The Ins & Outs - The Ins & Outs of Light

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

This week we take a deep dive into the wonders of natural lighting in the house and garden.Polly tells us what we should be doing in the garden in April.Plus, Jojo reveals what she's learned about reducing stress and red light therapy. 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.

Green, the colour of true elation Pond on a summer's day, see I've been waiting for you Waiting for you Hello innies and outies and in-betweenies. Welcome to this week's episode of the Inns and Outs with myself Jojo Barr and the lovely Pollyanna Wilkinson. On this week's episode we have a good old catch-up. Polly tells us what jobs we should

be doing in the garden in April, I talk red light therapy and I deep dive into the wonders of natural lighting in the house and garden, I share my new book read on how to reduce stress and Polly reveals the colour of a slug's penis. So let's jump on in. Hello, hello, hello to you. Hello sweetness how are you? I'm well how are you? I'm alright. Catch me up. Oh you start with a catch-up you tell me what's going on in your world first Paul. Oh gosh oh you've caught me off guard. What did you think I was gonna ask you? That's a fair point. Fair fair. Okay okay okay okay this one I've kept this one in my little hamster cheeks for a couple weeks now pal. I had a book event in Bath last week. Oh was that

with our lovely friend? With our lovely friend Lottie. Which we had a power cut so it was candlelit which was very romantic Love that. Yeah, I know so we fine we we roll and but there was a highlight in said session I really wanted to bring to the table. So we had a Q&A session and there was a Fabulous selection of both innies and outies and in-betweenies in the audience my friend. They all send their regards. And one of the questions that came up was how to deal with slugs. Oh I remember this from last year actually this question. Come on. Well the real joy and I'll get to you how to deal with slugs but the real joy was one of our listeners Ruth was kind enough to share a very important fact about slugs which I wasn't aware of which is the colour of a slug's penis. Stop it! Guess. I'm gonna go with purple.

No. Pink. No. Brown. No. Green. No. This is a fun game. Black? No. It doesn't have a penis? It does. It does. She showed me a photo. I thought it was a trick question. The colour of a slug's penis. Shall I put you out of your misery? Please. It's blue. Oh. It's blue. Very pure blue as well. Is it?

And now I need to know what a slug's penis looks like. Hold on, I'm just going to Google that. Well, I know, because, you know, we were thinking where was this going in this forum of 250 people? And she said, I've got a photo of two slugs fornicating. Oh, God, it makes me sick looking at it. What on earth am I looking at? Well indeed. Oh my god. I've found a site called slug porn and it's really actually quite disturbing. I don't know if my safe search is on.

The penis of the leopard slug is so big that its owner has to rely on the laws of physics to unfurl it. Clear, clear cookies, clear history, clear, clear, clear. Oh my god, that is horrific. I can't unsee that. I don't know if I want to encourage our listeners to actually go look at that or not. Maybe not. I'll save. Thanks. Right. That, well, to be fair, fascinating, didn't it? Slugs have penises. It was fun. I thought that was really fun. Yeah, that is good. But some good tips on how to deal with slugs came out and actually one lady volunteered

something which I've never heard before. And I'm on the fence on whether you should do it or not. But she said spraying WD-40 on the outside of your pots, because you know, it's like slippy, isn't it? It stops them getting in your pots. But I'm not sure about the whole chemical situation on that. you know it was it was curious so. Oh is there something about how you're supposed to kill a slug as in like if it's what if there's a slug crawling across your path are you supposed to step on it or do you squash it or do you is there a thing about that because I it's not like cockroaches if you tread on a cockroach you know that they actually

carry their eggs up don't they so they if you tread on a cockroach you know that they actually carry their eggs up don't they? So if you tread on a cockroach you basically, you can't kill a cockroach, there will be just a thousand babies born if you tread on a cockroach. Really? Yeah they just breed like mothers those things like just like... So what they sort of scatter their eggs so if you tread on them it almost activates the babies? Exactly, you can't, if you tread on a cockroach you don't kill the eggs and therefore the eggs will still just turn into cockroaches. So yeah, maybe, no, let's not go there. No, let's not go there. I use nematodes. Nematodes are great. And also a lot of wool pellets.

They don't kill slugs. They prevent slugs from going near your plants Gotcha. One thing I'm most interested to see when we finally go into my garden is how you're gonna tackle the fact that I have a garden that overlooks a paddock and How on earth you keep all the weeds out of the garden when the paddock is so full of like Dandelions and weeds and that just fly over into our garden. Our garden, if you, no matter how much weeding you do, within days there are more weeds. Yeah, we, we tend to install a custom force field which prevents all weed seeds from flying

in. Amazing. How much is that? That sounds really expensive. I mean, it does come as a premium, but we do find it works. Giant blow dryer just blowing air the opposite direction towards the paddock. No, seriously, it's a really big problem. Even down to like, even down to grass, it must be like grass seeds even that fly over. That's going to keep happening sweetheart. But I think that's why I just don't want any flower beds.

This is going to be a house, this is just going to be, it'll just be lawn, an extension of the paddock. If you plant your borders well and they're full, then there's less bare earth for the seeds to set seed in. Yeah, okay. But, so that's my, that was my real highlight news. The other thing, That's really interesting. We're probably a bit late to the party,

but have you watched Adolescents? Oh yes, I have. I have. What did you think? I feel like it's the biggest talk of the town. I've never known of any series to get so much hype and so much conversation and I think it's a really, really good conversation especially for mothers and fathers of you know that age group. I think it's really, really important. Has it made you consider giving your boys mobile phones? Does it scare you a little bit? I mean, I think it's a very extreme example and I think everyone's getting terribly excited about it.

But equally, I didn't want my boys having phones anyway. I'm very much team brick phone as long as possible if... Yeah. I mean, they don't have anything yet. There's a huge drive with smartphone-free childhood to stop giving our kids smartphones before the age of 16. I would love that. But the problem is you don't want your child to be left out, do you? No, no, the idea is the government will take on the responsibility of banning them and therefore it's not down to the parent which would be amazing wouldn't it? Well because all it takes is one parent to give a smart phone and then you know it's the domino right of being like you don't want your child to be the one that's left out so the only thing I

thought was really interesting and actually I've talked to a few parents about this since is no computers and phones in bedrooms so you know when they come to an age where they can have it spoken to quite a few parents of older teenagers actually, who have just had a rule in their house, no phones upstairs. And I think that's really interesting. And obviously when friends come over and they're like, what do you mean no phones upstairs? It's like, yeah, house rule, no phones upstairs.

So I think that's... Yeah, because I think it's when you leave kids alone, that's when things happen. But what I got, what a real takeaway, we actually, Brad and I sort of almost paused I think episode two while I went down a Google hole looking at the, it was the scene where he's talking to his son and his son is like dad you don't get it. Emojis mean so much more than you think they mean. Yes. You know like we know what an aubergine means. Yeah. We all know what an

emoji means or a sort of splash. Interestingly, for kids, there's a, like, it's a, guys go and Google it, but it really is quite shocking what you think an emoji means to us middle-aged folk. But to kids, they mean something totally different. And they use little kind of, little slogans like, you know, parents are here, but in some texts you wouldn't know. Can't talk, parents here.

Something like that. It would be like three letters and an emoji. Yeah. I don't like that feeling of being disconnected from like what's what. But anyway, I thought it was an incredible show. No, really interesting. Go and give it a watch.

It is fascinating. And also just the talent of the actors and the fact that it's a one, it's a rolling film, which is incredible because these scenes are one shot. It's amazing. Isn't that amazing? Amazing. I'm gonna digress, pal, on something else

that's been, that I'm interested to talk about. Okay. Which is, I don't know whether it's just me being, whether I've just been totally spammed lately is, I don't know whether it's just me being, whether I've just been totally spammed lately or perhaps I showed an interest in it and now I'm just getting absolutely targeted. Is it slug penis? Slug penis. Slug porn. I'm in for red face masks. These UV light red, red blue light face masks. I'm being

targeted so hard that I think I've hit that magic number where I'm basically I've just bought one Have you? It's happened yeah You've turned cyborg It's arriving tomorrow Oh you haven't got it yet The reason, I'll tell you why, the reason I don't know if I I think I told you guys a couple of weeks ago I've had this, my hair loss, a bit of hair loss

and my eczema has just gone turbo It's like broken out all around my chest, arms everywhere. I think I'm having a major chronic stress outbreak. So I'm trying to kind of cope with that in other ways. But I did read that UV red light can be amazing at reducing inflammation. And I think the blue and it sort of kills bacteria and things. And then the blue light is supposed to be good for sort of I don't know healing or whatever it is. Anyway I bought myself one so I'll let you know how it is but the problem is there's so many out there and you never know if you need to spend the money to get something really good and you know they're not

cheap and then you want to sort of fall down this that I go really deep into a review hole to try and find out if it's legit, if it's how good it is. But you can spend hours reading other people's reviews. Which ones did you get? Not that you endorse it yet, because you haven't got it yet, but just out of curiosity. I went with actually on my lovely client, Sophie Habou. She said go with the shark. She's just bought the shark and she said it's absolutely amazing. So I've gone shark. Shark?

Shark, yeah. And actually, yeah. So I'll let you know how it goes. Um, but I nearly got the whole wrap around one, which you can move, use around your whole body, but it's so eye watering, eye wateringly expensive. I thought I'd see how this goes cause it's all around my chin, this eczema. And if it affect, if it changes that and helps, I just thought I might put the face mask like on, on like, if if you just have the face just like over my chest on your Chest on my chest. Yes Has a sort of chest plate isn't there? Yeah, there is a little chest plate Yeah, but I mean everyone seems to have them. Anyway, if anyone out there has one, let me know if you love it

I hope you just dropped a load of money on them. Have you? Yeah Well, they do say you got a use of eight weeks before you sort of send in it. It doesn't work. Eight weeks every day, every single day for eight weeks. I think I used it for like a month and then it doesn't, it made me really spotty. Did it? Made me break out. Yeah, and I didn't love that. So I stopped using it because I was like, funnily enough I'm not enjoying using something which is making me spotty. But I think you're supposed to break through. It's like anything, isn't it? It's like using a retinal or something. It's awful at first. Anyway, but speaking of,

speaking of lights, I thought we could do a little mini deep dive. Because we like a little deep dive. Is that it for my catch up? That's all I'm getting. How's your dad? What else do you want? Oh, dad.

Give us an update. First off, I know I say this every week, sorry to be a snore, but thank you everyone for sending such lovely messages. You innies and outies and in-betweenies have been sending so many lovely messages of support and just, I really appreciate that. It's really lovely. Everyone means so much to me.

Dad is, he's home. His, what's shocking about cancer? By the way, I'm quite open to talk about it on here, because neither my mum or dad listen to this podcast. Otherwise, I would be a bit more, probably wouldn't be so open about it. But they don't listen, and therefore, I can talk to you openly about it. But the crazy thing about cancer is that because dad's not having any further treatment, and he doesn't want any further intervention from hospital, so he's home. We're obviously trying to manage any infections or anything like that that come up,

and so far a couple of weeks nothing, but he is on antibiotics. But he hasn't... watching the deterioration in appetite and weight and energy is the thing that I find the most shocking because in a normal, in any normal day or circumstance, if you haven't got any energy, it's usually because you're not moving or you're not eating and you're just like, come on, but you can't tell a cancer patient, come on, eat something else, come on, you just have a bit of this, come on, let's go for a walk, because they just can't. If you haven't got the energy, I mean, he'll just, he'll just sit down and fall asleep. Every, every time he gets up, just even up the stairs, he'll come back down. He'll collapse.

He'll just, I'm absolutely exhausted. It's just, it takes, I can't believe how much cancer absorbs. Our oncologist actually said that having a tumor growing inside you is like having a baby. I was going to say pregnancy. So you know when you're early days pregnancy and you feel absolutely whacked it's because you've got this little thing growing inside you that's absorbing all of your energy to grow and this tumor is taking everything all your blood all of your energy to grow which is a horrible thing horrible way to think about it,

but that's what's happening and it's just awful. Anyway, so, but he's just very tired and we're just trying to spend as much quality time with him, but you can't expect, if I have a thing, I'm gonna get around there today and I'm gonna take him for a walk or take him to the park and then I get there and then he just can't. So I just sit next to him and chat to him.

So that's where we are. Fucking, fucking shit, I tell you. But anyway, there we go. That's my dad catch up. We'll send him love and I'm sorry. Thank you, my love. I hope you're still looking after yourself. I'm glad you've got your red lights for your face.

I've got my red lights. Yeah, I'm trying to do a bit more woo-sarring and a bit more meditation. I'm listening to an amazing audible at the moment. Really good audible. Actually this genuinely, I cannot recommend this book more highly. Do you ever do that when you read a book and then you're like, what the hell is it called again? It's called The Five Resets by Aditi Nerikara, MD. Rewire your brain and body for less stress and more resilience. And it's about understanding the difference between acute stress and chronic stress.

Acute stress is something that we deal with every day. We put out fires, we deal with kids, we're going to work. Little flair-ups are brains because of how plastic they are. They're all constantly evolving and moving That's what they're supposed to be doing. Yes. Yes. Yes. Chronic stress is an underlying Constant and that usually is around something that goes on for more than a few months So kovat was a big one and you know divorce even marriage. So even joyful things can be also very stressful Yes, and it doesn't present itself in a physical form or in a depressant like depression or anxiety until pretty much usually after the event.

So it's almost like you have to go through a good few months of it before it suddenly presents itself because you're in a kind of a sort of fight mode. You're acting on an adrenaline all day long, all day long, all day long. I mean my aura ring is just screaming at me to take it easy. It's high stress every day. Is it? I don't feel like I'm really stressed. I feel at times quite relaxed, but my body behind the scenes is obviously very stressed. Anyway, this book, guys, it's a really good way to understand how to rewire how you're coping,

because it's essentially trying to get you into doing something else so whether it's improving your sleep or journaling or You know exercising or but it's how to do it without taking small steps What I'll from it so far are you too early in you can only take two only take two steps at a time Don't try and take on the world. Don't be like right. I'm gonna do I've got to control this dressing and meditate I'm gonna do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to walk. I'm going to do. You've just two things in your life that are the things that need to change the most. So whether you're sleeping really badly or sleep habits, or whether you're just not exercising at all, which is me at the moment, find the things that are, and you're supposed to basically write

down everything and almost do like an out of 10, every single aspect of your life, how you're scoring. Yes. Look at the items and just two of them and take two at a time. That's where I'm at too so far. Okay, so don't bite off more than you can chew and then pay. Don't bite off more than, yeah. And just take small steps into it. Don't feel like you've got to suddenly sign up to do a marathon. You know, just do like, start with a little 10 minute run and then a 15 minute run, 20 minute run, you know, try and increase your amount of exercise every week and take it slow. Got it. That sounds really positive. Look into that. Speaking of exercise, one more thing I'm

just going to add before we deep dive, is that my amazing client, Jamie Lang, did you see the, that he just completed? Oh my God. Can I just say hats off? Has he done any running before? Just two months of running. So Jamie, for anyone that doesn't know, Jamie Lang of Newlywed's amazing, amazing, amazing guy, a client of mine at the moment, he just ran for Comic Relief five ultramarathons

in five days. What is an ultramarathon? It's 30 miles. So it's 30 miles, 50km, 50 kilometers in one day and he did it five days consecutively. How? Is he a really fit guy? Like does he exercise? No, no, I mean he would openly admit he's not but it was gruelling and watching because it was all sort of on his Instagram and on BBC. Yeah, no, I saw it on social media a lot. I was crying. I was right behind him because I just, you could see his pain and also just

his vulnerability and it was incredible. It was so lovely to witness. It was so inspiring. And for him to say at the end, I did this, I trained for two months. I don't do this. I'm not a runner. I don't do any of this. And I did it. And just to say that anyone can do anything that you put your mind to, anything you put your mind to, you can do. And I think he broke down so many walls. I think he's incredible. I was so inspired. I don't know how he did it. I mean, one marathon's impressive. I know. And that people train for months, years for a marathon. So I don't extraordinary. His

father's thinking he looked like he was in so much pain. Oh my God. You could feel the pain. I was worried about his feet. I was like the blisters under there. Yeah. Anyway, Jamie, well done. He raised over 2 million pounds for comic relief. I mean, I'm just in it. Inspired. So there you go. So I can, that I was like, okay, Jojo, seriously stop moping about go for a 5k. No, I think it's okay to know just walk the kids to school every day. So anyway, well done, Jamie. Well done. Jamie. If you're at a point in life when you're ready to lead with purpose, we can get you there. The University of Victoria's MBA in Sustainable Innovation

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Bravo. Okay, my darling, right. Oh, okay, I'll let you do your deep dive now. I'll let you do your deep dive on lights now. Come on, hit me with it. What do you got to say? I'm finding, I thought I found a little topic for us to talk about. Love it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm going to throw this at you, but I think it'd be really interesting

to talk about because I, like so many others, I'm so influenced by light. Yes. And the power of light. We haven't talked about this in depth since I think episode two of our podcast when we started half a long ago. So I'm going to deep dive into it a little bit more because with every season comes change in light, of course, both outside and inside. And I want to talk a little bit about how much light, natural light can affect our interiors throughout

the seasons. Come on then, tell me. Well, how much, so I'm actually polling and I'll ask you to start. How do you think light affects the gardens throughout the seasons and how much does it affect, I know obviously weather is different but light, actually just light, the way it moves around. Artificial or real? No, real. Real. Real light. I mean the whole thing, my friend.

I mean, gosh, isn't it lovely now the clocks have changed. It's literally, boom, what a wild dopamine hit you get from that. But I mean, the entire garden calendar is hinged on light. So we spend our life slightly obsessively watching it. So it's actually the light levels now that mean that everything is growing. So I don't know if you look outside, if you notice, there's quite a nice mindfulness exercise.

Just go look at your bare earth and you'll see that there are probably loads of weed seeds germinating on it probably from your field Jojo and and and it is the light levels that are influencing that as well as the soil temperature but everything is waking up and that is completely linked to that and that is why I mean that's you know why plants grow and photosynthesize so for us those light levels in those longer days are what

trigger all of those plants into growth so I mean you know how obsessive I am about light because it informs what we plant and where so you can't have sun loving bright colored vibrant Mediterranean plants in shade they need that light they need those light levels to thrive. Meanwhile shade or areas that are dark for whatever reason can only ever be shade loving plants. You know you can't fight the sunlight. You can't fight the sunlight. That should be a song. It should be a song. It's almost easy. Can't fight the moonlight I I think it is. Ann Rimes, shout out. Think about her often.

So, I mean, light is everything in gardening. We're obsessed with it. We're watching it. We've got apps which follow where the sunlight goes in a garden at different times of the day. I'm forever telling people to go outside. Actually, we're starting to wave at a time where it's a good time to do it.

It's a bit early, but sort of April, May, more May, June, you need it when the sun is higher. That's when I want everyone to set an alarm on their, on their phone for once an hour, from the moment you get up to the moment the sun sets and go out there once an hour and just look where the sun is, because people will say, oh, Polly, this is quite a sunny spot or quite a shady spot. I'd be like, does it get six hours? And they don't know. And that is, that's the sweet spot is the six hours. If it gets over six hours of sunlight in summer or like late spring, summer,

then it is full sun and you can grow everything. But most people go, that's shady most of the day. That's sunny most of the day. But actually you'd be surprised how many areas do you actually get those, those sweet, sweet six hours. So for us that's, yeah, you know what we're like about light. But then, conversely for you, we don't add loads of lighting to a garden. We keep it to sort of wayfinding and focal points, because the more light we put in a garden, the less wildlife friendly it is. Of course, yeah. And even for me, in, well, in a home, natural light changes the natural

colour of something. So, and that can have, and that's why lighting, artificial lighting is so important. But obviously in the winter months, and a reason we all sort of feel a bit sort of hibernating, you know, and inward is because there's less natural light. Gloomy. And it's gloomy. And especially so if you have north facing rooms, they are totally flat, no light. And cooler tones will always dominate in the winter, making spaces feel dim and quite cold. Yeah.

And so it's actually not the warmth in the room, the actual light makes the room feel cold. And therefore you're completely reliant on artificial lighting to light it. And that's why I make such a point about when even selecting paint colors, it's actually not just looking at paint colors in sort of a sunny south-facing room. You've got to, you've almost got to see how it is throughout, I know this is going to sound nuts, but almost in different seasons. Because if you have a bright color in a room or you've chosen an unusual color like a yellow, that color, which is brilliant, beautiful, it will totally change throughout all the seasons, not just throughout, you know, night and day, but throughout the seasons. Because as spring comes in,

that's when you get this, obviously the return of natural brightness and with that brightness, the light begins to warm up. So the natural light begins to warm and that will lift the mood of all those spaces. So even in north-facing rooms, which don't get any natural light, you'll still feel from outside a warmth coming through and the colours become enhanced and therefore you sort of start to see the freshness coming out in your decor. It just starts to lift, everything starts to lift. Does that mean that there are certain times of year where you're best not to make judgments on say paint colors in your house because what if you don't like it when the light changes or vice versa you know

you might paint it in winter and then what happens if in summer you don't like what it does or you paint it in summer and then in winter? Yeah if anything the month that the month I find the one that's the most sort of almost surprising and the consideration needs to be probably the most sort of almost surprising and the consideration needs to be probably the most. I think almost is in, well obviously when you're in a talk thinking about a cool room in the winter, if you've chosen a color and I talk about this all the time too, but in a in a north facing room that is if you go with a cool paint color, it's going to appear cooler in a north-facing room.

So you'll want to have something with a little bit of a hue of yellow or an undertone of orange or something that's got some warmth in it to help lift that. But in the summer months, you can imagine this abundance of intense sunlight that like floods through your windows and everything almost turns white. So south facing spaces, especially with people that have south facing

kitchens and living rooms, can become completely overly bright or hot. Almost like slightly can be slightly blinded in some of these spaces. Therefore, obviously sheers blinds often needed to sort of soften glare. But actually, if you were to go with just a bright white paint color, you're probably going to be walking around that room with sunglasses on. So choose a white that is much sort of a cooler color in a south facing room. And it can have a little bit of softness to it. It's going to help take that glare off it. Yeah. And then of course, autumn, my favorite time of year. I say favorite time and then spring happens and I'm like,

which do I prefer? New favorite. But yeah, but then autumn is golden hour. So that's the goal. Everyone knows the golden hour. We all look best in golden hour because it's that lovely, beautiful, natural warmth. Everything, your interiors appear warmer and much more textured. Favorite time of year to photograph interiors is autumn for me. It's that lovely warm, it's lovely. But then sometimes at the, in say a southwest facing, a west facing room where that sunset is coming in through the windows, everything just goes orange and then it's a disaster.

So, but it looks beautiful to the natural eye, not so good to photograph in. So, so much consideration. Just a lot to consider with colors in interiors. Yeah, I just love light science and how it can affect our moods. But really thinking about interiors, how it can change your interiors. I don't know about you guys at the moment, but I'm feeling like with spring, it's not just outside that's starting to come to life but you start to get that, that we know when you get those little rays of low light just coming through the window it just transforms a space, it just suddenly brings, you can almost see your interiors waking up a bit. And then what about in terms of artificial light?

Gosh, one thing I've really noticed in our house, it's a south facing garden. But so the front of the house is north facing and that actually used to be the kitchen and it was the most depressing room to be in. I hated being in there because it was so gloomy. And now it's actually turned into kind of the home office and we've gone very dark with it. but it's amazing how often Colin works in

there, but he'll often come down to the studio and work with me because he's like, I just, it's so gloomy in there. So it's amazing the, the sort of mood shift that sitting in a North facing room gives you versus a South. You just, that craving of light, even though we've sort of leaned into the sort of dark, moody green and it sort of feels very much like a sort of one of those lovely old offices. Yeah. That's sort of cozy in winter, but in summer it's not where you want to be. No, it's not. And that's why I introduce in cool

in cool north facing rooms that don't get any natural light. Yeah. You want your bulbs to do the job for you, which is to go with warmer light bulbs. So you want to sort of bring that sort of warmth through in light bulbs. And actually a tip for you, summer or winter in a north facing room, I always light candles. I'll always have a candle lit, doesn't it?

But if you're working, so say you've got a study. Yeah. Real Higgy tip here, but light a candle on your desk because it actually evokes a feeling of warmth. All this talk of light is making me think of something which is coming up loads for us at the moment, which is we're deciding on loads of paving. Oh, I've seen your paving porn, loving the paving porn.

My gosh, it's amazing how many, we do a lot of outsider sessions, the sort of advice sessions like the expert for outside. And it's amazing how many clients we get who phone us and they've laid their paving and they've gone for something quite bright, which when they've looked at the sample inside, or they've looked at the sample, you know, in their kitchen on the floor, but not taking it outside on a sunny day. And they're like, yeah, it's really bright.

So it's amazing at this time of year, when you get that first sunny day, if you are agonizing over your materials, much like you were saying, Jojo, the kitchens can really blind you if you go too bright with them in their south facing. Something we are so mindful of is getting those materials outside on the floor

on a sunny day, because you would be amazed how much brighter these things look when laid on mass. And you know, it's an expensive part of the garden, the hard materials, so the decision has to be the right one. So weirdly, you actually need to go a lot darker than you think to achieve quite a pale aesthetic. Yeah, it's a bit like if you think about when you go to a beach, have you ever been to a beach that has a white sand beach like in the Maldives or somewhere like that?

No, I haven't, but I'd like to. I'd like to just add that I've never been there on holiday just to work. Oh yeah, just to work. Yeah, but one day, the sand is so white that it's blinding. It's almost like, it's almost too white. I don't care why I'm complaining about the sand in the Maldives. Yeah, just change that stuff. It's blinding. It's like, it actually knocks you out if you don't have glasses on. And then on a darker day, obviously, you can see how white it is. Everything brightens on a sunny day, which seems very obvious. I appreciate that's extremely obvious but you know starting

sometimes from basics. Well pal, as the gardens are now waking up I would love to hear from you as I'm sure all of our outies and in-betweeners are. What should be going on out in the garden at the moment? What should we be doing? Oh, I always love our first episode of the month review. So it's a busy one. I mean, it's really kicking off now. I'd say April is when it really starts kicking off. So here's what we're going to do.

First of all, if you want any fun flowering summer bulbs in the garden, so things like gladioli or lilies and your dahlias but let's leave the dahlias for now then you can plant those bulbs out now so I'm gonna be planting out my gladioli into the borders this April at some point when I get round to it and you can do the same with lilies I like in terms of lilies I know when you when I say Lily I imagine you think of like the typical ones you get in the supermarket, like a big old big headed, which they're not my kind.

But there is this amazing lily called a Martigan lily. Martigan. Martigan, M-A-R-T-O-G-A-N, I think. And they look like little chandeliers. And they're tiny, they're miniature, as in the flower is miniature, so it's tiny little and they hang like chandeliers. Highly suggest you go and look at them because they're a, as in the flower is miniature, so it's tiny little, and they hang like chandeliers. Highly suggest you go and look at them, because they're a really fun thing to add to the garden.

Add a bit of whimsy. Lovely. And then I guess it's too soon now, when this comes out, I doubt we'll be deadheading many bulbs, but as April progresses, as your tulips come out, make sure you deadhead them, as your daffs come out, make sure you deadhead them. If you don't, all of that energy is going into setting seed rather than back into the bulb. And if you want any chance of

it coming back next year, take the flower heads off it once they're done. Keep sowing your seeds indoors for all your cut flowers. It's also, it's a prime lawn care time and people are always asking, when do I sow seed for lawns? It's now. So if you want to- Is it raking? It's the old scarifying. So scarifying is when you do the rate get the moss out you can air right now so if you've got a lawn which is maybe a bit compacted and maybe Floods a little bit get get the aeration and get those prongs in you can get those sexy sandals if you fancy with the little Prongy bits on are they big can you basically just wear your golf shoes? I've never thought of it

Probably not quite long enough, but I mean, it would be a start. I'd rather be thrilled. Yeah they need to penetrate deeper but look it wouldn't hurt and it would be a good way of roughing it up to get your lawn scene ready. Should I just get my LeBouitans on? Yes. Pop out there with my LeBouitans on. But you shuffle with the LeBouitans. You're just gonna have to do tiny steps, tiny steps. I mean, your shoes will never be the same afterwards, but yes. Good. Get your stilettos on. Yes, run around your garden.

That's a good exercise. So you can fill patches in the lawn as well. So even if you don't want to sow a whole one, if you've got sort of a bare area, get the moss off it, scrape the moss off, aerate it, and then you can sow your seed. Oh, and of course, the most jobs, you can sow your seed. Oh and of course the most jobs you can you can divide perennials now so if you want free plants if you want to add more plants to your border or if you want to do what I preach all the time which is repeating your plants around your borders because we don't just want

them featuring once we want them to repeat for cohesion and rhythm then now is a great time to dig them up divide them them, and then either, weirdly, you might want to plant them next to the one you've just divided to make the clump bigger, or you might want to plant them further up the border as a repeat. And we want to keep those repeats to odd numbers. Okay? So we don't want like two repeats, we want three or five or seven. And on we go. So those are a few jobs for you. There's so many more in my book, which you bring some out next week. Yeah. Oh yeah. Sorry. No, no, no, no. I reverse everyone going by Polly's book. Apologies. I missed the, I missed the queue. Go by Polly's book. Apologies. Go by my book, but I'll

also tell you more, more jobs next week. So funny. People give friends of mine keeps sending me pictures of the books sitting in the front window of like their bookshop local bookshop yeah so sweet so sweet that brings me joy okay so that get out in the garden team you've got no excuses girls yeah so I think that just leads us to say my friend what's in what's out it's an in for you this week my in is there is an account on Instagram her name is Bex Partridge and she's got botanical tales. Do you know botanical tales? That rings bells, yes. She has done a beautiful video. Her account is stunning. I think she's

bringing a book out as well but she tells us how to dry flowers in sand. It is and she's doing it with dried hellebores. Okay. So you of course hellebores are everywhere and even I've got some in the garden which is a real treat because I didn't plant them there but they keep coming back year on year. Yeah. And they're beautiful and she you cut the hellebores, bury them under sand and leave them and they dry in the sand and then she pulls them out and it is absolutely they're stunning they slightly dull in color but they're beautiful. Oh my god I need to look this this up anyway she look her up botanical underscore tails i'm

trying to figure out like the sand is the sand in a bucket or is it in like a flat tray it's like a flat tray it's a flat tray and she's got a book on i think she's got a book coming out on pre-order uh let me just get this right it's called crafting with flowers stop it that's being added to the list. Go and check her out because her account is absolutely... You know when you're just like, wow, stunning. Stunning. Oh, that's exciting. I want to dry flowers with sand. Yes. I think you'll really like her. She's a very, very talented thing.

Oh, well, if we're going to do crafty things, then my inn is making rhubarb vodka. Oh, OK. I did that this weekend. Oh how's that? Vodka just makes me just send a shiver down my inner spine. Well you can have it with gin. Pick your poison but all you need to do, pick some rhubarb or if you haven't grown your rhubarb go to the supermarket and buy some rhubarb, chop it up, whack it in a sterile sterilized jar. So put, literally fill it to the top with Roo-bob, then pour in your gin or your vodka. I'm gonna assume then you have to put

a shit ton of sugar in. Yes, in theory, I put some in, so sorry, I've done this in the wrong order, Roo-bob, then your sugar, and I just put a bit in, like a third of a third of the pot, there are recipes out there, but I, you know, it's a spirit. I don't want it to be really sweet. And then fill it with your gin vodka, seal it, put it away for a month.

If you can resist it for that long. Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt. You've got some rhubarb vodka or gin. Love that. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I mean, domestic goddess or what? Domestic goddess. I know other people like to make a crumble but for me it was alcohol. Do you know we've got loads of slow bushes around us. I love making a slow gin.

But that has to like, the best is to leave that for like 12 months basically. The longer the better until it turns into a syrup. Good though. Not the time of year for it but yes delicious. Really warms the cockles that does. I love having my cockles warmed. What's your out this week? My out would be my sanity, Jojo, because my children are now on a month's Easter holiday.

I cannot comprehend how your kids have a month off. Take them to work with you, get them working, get them doing some garden designs, get them out in the garden. Yes, I'll get them on Vectorworks, I'll get them on Cat, drawing up some bits. Get them trained up in the Pollyanna Wilkinsons studio. It's not like it's a busy time for us or anything. We've got all the time in the world for that. So that's my farewell sanity. That just leaves me to say don't forget to like, subscribe, share, maybe share with the incoming Easter Bunny. I don't know that's he's coming soon isn't he? It is coming soon. Have you stockpiled your mini eggs yet?

I haven't I overdid it I had a big I had a kilo bag and it's almost like it's made you sick. Who is it? It's that therapy where you have to only eat you like you have to smoke like a thousand cigarettes or you have to whatever it is and then you hate them so much that you don't want And actually, you know, I'm now a pretty indifferent to mini eggs. You went you've gone too far I think it's that or the rage on the like three in a bag. It's one of those two things It's just ruined mini eggs for me. I've got a fury a fury's. Okay, want to hear it? I want to hear it my rant. It's always nice to end with you. Yes. Yes. Come on. Right. Here it is

Yeah, M&S I'm talking to you guys. Okay. It's unacceptable to put seven, literally seven cherries in a plastic punnet with a plastic lid and charge four quid for them. The plastic container is so big that if you sort of tip the cherries down the end, they'd only fill a third of the cart. There's just this big old plastic cart thing box. With seven cherries in it.

With seven cherries in. Either put it in something, like something smaller. Don't try and make people think they're getting a big, because the packet's big. I just think that's completely unacceptable. I'm sorry. I hate all this giant packaging for nothing. Pointless cross, and also just extortionately expensive.

It's crazy expensive. I'm with you. I'm with gosh Do you know what? I love a cherry you could probably Sorry, it's it's hopping back to mini eggs, but your thought made me think of clever packaging They could just put mini eggs in a in a tube like smartie. Yeah job done That is a great idea in a cardboard tube. no packaging no plastic done see look at us saving the world one mini egg at a time they could do something fun shape wise couldn't they like a Toblerone but for mini eggs right subscribe and send us your views send everyone email mini eggs and get these things in a tube and you heard it

here first okay on that and also please everyone writes complain to M&S about packaging on cherries whilst you're at it because everyone's got time to be writing reviews okay on that note i'll let you go about your days i love you all very dearly all right you