The Ins & Outs - WHERE TO START WITH... Lamp Shades & Weeding

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

In this episode, brought to you by COAT Paints, Jojo lights up the podcast with everything you need to know about lamp shades, while Polly digs into weed management and moving plants!We give you a update on our renovations and discuss why you might need condoms for your bar stools.Make sure you go and check out COAT Paints by clicking this link https://coatpaints.com/. Coat Paint is sustainable paint with unrivalled coverage in tasteful shades. Consciously made to order, giving you sustainability with style. B Corp Certified.Pre-order your copy of Polly's book, "How To Design A Garden" by clicking on this link https://geni.us/HowToDesignAGardenInstagramPodcast - @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.

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 it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada. Hey, it's Mitch from SideNote Podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9 powered by Gemini. Anyone who knows me knows the Pixel has always been my favorite out of all the phones I've ever had. Now with Gemini built in, it's basically my personal AI assistant. Since I'm truly terrible at keeping up with emails, I use Gemini to give me summaries of my inbox, which is a lifesaver. And if I'm feeling stuck creatively, I just ask Gemini for help and bam, instant inspiration. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com.

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CBC News. Hello Inns and Outies and welcome to this new episode of the Inns and Outs with myself, Jojo Barr, and the very lovely Pollyanna Wilkinson. I am so excited to share that this week's episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsors, Coat Paints. B Corp registered and the world's first climate positive paint company. Coat isaints. B Corp registered and the world's first climate positive paint company. Coat is all about simplicity, timelessness and making it easy for people to create a tasteful home in a climate conscious way. With a reputation of unrivaled application and coverage, Coat's water-based low VOC premium paints are available to order online and formulated to be amongst the highest quality on the market. And of course, I'm insanely proud that I have a range of nine of our very own paint colours with Cote.

So do go and visit them at www.cotepaints.com and 10% off by using the code INSANDOUTS10. Thank you very much, Cote. We love you dearly. This week, we're talking to you all about Polly's new favourite book, The Tea or Coffee Debate. We're giving you our Renault updates and we are talking weeding,

moving plants, lampshades, to upholster or not to upholster. I finally got my new loo and Polly gives us a lesson in Genlingo. So let's dive on in. Hello. Hi, darling. Oh, we went at the same time, didn't we? We did. We did. We're in unison. That almost never happens.

It doesn't. When we first started this podcast, remember one of the lessons we were told is do not talk over each other. No. We were like, stop and pause. Just go, how are you, my love? Fill fill me in what we've been up to this week oh my gosh what i've been up to this week i've spent my life in the car which means i am absolutely devastated because i have finished all six five six books i can't remember how many

it is however many books there are in the akotar sarah j mass series I finished them all I feel like um I've lost a loved one it's sort of I was so in it and then um fortunately the good people of book talk have recommended a new book for me which guys get involved I'm loving it and I'm all of these uh I'm listening on audible which is just so good because I'm just cantering through books in the car I'm doing like five hours a day in the car the thing is about audible it very much depends on the reader it very much depends on who's reading it I've actually listened to audibles before I'm like I can't listen to this person's voice for seven hours I'm so glad you've said this because go on the the ACOTAR that I listen to you can either listen to it regularly like um just with one narrator or there's this thing called graphic audio, which is essentially like a play.

So they have different characters, but they also have sounds. So if they're in the pub, there's like clinking of glasses. And if they're flying in the air, you can hear the wind. But it really transports you. I think even the tagline is something like a movie in your ears and it really is but it's really immersive and it's how does that work on audible yes it's through audible yes but it's not for every single book but it is for these ones so you can choose and they cost more because what they do with the big books is kind of split them in two so you have to buy like with two

credits or however you pay for your books. But it's so immersive. It really transports you. And so at the moment I'm listening to Fourth Wing, which is the one that everyone has said you should listen to. But it is proper storytelling. It's so immersive and I'm loving it. I'm just having a real, you know, book, sort of slightly fantasy Hunger Games-y moment.

And I just couldn't recommend it enough so well I've already I'm still I'm still on like the first chapter so she's just killed a wolf and that's where I'm at but maybe I need to get a bit more immersive you do but you might you might find that actually you just need to listen to the first one and then you'll be in the first one is the weakest of them you've got to to persevere. Other than that, the renovation, I have been completely invaded at this point. Now the bedroom has been, my bedroom, the last remaining room where no one was in has been taken over.

I've got partition walls. They're knocking through. I just, just I'm used to having men walking into my house and space at 7.15 every morning. It's just, what will I do when they're gone? And as i look out will you do your wisdom there is a topless man on my roof no there isn't yes there is topless he is topless tell mr big to get down immediately

what was mr big doing up there they're so brave like you gotta question the health and safety of just standing on a roof i don't think well, well, I think actually, to be honest, I think you're meant to actually wear high vis at all times on a building site. So maybe that chap should get down in this cold weather. To be fair, his chest is quite high vis in this sunlight. Shining. Fill us in on the Renault then. What's the latest apart from that?

I can almost taste it. What's that? is it natasha beddingfield so close you're gonna need to sing it release your inhibitions feel the rain on your skin that's where i am with the kitchen the marble is going in today so exciting like so close to being there so the marble's going in isn't it the marble's going in as we speak i had a really good meeting with your with your lovely kitchen maker patrick and uh all about the the details on the island on the on the marble oh the bit that i thought was very clever i've got a bit of marble going under the sink that's attention to detail yes so if it drips you get it catches your drips. It's good detail, that.

Mate, are you a tea drinker or a coffee drinker? First thing in the morning, it needs to be tea. If you try and give me a coffee as my first beverage of the day, that was like unacceptable. But from then on, I'm a coffee. And I can drink it even in the evening and it ain't touching the sides. I've always been curious about people that can't drink it after um 2 p.m or whatever what so if you have an espresso martini at 10 in the evening you're gonna sleep yeah really

caffeine doesn't have that effect on me i find it deeply upsetting that it doesn't wake me up i yeah you're an oatmeal flat white at all times i'm an oatmeal flatty in the morning my morning i literally use my routine i get out of bed have, have all my, I literally, I'm like, I rattle, I think. I take so many pills in the morning. And then have my morning coffee with my collagen. And then, and then actually that's, that's about it. I might have another one in the afternoon, but otherwise I quite like a cup of tea. I love a cup, I've got, I'm having a cup of tea now because I already have my morning coffee. I'm having, I like a bit of an Earl Grey, you know.

I love a little Earl Grey. Earl Grey is the only tea I drink. Enough about me and your, and your tea drinking. What else have you been up to? Well following up on my piano lessons which are now every Tuesday evening. Tell me more. Are you now the next Mozart? I can now play

Mary's Got a Little Lamb. Stop it. I know. How good's that? I have to tell you Ziggy bless her because she has her lesson first and then I have mine. And so I think I i said this before i'm not going to buy a piano until we actually are showing really keen interest that we're going to play the piano otherwise it's just going to be sitting there collecting dust um and so very sweetly our piano teacher lent us this big um keyboard but of course keyboards have all sorts of noises and things and like

big um keyboard but of course keyboards have all sorts of noises and things and like so when i when it's my turn to then have my 20 minutes with this piano teacher ziggy thinks it's really fun to just keep whacking every single key so it's just like as i'm trying to play mary's got a little lamb so very distracting but she did actually grab my phone while i was playing the other day and she started recording me without me knowing so there's pictures of her toes in between and things but it is I'll should I share that is that a bit of an overshare maybe we could cut that down it's quite long but I have got myself playing Mary Has a Little Lamb for the very first time absolutely smashing life my friend what next I tell you what it's interesting well this is interesting I have a desire now to actually

really learn it so when i walk past i sit down and i just play it so now i'm like i really i've got a real burning desire to learn which is a really good feeling i don't know where that's come from but it's good and i'm loving it right so my god people i think we've probably lost half our follower base this week look it's been an uneventful week okay we can't always bring the entertainment do you know we can't always be fun we can't always be entertaining and actually jojo just before we go into questions i've had some feedback from one of our innies or outies she's got veg no she's got plants in her picture i'm gonna say she's an outie this is bex girls i love

the podcast i listen to most episodes twice and i'm currently decorating our kitchen to the sounds of the ins and outs so thank you i wanted to say that polly got so much stick in a fun way of course for overusing the word bulb that i think it's now jojo's turn to have an episode ban on the word layering she might be right there she might be right there i love all that you do i have reviewed and subscribed way back when you started and I've shared it with friends and family. And I'm a community midwife, so I speak to lots of women who I also share the recommendations with.

God bless you. Yay, well done, Bex. Thanks, Bex. And do you know what? I do use the word layering a lot. It's the time of year. It's the season, okay? Tis the season.

Tis the season to layer. Wait till we start talking about bulb lasagnas i know i'm holding off till november can you tell we can we can combo that one layering of bulbs um right let's jump into some little questions here shall we yes enough come on let's see what we've got here let's be helpful question bank right in the post bag in the post bag i'm going to go out into the garden first with my cup of earl grey oh okay me first go on then this one is from tiff love love love love love the podcast we recently bought a house and have inherited a large garden with well-established borders and a south-facing garden next to a field the garden brings me endless joy and i love nothing more than filling

my house with lots of gorgeous flowers all year round very lucky however all my husband and i seem to do is weed and repeat and just top tips for keeping weeds at bay is wood chip any good or is it just a matter of keeping on hoeing thanks again and keep up the filth tiff thanks tiff yeah weeding. It's the thing that everyone's the most scared of is in terms of whenever I see clients go, I just don't want to weed. And the fact is like, you will have to weed.

Everyone has to weed. But there are ways of minimising it. And the number one thing is just making sure that your borders are full enough because a lot of it is where you've got, for example, new borders will have way more weeds in than very established ones. Just because there's by the nature of space for the weeds to set seed and germinate. So the number one thing I say is we just need to make sure that you actually have enough plants in your borders.

That the weeds are sort of number one, don't have enough space to thrive. Because a lot of people make the mistake of having quite gappy borders and then basically you've just got a soil bed sat there waiting for weeds to seed into them so number one is just making sure you've got enough plants and making sure you can also look at having plenty of ground cover as well so it's about choosing the right plants that you're not just choosing things which are sort of rising out of the soil and the soil beneath is bare so making sure you've got things like hardy geraniums or grasses or oh my gosh so many different things you can have pakisandras and vinkas and all sorts of ground covers to basically drown them out and the second thing is mulching which is why i harp on

about it so much we don't just mulch to improve the soil. You're also mulching to suppress weeds because anything that has sort of set seed needs light. So if you can cover it in a nice thick layer of mulch, you will suppress weeds as well. So that's, I know she said wood chip and I'm, we use wood chip if it's really, really finely ground, sort of not well rotted, but what I wouldn't want is

some super fresh you've just put a tree through the trimmer and you're going to whack that on your beds it would be I prefer to use something like a mushroom compost as a mulch but basically anything which is really nice and fine you don't want the big chunky like play bark that you'd put in a kid's play area on your borders that's not the dream because that's think how long that's going to take to actually break down and add anything to the soil as well because mulching is to suppress weeds to improve the soil to help with um moisture levels so there's sort of myriad reasons to use it so you might as well use something which is going to do all three rather than just one of those jobs can i ask when you sometimes see especially in like a new a newly

planted bed you sometimes see this sort of it looks like a black almost like a sort of tarpaulin that's been cut and then it's got something growing out of the middle of it and then it's covered in soil or something is that what's that for so that's a weed membrane then it's got something growing out of the middle of it. And then it's covered in soil or something. What's that for? So that's a weed membrane. So that's what some people will do for exactly the reason you're saying, is to suppress weeds. But you've got two types of weeds, okay? You've got annual weeds and then you've got perennial weeds.

Is it good for the environment, that sort of thing? Because obviously, can you still get worms and things under there? No, weed membrane is not great for the environment because it's not an organic material so obviously you're interfering it's something if you're for example laying a gravel path you might put down a felt not a plastic you might put down one of the more felty membranes beneath it so that weeds can't get through to the base and we we will do that um we will never use that horrible plastic one which is like ribbons like old vcr tape um yeah i know i hate that stuff i hate it uh so you might use it there but on planting borders

you don't you shouldn't need to do that and you're always going to see it and eventually um it sort of rots and it goes into pieces and then when you're trying to dig plants or do that and you're always going to see it and eventually um it sort of rots and it goes into pieces and then when you're trying to dig plants or you know if you're trying to put bulbs in a border it's an absolute nightmare so no i would much rather you do a really nice thick layer of mulch than do all of this like cutting out of holes and putting things in it's just interfering in a way which i just think we should not be doing anymore in terms of in a border okay but maybe that comes sort of back to your question of perennial versus annual weeds in terms of an annual weed is going to be something which is um going to come from a seed like it's blown in on the wind or bird droppings or whatever

whereas a perennial weed is something like bindweed ground elder the things which are they coming back every year and every year so it's sort of that expression of pull out oh god what is that rhyme it's sort of a bit of weeding prevents seven years remove the seed seven years of weeding something something along the lines of basically if you don't cut the weed down when it's in flower before it sets seed you're going to be weeding that damn thing for ages so you will always have to do a bit hoeing you just always will as part of garden you can't have a weed-free garden that's sort of saying i want a nature-free garden it's impossible but you can suppress it as much as

possible and then it's things like the perennial things like bloom and bindweed it's just you got to dig that damn stuff out but hoeing is for annual weeds really yeah i think in our garden i think we're past the point of of return i think exactly where you just said is where the there's so many weeds and also we we our border of our sort of our garden edge as you know as a sort of brick wall and then there's a paddock and therefore anything on the paddock side that's like you know especially dandelions and things just flies up and into our garden yeah and it's like the guard the grass the how you can never stop that happening right it's just it is just the nature of having a garden in the countryside it is and also i think we all all need to remember that um you know with the sort of movement towards rewilding and things like that like weed the

areas near your house where it's your kind of formal garden but if you've got a big plot there's no way in hell you can weed that whole thing and you shouldn't need to because weeds are actually really beneficial for pollinators and wildlife so if it's further away and it's in your paddocks or it's in further away bits you know live and let live obviously and don't worry about it yeah yeah don't worry about it so much so it's sort of make sure that what you've got going on around the house is working for you but then further away it's okay just to be like look this is this is what it is so i've um i've just put down a deposit actually with a landscape designer have you who's that yeah i have i've just put down a deposit actually with a landscape designer have you who's that yeah i

have i've just put a deposit down her name's pollyanna wilkinson i don't know if you know her she's a she's an author now actually leading garden designer that's right award-winning garden designer yeah she's uh she's gonna be designing my garden so i'm gonna speak to her about my front border because i tell you i need that that border I think needs to go we need to get that sorted don't we but you know what we need to do first with your border tell me and we're going to do this with lots of different people's you know people that message in and say I've got horsetail how do I get rid of it the answer is you've got to empty that border and dig out all those damn weeds or you're just going to keep digging them out for the rest of your life so soil prep that's what we're going to start with it's sexy and exciting

sexy you're going to love it because i think our house is apparently built on a at the end of our drive was a construction yard oh what we're going to find yeah we've got two really fun sites at the moment one site we're digging it and it used to be um on a pilgrim's route back in the old days and so it's got loads of old bottles like drinks bottles and the other one we've had a client who's found three cars in her garden under the soil what cars cars three of them that's cool i think well how random, right? People bury some weird stuff. Why would you bury a car? When it dies? You know, like people that are sort of tinkerers,

that sort of like to tinker with mechanics and things, or, you know, work in a certain trade, and they're like, oh, I'll take that for scrap or whatever, and then it's easier to bury a car? Maybe. I mean, that's not an easy job. Wow, that's effort. I was worried about how to bury a body let alone no a car that's so interesting there you go okay i think that's quite enough

we really delved in there that okay okay okay right okay i have a question from rachel how do you pick the perfect lampshade i've had a vintage olive pot made into a light so it has a big terracotta colored base but i can't work out how to style it i love your podcasts and both of your work oh we haven't ever spoken about lampshades have we if we have i don't remember touched on no this is a really good question i love i love this question because it is a bit of a conundrum and i see so often people putting the wrong shades on the wrong lamp bases and there's a definite art to getting it right a lot of the time when you buy a lamp it comes with a shade or they'll recommend which shade goes on it.

So that sort of makes life easy for you. Like if you go to someone like Pookie or John Lewis or someone, it usually is the base comes with the shade. Got it. And if you are buying online, a lot of the time if you're buying a base, it will tell you what sort of shade size to buy. But then it's the materiality as well that you've really got to think about. So first off, first off, we've got to think about the it's the materiality as well that you've really got to think about so first off first off we've got to think about the the shape of the lamp so first of all you want to consider the shape of your lamp she said it was an olive like a sort of olive pot didn't she yeah so that's going to be kind of quite obviously that's a lovely big sort of fat bottom base and then it

sort of goes up sort of very tapered at the top so something like that you you probably again it's difficult without seeing it because the taller it gets the more likely you are to want to go with a tapered shade but then if it's a really low squat round base actually what you want to do is go with more like a drum shade so sort of round drum shade so drum shade is literally looks like a drum that's obvious and then you go tapered or conical conical is literally it goes really sort of conical like this and they look much better on very tall sort of more slender bases got it and then you go tapered or conical conical is literally it goes really sort of conical like this and that's they look much better on very tall sort of more slender bases got it and then if you've got a square i'm just looking right behind you right pal you've got a circular lamp with like a lovely there you go see that's sort of tapered yeah got it and you always want

you always want the width of the shade to be wider than the base. Always. Oh, good tip. It would look wild. Yeah, so you'd never have a shade that's smaller than the base of the lamp. There is a sort of general rule of thumb that the width of the shade should be roughly two-thirds the height of the lamp base. Hold on, my little brain is catching up there. The shade should be two thirds should be roughly two thirds the height height of the lamp base so if you measure the lamp base it

should be two thirds of the widest sort of part of the lamp base interesting so you shouldn't have shade which is taller than the pot well yeah i guess that makes sense right yeah well and then the shade height should be about a third of the height of the lamp base so so imagine if your if your shade was yay high i'm waving my hand like it's pointless but then you can see actually behind me this lamp this is kind of perfect so it's kind of you wouldn't go really tall on that shade the shade wants to be much squatter than the lamp base itself to create is that a rule for all of them so but what if you've got pretty much but then if you've got like a big beautiful swan like goosey neck tall you know fat at the bottom and

then gooseneck then yes you're going to want quite a big wide barrel shape yeah i i find so interestingly bottles that are converted into lamps, which you'll see all those lovely wines, sort of gerobones, all those sorts of things that are converted. I find those the hardest shape to dress because they're a contradiction as a lamp base because you've got this big, fat, wide base. So usually you'd put a nice sort of, I would usually put like a lovely sort of conical shade or drum shade. But then because you've then got this very fine neck you're pushing the lampshade up so half of the lamp the top of the lamp is tall and skinny but the bottom is wide and fat so which one are you going with so I tend to on that go really almost like oversized and very conical because I think that's the only thing I think that usually

works it's really difficult one to get right now another another thing to consider when you're selecting a lampshade is that do you want the base to do the talking or the lampshade to do the talking because you've got a really beautiful base like the one behind me i keep referring to if you've got a really beautiful base and it's all about the base then you want the shade to be really simple and quite the base a buttery biscuit base is it that one no it's all about the base i can train i like their base their base their base no trouble um then i think you want just a really beautiful simple linen shade got it because then you're you're letting the base to all the all the talking um but if you've got a traditional fit a traditional lamp base

as in quite maybe you want to go with a lovely sort of as in a bit boring then you want to really emphasize what the lamp shade is and choose something with a lovely fabric maybe a lovely pleated fabric with a lovely print or an icat or a pattern or something on it love that and that's really going to help lift that lamp base and make it something a bit more of it make it a bit more interesting so so much to consider just Just throwing the book at you there. The mind boggles. Yeah. And then, of course, there's square and angular bases. I don't tend to choose many square bases,

but, of course, a square angular base, you have to choose a square or rectangular shade. Do you? A square or angular base would look wild if you put a round shade on it. It wouldn't look right at all. Oh. So, yeah, that would need, yeah.

So if you have a sort of yeah okay I'm gonna do like a quick fire what if with you okay okay let's imagine that we've got a um a lamp base which is kind of a bit like the one you've got behind you which is kind of the shape of a basketball but with a flat bottom top okay then what am i what shape shade am i doing like a fat round tapered so if it's if it's fat and short and round so if it's really circular so if you've got a round a round big fat round base i would tend to go with probably a drum i don't use i find drums um a bit more modern so I tend to prefer a tapered shade where possible okay um but but a drum would work but otherwise I like to have a slightly tapered top on my shades

okay what if you've got one which is like um but keep it wide guys I can't like like I say go wide on that on that lamp the lampshade the lampshade should over sail your lamp base okay by about a third next question yeah sorry okay um okay what if you've got one about this like the shape of a kitchen roll so you know like a a sort of tall tall and skinny not not skinny at all tall not not skinny spaghetti like a spaghetti container you know yes like a glass does that make sense what i just i hope that made sense everyone so it's like a container that you'd put spaghetti in and your larder that sort of shape you would go with the drum because essentially you're mimicking

you're mimicking rude hand shape of the actual base so you're kind of you're yeah so we're going drum symmetry wise you're going drunk okay okay i'm thinking we've done we've done fat base thin neck uh what are other typical lamp well imagine a conical so imagine it's fat at the bottom then it goes really really tall and skinny at the top so like a christmas tree shape yeah you're gonna again you're gonna mimic that shape with a lamp shade so you're gonna do a tapered shade that's very tapered at the top because you want it almost to look like an hourglass that's much water nice okay i can't think of any more i'm sorry if i've overlooked something really obvious but um no i feel i've learned something of course oh and then the one one last probably the last of lad because i we all love a rustic bohemian base.

Anything that's sort of quite, yeah, rustic or bohemian or woven, you could go with more of a textured natural fabric shade. Like a sort of, I mean, I love linen, but if it's like, like I said, it's a really unusual rustic pot or an olive pot or something then I would say anything like woven or textured or natural fabric shade is going to be absolutely is going to be the best best fit for that I don't know if you want to go into it but I could talk about the actual I could talk about the fittings themselves because you've got UK fittings then you've got European fittings so where you've got got to think about if you're buying a shade for a lamp base look at the actual way you put your bulb that's where you're going to screw your bulb in if it's a big fat bottom base bulb that's european and if it's a little sort of it goes in then that's it you know you want to think you want to get something smaller and then you can

get shade catchers to lift the shade up that was probably getting too much into it do you know what that drives me wild every time i've moved house and i've just gone and bought a i don't know because i've ended up with a load of pendant lights or whatever and i go buy a shade and then you try and put it on and it just falls straight through because it just doesn't have the land catcher drives me crazy crazy well the thing to do in that case is that it's very simple you can buy them cheap as chips they're called shade reducers so where you have that metal ring isn't it usually usually they are now european shades you don't tend to find unless it's an english company english made you don't tend to find the little um the little rings anymore the little shade catchers anymore um so

you can just get those those um ring reducers which are like these little sort of white rings that come in metal or plastic that you just pop in there and then they'll fit on any lamp that's that's it's a real art isn't it it's the same as cushions it's another one of those ones that you can so easily go wrong with lampshades i think it's one of the things i think when i started out my career is when i first started working as a designer I remember it being the first thing that got me because we would be on installs and it would always be that last thing is that you put the shade on and all that the new shades always come

with that horrible cellophane that horrible yeah yeah you've got sort of cut off and it would always be that last thing last day last thing to put on the shades and take the cellophane off and we'd undoubtedly never have enough shade reducers and some would always have to run down to John Lewis or somewhere to get some but now when we do an install we literally have a full kit it's almost like a massive first aid kit for installs where we have every single thing we need we've got you know cutters and and foam felt pads to put under furniture and little condoms that you put on barstool feet and like you know picture hooks and everything. Hang on, barstool feet condoms? Do I on barstool feet and like, you know, picture hooks and everything. Hang on, barstool feet condoms. Do I need barstool feet condoms?

No, because you've got a stone floor, my darling. So if you've got a wood floor in a kitchen and if you're moving barstools back and forth, you can get these little plastic condoms that fit over the feet to stop any scratching. Oh my gosh. Hey, it's Mitch from Side Note Podcast, and I'm here to tell you about the new Google Pixel 9 powered by Gemini. Anyone who knows me knows the Pixel has always been my favorite out of all the phones I've ever had.

Now, with Gemini built in, it's basically my personal AI assistant. Since I'm truly terrible at keeping up with emails, I use Gemini to give me summaries of my inbox, which is a lifesaver. And if I'm feeling stuck creatively, I just ask Gemini for help and bam, instant inspiration. You can learn more about Google Pixel 9 at store.google.com. 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 with mortgage payments on their minds. If you're struggling with your payments, speak to your bank. The earlier they understand your situation, the more options and relief measures could be available to you.

Learn more at Canada.ca slash ItPaysToKnow. A message from the Government of Canada. Okay, my darling, I'm going to run back out to the garden for another little question. I've got one here from Julie. Julie's asking, hello, love the podcast and have been telling everyone to listen. Thank you, Julie. I have an outie question, please. We're potentially moving house in the next few months

and there's some plants which are meaningful to us we'd like to take. Two young trees which were planted for our children and arose. What advice do you have to help us move these plants and hope they will survive many thanks julie okay this is the perfect time for this so now until about march absolutely perfect time to start uh digging up anything if you're planning on moving and even if you're thinking oh i'm moving next summer or something it's still now is the time for moving of plants so every week I get questions can I move this can I move that now is the time for literally everything I think by the time this comes out the weather is starting to get that

little bit colder root ball season's about to start we're starting to dig up plants so basically let everything drop its leaves if they're deciduous and then what you'll do fortunately you've said that your trees are young so I'm going to hope that they've been in like one, two years as opposed to 10, 11 years. And the best thing that you can do is dig them up once they've dropped all of their leaves. And you're going to do that. You are not going to put a spade right up against the trunk

and hack away at it. You're going to come out. It's depending on the scale of the tree. You need to sort of figure out what its root ball is so you should start by sort of digging a circle around the base of the tree which is you know sort of 30 40 50 centimeters away circle away from the trunk and I can't tell you what that is you'll be able to somewhat eye it in from the size of your plant but what you're trying to do is dig up a root ball not just roots so you're

essentially trying to pull up from the soil a solid ball of mud with the roots in it does that make sense jojo would you do yeah that makes sense yeah yeah that makes sense so you're doing that so bigger would be better than smaller you can always knock some soil off but you can't stick roots back on a bit like a haircut um and then you're going to pot them up and they're going to be absolutely fine in pots over the winter because they're just going to sit there and not do anything they're not in active growth so they're not going to sort of spontaneously die because the only reason they would not be happy is if you put them in a pot and they sort of flooded so make sure those pots are lifted off the ground slightly so they're not and they've got drainage holes in the bottom but then so put your trees it doesn't have to be a fancy pot just get like it could even be a huge

sort of plastic truck from the garden center that you've just speared a load of holes in it just needs to be in a container so that the roots aren't exposed to the air because they won't love that sometimes do you so am i right in thinking that sometimes you see people wrap them in just black black like a black plastic bin liner with holes in oh i don't think i've ever seen that but i mean when you when people dig up when nurseries dig up trees and or sort of hedging at this time of year what they do is dig it up and then it gets wrapped in hessian so sacking oh right so you could even do that i mean ideally i don't love that sitting out for a long period of time we try and still get them in the ground but they could sit there for

like two months wrapped in that hessian and um be fine it's just obviously if it gets very very cold you don't really want the roots exposed to the cold they're better in in the earth or sort of protected so hence why i'm saying put it in a pot put it in a bucket um and the same with your rose so it's more a case of just making sure that you give enough clearance that you're not hacking through loads of the roots because that's what's going to hurt it but that's true of anything i think the only thing i'd say is sometimes people like i want to move a 20 year old hydrangea and you're like that is going to be a hideous job the roots are going to be really well established you've probably it's probably like a meter and a half wide and you're trying to you can try the bigger the plant the harder it is to relocate basically

so anything young now is a great time to do it is there a point at which a tree just cannot be moved say if it was like a 50 year old apple tree that's quite big and established can you just not there's just no moving it i just don't think there would be any point moving that it's a it's a case of so actually we've really successfully moved some fairly big trees in a in a current garden it's beautiful asa that we did but that is using a massive great digger who can you know really dig up a massive root ball so that the tree hopefully doesn't really even notice that it's been moved in terms of that's how much you know soil has been picked up it wakes up from its slumber and it's like where am i where is this place this isn't my home it's like when you get too drunk at a friend's house and wake up and

you're like i don't remember being here very similar so it is possible with the right machinery but really what i would say is that you've got you've got some time now basically so if you're not moving for four months i wouldn't bother doing it now i'd do it in four months we're still going to be in winter the plants are still going to be dormant unless you live somewhere that's going to be um undercover of snow or particularly waterlogged but essentially you can dig up and move anything you like now through till the spring go for it such good advice thanks paul okay i have a question from nesva i love the podcast and I have a question for Jojo. A couple of years ago, I made the mistake of buying a sofa and an armchair in different colours, grey and teal.

Oh, Jojo, that's a toffee. It does not fit in my new living room with setting plaster walls. Shall I dye the armchairs or get rid of them? Can you dye armchairs? No. Dye them? Was it the grey armchairs or was it the teal that she doesn't like she doesn't say she just says so for an armchair in different colors gray and teal i may i just i i'll be honest i just start again the the the faff of trying to unless it's obviously

got removable covers that you can just buy new um because if you've got teal and then you've got pink walls you can obviously then start to bring in some nice neutrals like oatmills get away from the gray because it's cold um remove the gray but the teal you can kind of work with i don't know if she's saying teal or the gray but but i there's so much work involved and i and i say this all the time if you have an armchair that is say a family heirloom and it's worth a lot of money or it's an antique or and and you're really really you know um it's a sentimental piece and you really love it then get it upholstered reupholstered but the cost of reupholstering once you've bought the fabric and the cost to pay the reupholsterer that your upholsterer is going to be it will be more than the cost of a new armchair or sofa

it's that genuinely unless you're buying obviously going really sort of you know bougie or going antique again um it will tend to be even more expensive so if it's a really beautiful old george smith and you want to get it recovered then that makes sense but if it's something you bought from you know a couple of years ago and you just don't like it anymore then i would say give it to a charity shop you know or give it to give it to a charity or somebody that you know pick up the the heart foundation they'll come pick it up if it's in good order um and just buy yourself a new one it's really important you know they're the most as important as your bed at the end of the day your bed you spend you spend half your life in your bed and you spend a huge majority of your

life sitting on your sofa or your armchair in your living room so enjoy it make it something you really love it's a real dilemma actually because it's interesting watching the renovation come together and you guys have done such beautiful designs and then i've got leftover furniture you know inevitably because I just don't have the budget to replace literally everything right now and it's I can already see how jarring it's going to be when my old sofas which are sort of a mismatch of colors and they have been sort of gathered through life are just going to be sat there going oh god you look awful and it you need to know in that instance actually if anyone is doing a renovation suddenly you've

got all this furniture that just doesn't look, it looks really out of place. Rather than panicking and panic buying or instantly getting rid of it, put some nice throws over it. Get some lovely big sort of linen throws. And I mean, I'm not joking, even like a big bit of fabric that you can just throw over it and tuck it into the sofa and then put lovely cushions on it. It will suddenly blend in better with the room. and tuck it into the sofa and then put lovely cushions on it it will suddenly blend in better with the room and especially when you're doing a renovation as you know paul your bank is just getting an absolute pounding daily and you know you don't want to go and rush into buying furniture and if you've got no money don't go and get rid of stuff for the sake of it just work with what

you've got for the time being and just accept that you will have something you really love in time again i always say plan it make sure it's on a presentation and make sure you know what it is keep it in your mind manifest that new sofa and it will happen um oh yeah do you know what i mean so don't no 100 i think it's a really good tip actually because it's uh yeah you almost want i do want to live with it a bit actually first and so many times people think i've got this like i've got a teal sofa and i've got it now and i can't replace it so i'm going to design the whole room around this sofa. And then you're kind of designing something you don't really love. Do you know what I mean?

So I do have a teal sofa that is going to need covering for the time being. So yeah, it is. Just to get a nice big throw for it. Okay. That leaves us with a very important question. Polly, what is in and what is out? Okay. In for me, what is in and what is out okay in for me what I'm focusing

on right now is um I always like to get a beauty advent calendar for Christmas oh yeah and so I'm I'm shopping around I usually get the Liberty one but last year I went for the Sephora one and that was amazing good amazing good it was so good um yeah I don't want a lot of I don't want like loads of different face creams some of them just have a bit too much skincare for me whereas I'm more excited about like nail varnishes and makeup and those people like maybe someone like Charlotte Tilbury I think she does one i think she does a mini one um that's like not every day it's like the first 14 days or something so that's my in what's your in oh i'll tell you what's in tell me i'll tell you what's in tell me it's my new toilet i can't believe it i've actually got the toilet i've got the toilet of my dreams it's sitting in my hallway it's going in on Tuesday you guys are

going to see my sexy new toilet in my downstairs banked loo no I can't believe you've buried the lead there that should have been like the start of the podcast and you've made everyone wait till the end for this excitement I know I tell you I did keep you all waiting there on that toilet sitch didn't I I can't believe how long it's taken me to get this toilet, but I finally got it and I can't wait to share it. It's so sexy. What loosey have you got going with that bad boy? The same one as you, that lovely wooden one, black one.

Oh, yum. Black wooden toilet seat. I can't wait to christen it. Well, I'll christen yours. i'll have a little ride on that bad boy you're writhing around what are you doing in there what are all those noises get out of my toilet i'm getting your money's worth yeah just like jumping up and down on it you didn't go for one of those um the japanese loos that squirts your bits no i have to say tempting it's all very tempting i would never come out the loo though i think i'd be in there the whole time i actually have my head in the loo i'd just be blow drying my face because why don't why wouldn't you

really if it does that to your bum imagine what it would do to your face you blow dry your hair it's the it's the pulse feature which is quite disarming is that quite nice though well i think they put it in for a reason haven't they um instead of spurts do you come out do you come out with sort of curly curly pubes and it's got different like do you want straight straight straight pubes or perm it turns out a bit longer than it isn't it oh gosh we do we do we do we do um okay what's out out for me is brat summer okay i i'm so i'm not gen z or whatever the i don't even know i'm so not cool can you just tell me what that even means what is brat summer i don't think anyone ever really knew I think it's one of those things where people I feel like people say this brat word and I'm like yeah it's sort of it's because it came from that charlie xex song I mean it's meant to be sort of

a very carefree laissez-faire I ride a lime bike and I wear like amy winehouse ballet shoes and and sort of smoke and drink a cider I don't fully understand I don't get it I'm not here for it I don't like that neon green I am here for Nana winter I want Nana winter I want knitwear I want early nights I want to do a puzzle mate I'm with you I love a puzzle I love a puzzle what's out for you um just crap annoying words that it's so young that i don't i don't understand what these things mean half the time i feel very uncool by the but i feel like by the by the year i'm becoming

more uncool do you know what i am doing do you know what I am doing if it's a bit sus it means it's a bit suspect yeah like kids use it as a kind of like it's not cool so they're like if you're like that's sus it's not um that's suspicious it's like, that's lame. Oh, gosh. Do you know what sigma means? No. This is fun game. Sigma means cool. Like, these are like, these are my children's words, not my words. I'm not walking around saying something sigma.

Oh, if it's sigma, it's cool. Oh, that's so sigma. That's what they'd say. And you're like, well, I don't even know what that means, but cool. What's out for you? Come on. What's out is my broken broken lucy slamming on my back every time i use it because i'm about to get a new loo that's it pure luxury it's a bit dry

sorry about that guys very dry this week it's not that dry don't be that hard on us little rocks so like rocks will go into the loo the downstairs loo where we've got this broken loo and she'll go in and she'll she has this weight, she holds it back with the elbow and she'll just be talking to you she'll just hold it back and she'll just be holding back the loo seat while she wiggles her little bomb on and she holds it like this. I don't like it touching

my back, mummy, I don't like it touching my back so it's going to be Oh, well it's going to be game changing then, isn't it? You'll enjoy that, my friend. Quite enough. Let's go and do some work. I need to go to Paris,

which means I just need to say, just need to ask you a quick question. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Oh, oui. Ce soir. Ce soir. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?

Means, will you have a threesome with me? Does that mean something like that? No, mate. And she says, will you, do you want to sleep with me? There's nothing about a threesome. That's ménage à toi. I didn't ask that. Ménage à toi.

I want you all to myself. Yes. Well, you can have a jolly, lovely time in gay Paris. Au revoir. And au revoir, mon chéri. That leaves you with one more thing to say, Polly, doesn't it? You're going to go and tell all about the podcast. Well, yes. So don't forget to like, subscribe, review, share. Maybe you could do an interpretive dance while sharing about the podcast because i think that

would really capture some people's attention so that's your homework this week love you all au revoir okay okay that's quite enough. Bye. Au revoir. Au revoir. Bye. 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. 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 dot CA slash it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada.

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