Maybe there'll be a sense of relief though afterwards in terms of because then you can yeah There well, it's I think they say when you're doing I think it's a speech thing as well. Do you remember? Do it do you remember when we were doing this for podcast and I was on my business course and I had to do it I hated public speaking. I've since kind of got over the public speaking and obviously I do a podcast with you as well, which is basically public speaking. I enjoy public

speaking now. So it's actually not so much that, but there is still an element of standing up in front of a room full of people. I think that's that as well. But I think it's also the emotion that's coming with it. Talking about something incredibly emotional, but also you know that you're you have full permission to like emotionally react however however comes up. No one's there going to be like shame she cried like come on. No and actually somebody I threw a question box out on Instagram this morning just to see if anyone had any good advice for me apart from guzzling down, you know, but bottles of

rescue remedy. Well rather than wine and you being absolutely pissed as a newt. Well that will be I think your dad might contain that. He would definitely contain that. So, but I was asking for lots of tips from people and they actually just a lot of people have just said just let the grief come and let the day really kind of come over you. Don't try and be anything else than present, which I thought was a really good bit of advice actually. So thanks for everyone that sent in little tidbits of funeral advice. But apart from that, so it's been really weird. I have to say I felt some guilt about going away at first, but then as soon as I was there, I was like, this is just so what I needed.

I was on the verge of cracking before I left. And it was just brilliant. The kids were so, the kids were just such good fun. It's just, when you go away with kids as well, it's that fine, you get a week or however long to watch your children and watch what they are like with other kids. And you don't get to do that really on a day to day

when you're rushing around, trying trying to work trying to juggle kids trying to clean up the room trying to like you know make the greens and and suddenly or in this lovely sort of pause it's like when you're on holiday isn't it it's like the sort of period of just quiet and you can just watch and observe and just be it's lovely. Did you wax them in kids club? They've got a good kids club. Of course I fucking did. Oh good, okay, I was gonna be like no,

I just wanted to spend every moment with him. Oh bugger off. No, do you know what, it was Brad's birthday when we were there. It was my toy boy's birthday. So my toy boy, Brad turned 39 when we were away and so I booked a little boat trip. So we flung the kids into kids club and

I took them on this sexy boat trip where we went around the island and went snorkelling and had like prawn pasta on the back of the boat and some beers and rosé. It was bloody lovely. That sounds amazing. And I didn't miss the kids one bit. Good. Yeah. Oh good on you pal, that's what you needed.

It was great and definitely like half term. That's a new thing for me going away at that time of year is fantastic. And what about you, my love? Catch me up. What have you been up to? What have we been up to? We didn't go away.

I very rarely go away the May. I've always been to be the total opposite, a little puzzled by the people that go away in the May half term. Cause I'm like, it's like the best weather and also like summer's really close so summer holidays are coming so it feels like it hasn't really spread it out over the year I guess but it's just really weird logic. I did feel extremely not even mildly I felt very smug though because it was pissing with rain back home wasn't it? Yes and I messaged you to

tell you that just because you were like it's quite nice knowing it's raining at home. I was like, well, it is. I know. It's not really mean. I'm so mean of me. No, no, it is quite nice though, isn't it? Well, yeah, so we were at home for half time and I've got to say, actually, I found it quite tough and no one ever talks about this. Everyone always says how wonderful it is having kids, but the boys are at an age now where they've kind of grown out of toys. They're not that interested in toys anymore. And let's call a spade a spade, they're boys. So what they like doing is quite different to what I like doing. So often I'll hear you talking about, oh, we did cute crafts, we went to a market. And I'm just like, that's just not my experience of motherhood. I have boys that are very active,

that sort of fight and scrap and love football. it's really it's all really alien to me and I find I find thinking of ways to entertain them quite difficult because What they want to do is play on screens or do sports and I'm not sporty at all at all and I feel really kind of uncomfortable in places like their dad can take them to the driving range or take them to the football pitch of park for a kickabout or take them to the cricket nets.

And I'm there being like, I don't know what to do here. And that's so hard actually. So it can feel really, really lonely. And so Colin and I were talking about this. We were like, let's take them to town. Let's go to the like Tower of London or let's go to a museum or things. But inevitably, they tend to whinge around the whole thing.

They don't want to be there. And it can feel really thankless. It's I'm finding it quite a tough. All I want is to like have a lovely family day. Yeah, they don't want to do the same things as us. And so trying to think of something which is not just like sacrificing yourself at the altar of parenthood and being like I guess we're just gonna go sit in Ninja Warrior again which you know the kids love but me sitting in a Giant soft play for want of a better word can feel a bit shit. So sorry

They don't want to go to places like You know like the Natural History Museum or Science Museum things like that Have you done this? It just depends on the day that you get We've also they're also like waving At like tween aged him and so, you know, you might get a day where they're on amazing form and they love it But you might get a day where they winch the entire way through and you think why the hell did I bother this cost? Like driving them all the way up in London train. Yeah, I've taken them and they don't want to be here They'd just rather be kicking a ball in the garden. So I cost like 200 quid for tickets and train. I've taken them and they don't even want to be here.

They'd just rather be kicking a ball in the garden. So finding out a little tough, I obviously love my babes so much. Anyway, we ended up taking them to Chinatown and they loved it. Cost us an absolute fortune because as soon as you've got five of us in train tickets and Chinese food

and then we went to Covent Garden and watched some street artists. It was really fun and they loved it. But the week before we took them elsewhere and they hated it so it's we just look at each other all the time being like this is a bit thankless isn't it? Yeah well actually I will say being a parent is just thankless. I don't actually think kids turn around and thank their parents even having girls Paul I have to tell you if I take the girls shopping don't think it's a lovely shopping experience where I get to dress them up in little dresses they are are like, I want that, I want that, I want that.

And then it's just never gets worn or gets thrown on the floor. And like, it's just as thankless having girls. So I hope I don't paint a picture of it being all sort of fun and games. Apart from that they like to sort of put your makeup on and put your heels on occasionally though. Obviously, that's quite fun. To be fair, my little one does that too. But it's, yeah's a yeah no I do find it fun. I think having kids is really really thankless I mean trying to get your kids to oh and when we were at this at this hotel Rocky would sort of you know Azigiki would come running over and she'd be like this place

is so great everything's free and I'm like it's not free though and you're trying to explain to your kids it's free to you I mean life is free to you but it's not free though. And you're trying to explain to your kids, it's free to you, I mean, life is free to you, but it's not free. We've had to pay for this holiday. And you're trying to kind of get, but then you're like, I'm talking to a six year old here. Like, of course they're not gonna really understand. Actually, our friend Tom, when we were away,

this is an interesting question for you, Paul. I found a euro, I found a euro coin lying in the sand and I picked it up and I gave it to Rocky. And of course, she just like, oh, what's this? Lobbed it on the floor. Couldn't care less. Like, you know, back in the day, we found some money. It'd be like, woo, like we know, penny sweets. Coins these days don't have the same meaning to kids. How do you teach? And so I was saying to my friend Tom, I was like, how do we teach our kids the value of money at this age? Because they don't use coins. Everything is tap and using our phones

and apparently there is an app that you can now use. Is it called Go Henry? Yeah. So it's where you give your kids. It's amazing. Yeah. Is it really? So they're still tapping with a little, their little Apple card or whatever it is. Yeah. But it's teaching them that every time they tap, it's have they got their own little accounts? Yes. They've got their own little accounts and what we do, we pay their pocket money in each week. And what I've done now, you've got their sort of current account, but they can choose how much they save. So I've taught my boys now, we sat down and I was like,

how much do you want to save and how much do you want to spend per week? And obviously one of mine's an amazing saver, the other one wants to spend it as soon as it comes in. And so we discussed it and they were like, okay, we'll save 30% of what we get. I mean, they get two quid, so they save like, I don't know, quick math, 70p.

But it teaches them, because then they just want to spend it on robux or fortnight money, which drives me wild, because it's literally money for nothing. But I appreciate for them, different generation, it has value for them, but they you know They can only spend it if they've got it in their bank account. So they'll be like how much of a great idea It's a brilliant my baby. Your girls are a little bit younger. I only started doing it recently, but yes go Henry

It's great. Yeah, and you can kind of you know grandparents can pay into it and it's um Yeah, it's good. It's brilliant. Okay teaching kids about money I'll look into it because um, I think coins are gonna be out aren't they? Coins are gonna be... Just don't really carry coins. No, no one carries coins anymore. Which is a relief to remember you have a massive fat purse full of coins. Yeah I mean ones and two peas can just do one quite honestly totally pointless surely. Let's just take them out. So what else have you been going on Powell? What else have you been up to? What can I catch?

Well, I'm planting my garden at the moment, which is, I completely, it is a terrible time of year to plant a garden. It's really hot, but it's either that or I leave it empty until autumn and obviously I wasn't going to do that. So I will have to commit to being very on top of it with sort of watering and care,

but planting that and then the garden will be finished. Oh my goodness, how exciting. Yay! So that's been really really good fun and the furniture's in and the house is painted and I keep staring at my roof and you've just had your roof cleaned haven't you? Oh my gosh guys I've had the roof cleaned this is a really exciting really roaring children's savings and roof cleaning this cleaned. This is a really exciting. Oh God, we're really roaring. Children's savings and roof cleaning this week. This is just, we're keeping it real over here, guys. This is just real life shit. We had our roof cleaned

and actually it was recommended to us by a lovely Instagram follower because I was looking for a roof cleaner and she recommended this chap and he was brilliant. And they came and they really, so there's two ways of doing it. So they either put this stuff on it, which kind of works over the course of time. Right.

Or because we've got clay, we've got handmade clay tiles. Special tiles. Which is lovely, because probably the only good thing about the house, to be honest, the rest of it's totally shit and shit and cheap. But nice tiles. So, or they use that big scrubbing device. Yes. And the scrubbing device obviously uses lots of water and it can damage the tiles.

So they decided not to do that. And also they climbed up in the reef and saw that we had no insulation up there. So it would have been a really bad idea. So anyway, they've put this stuff on. So it does, they scrape all the moss off first, then they put this special stuff on and it will slowly but surely get better and better and better and better with time. Amazing. But it already looks amazing. Like it looks brilliant. Like beautiful red tiles have come back to life and all the moss

has gone. There's a little myth buster here because I was like, oh, I heard it's really good to keep moss on the roof. And he was like, absolute nonsense. It's not good to have moss on your roof. Don't let anyone tell you that. That's people that are afraid of taking the moss off because of what might be left behind because it's been left for so long. But the moss gets underneath the tiles and then it expands and shrinks and expands and shrinks with like you know the ice and everything else and then that's if you've got a well insulated roof you don't need moss to keep your roof insulated of course you should get it off so. Amazing. Anyway so that's really exciting I shall send

a picture of my before and after of my roof because it feels like it's something I should share. Because it's a real geek moment. I know, a geek out moment. So yeah, very exciting. And finally, my chickens now put themselves to bed. I'm like, didn't you say four out of five put themselves to bed? Last night was the first night they all went to bed on their own. I've got a security camera so I can watch them because otherwise I'd walk to the end of the garden to check see if they're

awake or whether they've and they've gone to bed. It was like I felt like a proud mama. Oh do the boys like the chickens? They are obsessed with the chickens. Oh there you go that's a nice bonding thing. It is yes for three minutes of the day is lovely. Yeah. Let's hope it lasts that long. Have you not been pressured into getting a dog, Polly? Colin would like a dog. You had a dog, didn't you? Yeah, I did and my ex got it in the divorce. She's very old. She's 15. But the thing with dogs, I love dogs. I love them. But the thing I hated the most and particularly given the boys play so much football in the garden was the dog shit they're like poop patrol every day in the garden and the boys would trail it through the house after playing football and

I just feel If you live in the country, it's the worst smell. Amazing you can send them out into a field or something But in a small suburban garden. Not necessarily because they you send them out into a field and then they come back having rolled in fox shit And you think dog shit smells bad. You want to smell foc shit Fox shit is nasty. No, it's not we're not in a time of our life where I would like a dog Colin would very much like a dog. So I thought so Brad is Brad is of the mind We should get a dog and I'm like, I've got like 72 cats also I've had dogs previously with my ex as well and I love them dearly but

they are basically children and anyone that hasn't had a dog will be like oh yeah it's really fun. They are literally like having a children and child and every time you go on holiday you're gonna have to get them looked after, clean out the dog shit. Like it's just a lot and I will one day because I think it'd be lovely to have a dog but not now, not now. The girls can't even like pick up their own bloody Bloody you know yogurt wrapper off the floor like I'm not gonna get a dog if they can't help with that It's you know, what's so interesting and this is this is my dirty little secret. I wonder if anyone relates to it we had the dog pre-kids and

As soon as I had kids the dog was my baby. She was my everything. I used to take pictures of her and post it on social media. Does social media exist then? You know, send pictures to my family, everything that came. MySpace? Was it MySpace? Probably. Bebo. Bebo MySpace. Facebook, I think it was at the time. As soon as I had Leo, it was like a flick, a switch in my mind just went. And all of that feeling towards the dog went and the dog felt like a massive inconvenience.

An annoyance. I mean, she ate his nappies and stuff, which, you know, when you're in the midst of motherhood, you know, those early days, it's the last thing you need is a doggy nappy. No, a dog with dog eating nappy. But it was, I just, something changed in me and I, and apparently it's super common, loads and loads of women. Yeah, I had exactly the same thing.

I had the same thing. I was sharing my dogs with my ex at the time and then I got pregnant and I had Ziggy and I was suddenly like, okay, this suddenly isn't really a priority anymore. When I'm trying to push Ziggy and I'm trying to feed Ziggy and I'm trying to also hold onto two dogs, it just was like a non, it was just a lot. It's strange, isn't it? Whereas if you get a dog after you've had kids,

like most of my friends get them after, then it's totally different and it's the baby, baby of the house. Totally. Really curious dynamic that, but yeah, that was always a point of shame for me that I sort of slightly fell out with love with my doggy. No, I know, I think that happens a lot. I think it happens a lot.

But should we jump into some questions? Because I'm conscious that we've been rabiting away. Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, more rabbit than Sainsbury's. Than Sainsbury's? I mean, I've heard of that expression. Why does- More rabbit than Sainsbury's. Do Sainsbury's carry a lot of rabbit?

Well, do you know what? I don't know. But that's carry a lot of rabbit. Well, I do know what I don't know But that's an expression. I promise you That's a new one And rabbit and Sainsbury's before we get to questions. I've got an update for you. Do you remember last week? We were talking outdoor cushions. Yeah, baby. We shared our cushion favorites So I have been obsessively researching this because I've had enough of just thinking about it for photo shoots and things and

the nicest ones I found and I've looked at a lot is Sophie Patterson has done a collab with Andrew Martin and they are banging. I love them. Yes they are gorgeous. Because they're really good quality. Well, I imagine the quality is amazing. The quality is really good. Yeah. And also we just love Sophie Paterson. So she's a superstar. But the colors are lovely. There's the sort of greens and oatmeal. You know, the classic, they're not going to date. I think that's the thing, because there are some really cool ones on the market.

You know, the frilly ones you see everywhere at the moment with like frilly edges, which I love. They're going to date. They're going to they're gonna date they're not gonna they don't see my garden either unfortunately but so lovely so go have a time to all of those timeless classic enough okay well done enough that questions i've got a question from sherry she says is your leaf blower something your neighbor's got the bloody leaf blower out of me every fucking Friday I reckon they know they know that we're gonna do you know it's really tough and it sounds so wanky but if ever I'm trying to record a reel about my favorite plants or something I now have to sink it because I know that Fridays are out because it's leaf blower day Wednesday morning is out because

it's the other neighbors leaf blowing day. It is, I spend my life and then at the weekend Colin's like is it antisocial to use the leaf blower? I'm like no it's bloody not they've been using it all week. I can't, these people that are just so organized to just do the same thing every week I'm just not that sort of person. It's a gardener that's come my love it's not them doing it they've clearly got a paid slot don't they? Oh that's why I got here I am. Oh my god I don't think it's someone with a super regimented life which 10 o'clock I'm... Oh you say that I've got some neighbours like that real like oh yeah oh

yeah everything has to be at the same time every day you know on the dot it's an age thing I think it's an age thing. Anyway we digress. We're not quite there yet. Let me ask my question lady. Go on then. It's from Sherry. What are your rules on electric toothbrush holders above sinks? Do you do them within the framework of the sink or outside? Oh, is she talking about when you actually do a refur like a renovation and it's like where you

does she mean the plug, the things you you plug them into the plugs or the actual holder Oh, I don't know. She doesn't say she just says electric toothbrush holder Well, the holder sits on the usually sits What if we're doing I tell you what we do do do do do do do do do if we do do renovation if we're doing A full renovation. Yeah new bathroom Renault and we've got vanity units or a concealed storage solutions in walls we will try and put the toothbrush charger adapter inside that unit as opposed to having it on display so the toothbrush will be away at all times. Don't really want it on display

if you can help it. If you don't have that option and I think I'm pretty sure she's talking about not the holder but the actual way you plug it in. The charger and the plug. We would usually do it above on the wall above your vanity splash back. Got it. So it goes to just the side. I've got one just up to the left hand side, but I will go with the same color as the wall. So mine is white. So you don't really see it. Oh, but the thing is about toothbrush charges is that they tend to need to be plugged in at all times, you know, when you're not using them, don't they? So can I, I know this isn't an ad, but I do have a Suri toothbrush.

S-U-R-I. Me too, so good. And the charge, the charge on these things, you literally charge it up like a telephone and then it's literally charged for about two weeks. You do not have to charge this. Two weeks? Mine is more like two months, mate. You don't have to charge this bad boy.

It is insane. Unbelievable. So, and then it can, and then they've got this really nice and it's beautiful as well It like it's a very elegant looking toothbrush And then you stick the thing on your mirror and you can just have it there at all times or on your on your splashback You don't need to have a list charging nonsense. It's a date need. Yeah, it totally that's absolutely brilliant So I I think those are a bit

I just think it's unnecessary nowadays to have those kind of toothbrush charges charges somewhere in on display. How do you, what do you use for holding toothbrushes? Mine is currently just sat in a cup which gets gradually and gradually more revolting. They're gross aren't they? I know. Well it's all the toothbrushes, all the toothpaste slides down the bottom of the toothbrush. I know, I know. It just sits there doesn't it?

So do you use those ones which are like a mounted hole and they sort of sit on that or what? Yes, exactly. What's your go to? Okay you do. Yeah or just like a little trick, like a little sort of sit on that or what? Yes. What's your go to? Okay, you do. Yeah, or just like a little trick, like a little sort of marble dish or something. I tend to use something like that, but that's not very exciting. Sorry about that, guys. That was riveting.

Careful, you toothbrush. Sometimes we just have to go with the practicalities of life. Yes, we do. We all have a toothbrush. Okay, I've got one here from Sarah because I am so interested to know what you think about this, Polly. Hanging baskets. Are there any plants or flower combos

that don't look naff and granny-like? Not a fan of primroses, violas, et cetera. Only grew strawberries in them but would love some inspiration, please. Or the cold, hard truth to leave them in the 80s and 90s. Thank you very much, Sarah. I gift you the cold, hard truth, my friend. Oh, I hate them.

You fucking hate them. I effing hate hanging baskets. And the reason I hate them is much the same reason that I like, I hate small pots. Caveat, I got so much grief the other day because I have bought some small pots, but they are for a tabletop. They have to sit on a table

for pelagoniums but hanging baskets I just think number one I don't think they're very attractive as a like as a vessel. You can tend to see the plastic inside because it's got a plastic liner because otherwise obviously the water is going to go through and I don't like seeing plastic in the garden and also the body of soil that a hanging basket holds, unless it's those amazing ones outside the ritz, which are just the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen. But those are the sides of a beach ball. It's just, it's this tiny little dish of mud. I know, but they do when they come out and they're in bloom, they do look kind of nice. I've got to Sarah. So if you look you look after them and they are abundant and you remember to

water them and you fill them with things they are spectacular but I personally think life is too short for hanging baskets there I said it. Oh there you go. I think if a thing is I've got a big white wall and it's just and there was one already with those hanging metal hangers on the wall when we moved in so I just decided to put a basket up there. It's fine if you've got them. I would rather grow plants up the house than have a hanging basket. In my new garden design there is not a hanging basket. I haven't specified any hanging baskets for your garden. No, no hanging baskets. I think the problem is they often look half dead don't they? They do. So I would, please don't take offense if you have them

and you love them and you manage to fill them with amazing things and it looks fabulous. I think Sarah is deeply, deeply offended. Deeply. Sorry. I just I'm a big believer that gardening takes a lot of work and so you should choose where you spend your time and I wouldn't spend it on hanging baskets. I've got a question from Minnie. So I have a blue black footstool and a light gray sofa and my husband is not agreeable to changing them.

Boo! What colour should I paint the walls and any other colours I can use in the living room? Okay so say again, so the footstool's what colour? I have a blue black footstool, a blue black, and a light grey sofa. Gosh it's not a combo I like, guys. I know, but come on, come on. How can we, how can we, would you put a cover over the footstool? Because like you could It's just feeling, it's so cold up in here. Can you just feel it? Can you feel the cold?

How can we warm it up? Look, I'm so cold. That grey sofa and that blue tones. Listen. It's shivering. We need to warm up. So we need to add some warmth. Okay. So add a bit of warmth or pink is a joy with great gray and to add a bit of something. But I don't know if a husband might like that, but you could do like a sort of setting plaster pink would be beautiful. That's really going to work well with gray and with blue. Believe it or not, even yellow actually works quite nicely. So you could bring in some lovely sort of almost like a sandy yellow, like a

lovely sandy yellow that would look really nice with that kind of setting plus a bit like your combo actually in your living room that we've done. So sort of think kind of washed out pinks and washed out yellows, not vibrant yellow, not poppy fun yellows. We're talking like kind of lovely sort of ochre sandy yellows. Those would look really nice and you could bring those elements through in patterned cushions on the sofa as well. I was wondering about cushions and how about a rug? Would we rug? A rug? It depends if it's a carpet or not, I don't know.

We could rug but the difficulty is with rugs is that I think you then want to stick to what's kind of you want the rug to pull down the colors that are within the rest of the room. So you would need to pull a bit of blue and maybe a bit of that sort of grey but you wouldn't be able to suddenly throw an oatmeal rug on the floor because it's not going to work underneath the grey sofa because they're two big things that are opposing tones. I think like a lovely pink would be nice. I like pink with like beautiful navy that can look really lovely. It can look really nice and actually you can vary the tones of the pink so don't feel like

you've just got to go flat pink. If you wanted to go with that sort of dusky pink or sort of a setting plus to pink you then could introduce little pops of brighter color within the cushions and a few more accessories. So I would almost say in this instance layer, layer, layer, layer, layer the color as opposed to just going with one thing because you've obviously got the cool cool tones on the sofa and on the footstool so you want to introduce a bit of warmth and fun in other areas. With the cushions could you go with something quite textural because again if you're looking for warmth making it sort of fluffy. Have a look at tell you who to go to, Fomoy is one of my

Oh my god, such nice fabric. Love Fomoy, so Fomoy is F-E-R-M F E R M O I E and for Moy is this really lovely sort of thick slobby they do it various types of fabrics that you can have them printed on but they make their own cushions as well so you can get their gorgeous fabrics to use on upholstery but also on cushion ready-made cushions and I feel like they've got such a great range of of colors their colorways are huge I mean really expensive so I feel like they've got such a great range of colors. Their colorways are huge. I mean, really expansive. So I feel like you could really play around with a lot of their sort

of blues. You can even bring some blues up onto the sofa. Lovely dusky pinks. They've got really great patterns. Little sort of small sort of rough geometric sort of things going on. Really nice. Yeah. Yum. Okay. And also if the husband puts up a fight on a pink wall, I think he has to pick his battles, right? Like we're either keeping the furniture or we're painting it pink, dude.

Honey percent. Listen, listen here, you. Come on. Listen. Who wears the trousers here? Exactly. Okay. I've got one here from Georgie.

Georgie's asking, I have aphids in my silver birch tree. How do I get rid of them? Please help. Okay. So this, this is a really interesting one at the moment. We're getting lots of questions about how to get rid of aphids and it's a tricky one because on the one side I want to say to you aphids are actually amazing forage for loads of really important insects. So we've got like ladybugs, hoverflies, lacewings and even parasitic wasps all eat aphids.

So on the one hand, you don't need to do anything because they will be eaten by these guys if you leave them alone. If you have an absolute infestation, so not just a few, don't worry, if you've got a few, don't worry about it, they'll be fine. If it's like such a bad infestation that you're getting that sort of very shiny, sticky sap and your plants are really distorting then the best thing you can do is just put some washing up liquid in a spray bottle and spray it and that's not going to hurt anything but it is I think what it does is it blocks the aphids breathing I can't remember the name of what

it is but whatever they breathe through it blocks it and then they die. So but it obviously won't hurt wildlife or anything so just a little little spray bottle of that we're not here for the pesticides don't need to do that the washing up liquid will be absolutely fine but if it's just a few like same if you see them on roses and things it's just a few really doesn't matter and the more you leave these things the more you will encourage birds more beneficial insects into your garden and they will eat it. Because it's really interesting, the bigger gardens that don't use pesticides, they found that actually they attract more birds, wildlife and natural predators.

So we need to stop the intervention in order to encourage the natural intervention of animals. So I hope that helps, but don't panic. But if it's infested spray it with I did actually liquid not pesticide I did I did actually read this really interesting thing the other day about the importance of dandelions Dandelions are we see them as a weed but they are one of the most important flowers or weeds for these Nators. Yes early pollinators and too many people are now trying to like get rid of them eliminate them Cover them in like pesticides and what you're doing is You're you're basically killing the bees peeps. So start see dandelions as beautiful friends as opposed to the end It's literally their first it's like one of their earliest food sources their food. I know maybe we've sad read that cause I was like, yeah

Also, interestingly funny enough. I'm writing an article about dandelions at the moment. I learned a few things They're really good at aerating your soil. So if you've got really compacted lawn, for example, because it's one long taproot, essentially the root is aerating your soil. So they're not, your dandelions can actually coexist in your lawn. Which I thought was interesting. Interesting. Also, you can fry the buds and they taste like mushrooms. Oh, really? And you can use the leaves and they taste like mushrooms. Oh really?

And you can use the leaves in salads but use them young because they're very bitter if they're picked by old leaves. Interesting, that's great. I've got so many facts about dandelions I can fill a whole episode with them. Oh my god, I love this. Okay, give us some of those tips on the old stories please. Well I think that's enough, enough for now, which leaves me to say... Yes, yes.

What's in, what's out? What is in, what is out? say yes yes what's in what's out what is in what is out I tell you what's in for me tell me is a really really good coffee when you're away in a European country the coffee you just miss don't you you really miss a really I know you're actually not mad about your flat whites, but as you well know, I am an oatmeal flat white lover. I can't live without my oatmeal flat white in the morning. And when you're away on holiday, it just tends to be the kind of either a double like Southern Europe is like, it's a double espresso, basically going to get, you're going to get a double espresso and they look at you like you're totally like batshit crazy

when you ask for oat milk. They're like, eight, eight what? Milk? Yeah. So you get a sort of something that tastes a bit like oat milk, but it's not really what you're after. So I've got the first thing this morning when I wake up at five o'clock, it's my jet lag. I was just gagging for an oat milk that way. For a good coffee. I ran down to that coffee machine quicker than you've ever seen me move. Oh my God, I love it.

I do know what you mean, although, you know, other European countries, i.e. Italy, they do have decent coffee pales. They do, but they still don't, do not do, it will not be an 8ml flat white. It'll be a good double espresso, but I'm not a big double espresso drinker. But yeah. Oh yeah I love an

espresso oh I've got a real pet hate I know we haven't done your winch for the week what is it oh my god I've got a pet hate it's people that say espresso expresso it's people that say expresso can I have an espresso please no you can have an espresso you can't have an expresso I mean surely people know that by now guys if there's anyone that still calls it an expresso It's an espresso darling. Jojo's doing God's work there. Yes. Okay, right. What's out for you my darling? No, what are we in? What's in? What's in for me is pelagoniums Pelagoniums. I'm so up for pelagoniums at the moment. So they kind of remind me of my granny's conservatory

Do you know what a pelagonium is? I'm gonna Google it right now. It's like a, you know, you might call it a geranium but it's the geraniums which you'd, they have a sort of fluffy, very aromatic leaf and you tend to grow them inside, not in a garden. You don't like, it's very rare that you plant them out. You'd have them in a greenhouse or in a conservatory. I mean, to be fair, some people do use them as annual bedding but... There are 280 species of them. Yes there are. But they've got that beautiful aromatic leaf. For those that don't know,

you might just call them a geranium but pelagoniums, and their leaves smell of all sorts of... It looks slightly fluffier. Does that look a bit bigger? Totally. And they're not fully hardy like hardy geraniums that you plant in your garden. You keep them indoors over winter in the UK. And if you rub the leaves, they can smell of anything from wine to Coca-Cola to lemon to orange. They're beautiful. Cool.

I have to say I approve. I quite like the look of them. Oh, they're wonderful. They're less granny-ish. I mean, they have a little bit of a granny to them, but they're so synonymous with greenhouses. Obviously, now I've got the greenhouse and I've just ordered some really unusual ones from Fibrex nurseries, F-I-B-R-E-X, they're amazing they're like an incredible supplier of rare pelagoniums but I'm very excited so

I'm just really a little bit of geekery there but it's the time of year for them when they look really lovely. You can have them on a windowsill, doesn't matter where you live you don't have to have a greenhouse. So that's in for me. What's out for me is, it's probably just gonna be my dad's funeral, hasn't it, really? When that's out, I'll be, yeah, I'll be pleased when that's gone, and that's out.

I'll be glad for you when that's done and you've had your chance to say goodbye and it's not sort of hanging over you. Yeah, that's mine, yeah. Well, I can't talk about that. What about you, come on. No, I'm gonna leave you with that. I'm, what's anything I say to that's mine yeah. Well I can't talk about you come on. No I'm gonna leave you with that I'm okay. What's out there is just. What's out there is just us because I've got a dash because I'm gonna go and do gonna go and meet up with a fam. Have some more fam time. Alright sweet

cheeks alright. Oh my darlings. We're all thinking of you. Thank you my sweetness. Yeah nice to catch up. Nice to see you. Best wishes. Is there one more thing you need to just ask for? Don't forget to like, subscribe and share. I don't know who with this. Maybe the people that come and bloody use your leaf blower every week. Have I done that one before? yeah probably which is mine stop using a fucking leaf blower on a Friday morning oh but please do go and like subscribe the podcast thank you