A Relaxing Garden Stroll | A Gentle Bedtime Conversation

In A Relaxing Garden Stroll, Marco and Amanda invite you into their cozy urban garden for a softly spoken wander among blooms and bulbs. Though the space may be small, the conversation feels expansive as they reflect on tulips, alliums, sedum, hostas, peonies, and a fragrant lilac tree that anchors their green haven. The episode lingers on the quiet satisfaction of tending a modest garden and making the most of every corner.
As the chat meanders, they explore a few creative — and slightly unusual — strategies for keeping squirrels away from treasured bulbs, sharing gentle humour along the way. The focus remains simple and sensory: colour, scent, texture, and the steady rhythm of seasonal change.
Like every episode of this calming podcast, the tone is unhurried and reassuring, offering a relaxing conversation designed to help you fall asleep, ease anxiety, or quiet racing thoughts. It’s perfect for background listening while you wind down at bedtime or rest during a middle-of-the-night wake-up. Let the imagery of blossoms and soft garden paths guide you toward a peaceful, untroubled sleep.

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Welcome to the Insomnia Project. I'm your host, MarcoTimpano

Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm conversation. I'm your host, Marco Timpano.

Amanda:I'm Amanda Barker. Ooh. I just had a shiver.

Marco:  Oh, my goodness.

Amanda:Shiver.


Last week we talked about the basement. Are people enjoying the basement

Marco:  So, Amanda, last week we talked about. Or I should say a week before. We're behind a week. But we talked about the basement. But we're gonna reserve the right to continue the basement conversation.

Amanda:Are people enjoying the basement?

Marco:  Well, I did get a message from one of our listeners who thought I told you to really slow down and calm down when you're talking about the basement.

Amanda:Oh, too much so.

Marco:  Too much so. And they said they had a hashtag freeamandabarker.

Amanda:Oh, no.

Marco:  Because they thought.

Amanda:Finally. Thank.

Marco:  Because they thought I was making you do that. But I wasn't at all. That was just something you did.

Amanda:I was probably making you be more. Because I like a nice methodical tour of something to get me to sleep.

Marco:  In fact, you're often telling me to slow down and calm down on the podcast.

Amanda:I don't know about often.

Marco:  Well,

Amanda:from my,

Marco:  From your side of the booth over there.

Amanda:There I am. Yeah.

Marco:  So our lilacs are blooming.

Amanda:They're blooming.

Marco:  And I wanted to say as well that we. So in the fall, listeners, you might remember that I planted a bunch of tulips and the color on the package was kind of pink.

Marco:  But they turned out to be yellow with peachy pink.

Amanda:They're, they're, they're, like a. Yeah, they're orangey salmon, peachy color, which. With yellow sort of stripes, I think,

Marco:  wouldn't you say the other way around. They're predominantly yellow with these peachy pink, stripes. Blushes on them, if you will. Anyways, we're really, I'm really happy about them. And two people stopped by while I was outside doing stuff in the garden and told me how beautiful my tulips were. So I was really happy about that.


Amanda shares a story about her favorite lilac tree

Amanda:I heard a story tonight that I haven't shared with you.

Marco:  No.

Amanda:About our lilac tree.

Marco:  Really? Okay, tell me.

Amanda:So I love our lilac tree. It's one of my favorite things. I've talked about it on this program years before, and I had a moment to look at it because, yeah, the buds came very quickly, like a day or two ago, and now they're starting to bloom. And I noticed that they're really kind of blooming on one side and not so much on the other. But that was at night, so I have to look at it in the daytime. Okay. But that's how it looked to me tonight. Sure. I was looking at it. I took the garbage out. It's garbage night. So I took everything out. And our neighbor, our lovely neighbor was out there doing the same thing. And she said, oh, I just love your lilacs. And I said, I love them, too. They're one of my favorite things. And then I said, do you know Margaret, who used to live here?

Marco:  That's right. before I bought the house, a

Amanda:woman named Margaret lived here. And she said, I did know Margaret. Yes. And she said she bought that lilac tree when, what is now in process to becoming a condo.

Marco:  Right.

Amanda:Prior to that was a grocery store, which I loved. And prior to that, it was a different grocery store.

Marco:  Right? That's right.

Amanda:I didn't know that. So when it changed over from the independent grocery store to the chain grocery store, which is what I think happened, and they were selling off a bunch of things, and one of the things they were selling were these lilac trees. And so the woman who lived here went and bought one and planted it in the front. And it was a tiny, tiny. She said it was just a tiny little speck of a thing. And so she would tell her kids who were young at that point, not to run across because they. She didn't think it would survive. Her two sons, who were probably boisterous and, of course, young. Well, they're, you know, they're grown up now. And the tree has grown up now, and it's huge. It reaches. It's past the second floor of this house. maybe too big, to be honest, but I love it so much so I haven't cut it back.

Marco:  It is a bit big because one of the branches sort of leans, and

Amanda:that's the one that's suddenly aplenty with lilacs. It's really taking the helm of the lilacing. It's lilacing it up.

Marco:  Now. There are different kinds of lilacs. Like, there's the purpley lilac, and then there's the pale bluey lilac.

Amanda:These are the dark purple. For anyone who's trying to picture lilac

Marco:  is, that your preferred lilac?

Amanda:It is, yeah.

Marco:  Over the bluey ones.

Amanda:I like the bluey ones, too, but they seem a bit more delicate. I like ours.

Marco:  Ours is also very fragrant.

Amanda:And then she mentioned. And there was another one. Margaret planted another one in the back.

Marco:  That's right.

Amanda:And I said, that's true. I remember it. It never really did very well.

Marco:  It was too shady in the back.

Amanda:It didn't get enough light.

Marco:  What did we do with that? We replanted.

Amanda:No, you, put it up on some free site.

Marco:  That's right.

Amanda:Maybe Facebook Marketplace or something. And said free Lilac. Anybody who wants it. And you let a guy come and dig it up.

Marco:  That's right. I was like.

Amanda:Which is fine.

Marco:  I didn't know what to do with that lilac. And it was just withering in the back. And it was. You know, Amanda, now that you sort of give the history of the front lilac, it makes sense. Because that back lilac seemed like a runty little thing.

Amanda:Yeah, they both were. Just somehow that front one, because it

Marco:  gets more light, I guess.

Amanda:Or, the soil, the conditions are right. Because there's other lilacs that don't do as well that get as much light on our street. I don't know why ours. There's some secret sauce that makes that lilac. I mean, it's a massive tree now.

Marco:  It is a massive tree to the

Amanda:point where you're like, are they going to chop it down? Because the roots, you know.

Marco:  No one's going to chop down my lilac tree.

Amanda:I better not.

Marco:  I hope not.


Marco and Amanda's garden is what they call a city garden

and I should say that we don't have a large garden in the front. We really don't.

Amanda:Really don't we make it sound. We talk about it like we have. I mean, we believe us when we say it's like maybe the size of this booth and you can only fit two people in this booth. It is teensy tiny.

Marco:  And it's also what I call a city garden. So we plant a lot and you got to fight to thrive. I know it's. No gardener in the world would say plant the way Marco and Amanda do, but we've planted. So I've planted crocuses.

Marco:  Because I love them. Because they're the first flowers that come up.

Amanda:Yeah.

Marco:  Then I've planted tulips, you know.

Amanda:Really did. And the tulips that we have, that come up every year, the white ones, those I planted the first year I was here.

Marco:  Yes.

Amanda:First year we were married.

Marco:  And then I took my mother's peonies and I planted them. We have some irises.

Marco:  I actually just got an iris plant from a friend of ours, Linda, in Montreal. That was her mother's and I knew her parents well, so I was really glad.

Amanda:Where's that iris going?

Marco:  That iris is near the. And folks, we also have a fire

Amanda:hydrant in our garden and this huge lilac tree. I mean, there's not much room.

Marco:  There's not much room.

Amanda:It's a crowded little patch.

Marco:  It's crowded.

Amanda:But people just like the city. You just gotta fight for your place. Hustle flowers. Hustle.

Marco:  And Then our good friend Dale gave us part of her grandmother's sedums. Sedums.

Amanda:Because, well, her grandmother sold the house. So she took the sedum, some of the sedums from the house, and then

Marco:  she had to, because they were doing work on her front patch. She gave us her sedum because they were going to be destroyed by the city. And so now we're caretakers.

Amanda:Ours got kind of destroyed by the city, too, because they dug everything up

Marco:  last year, which displaced all my tulips. And so they grew it.

Amanda:Displaced everything. There's stuff coming up. We also have allium that's about to bloom. Have you not seen that?

Marco:  Yeah.

Amanda:You're looking at me like, oh, well,

Marco:  because I also planted more allium last year.

Amanda:Well, it's a lot. I love allium.

Marco:  Amanda loves allium.

Amanda:And allium is a funny one, because we say allium, but allium really just refers to garlic and onions. Like the word allium refers to, like, the garlic and onion family. But allium, like, flowers are garlicky. I mean, they really are. That look like garlic.

Marco:  Yeah. But it's called something. The flower. The allium flower that you use ornamentally in your garden.

Amanda:Yeah. It's, I think, just referred to usually as allium.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda:So it can mean a few things, but obviously we're talking about the flowers, which are those big purple puff balls.

Marco:  So we have Dale's. I love alliums, Dale's sedum. Dale's grandmother's sedum. My mother's peonies, Linda's mother's iris.

Amanda:My stomach. Sorry.

Marco:  Our tulips that we planted when we first got married.

Amanda:Yeah.

Marco:  We had tulips from Holland that got transplanted so many times that. I don't know.

Amanda:They didn't.

Marco:  I, don't know.

Amanda:They were little ones, too, so. They didn't. They didn't. We'll see if they didn't make it through.

Marco:  Yeah, they didn't make it through. And I just planted a bunch of dahlias because you said you like dal.

Amanda:I love dalias. And, you know, towards the end of the summer, I'm always like, oh, we really should have dahlias. Because what I love is always having something to look forward to in terms of blooming.

Marco:  Sure. Because we're going to have the peonies in June.

Amanda:Yeah.

Marco:  We're in tulip season now.

Amanda:We are.

Marco:  And lilacs are coming.

Amanda:Uh-huh.


What other spring flowers do you have in your garden

That's all the spring flowers. Yeah.

Marco:  Allium's on its way.

Amanda:It is. Yeah. That's going to be more of a June thing. It'll be before the peonies, but after the tulips. what else do we have? There's a flower I'm not thinking of. We used to have mums that would come up.

Marco:  What I love is Amanda will take flowers that she's given. You know, when you're given potted flowers, and when the flowers are done blooming in the home, we plant them in this small patch garden. Yeah, we plant those. We plant those. And, they will. They will. They will sometimes appear. We also have lilies. Ditch lilies, as, Dale likes to call them.

Amanda:The lilies. I call them day lilies. She calls them ditch lilies. But in any event, those big, bright orange that don't last very long. Bright yellow and bright orange lilies.

Marco:  Yeah, they come later in the summer.

Amanda:Those are like a July. That's a solid July flower. As are the, the sedums. And also, What's the other one that we got from the cottage that have the purple. They're like a big plant. And then the purple flowers. Light purple flowers kind of poke up on top. They look like little bells. We have them at the cottage.

Marco:  We have hyacinths. What are they called? Hyacinths.

Amanda:Sorry, what?

Marco:  Hyacinths.

Amanda:No, we do have a hyacinth. Okay. That's one of those bulbs I planted. And it got its, It fighting for its will to live amongst the allium, because the allium are very tall and the hyacinth is very short. That's the one that you cut and put in a. In a vase. Because I was like, I think it needs to be separated here. But no. what are those things called? Purple hydrangeas. No, no. We have hydrangeas, though.

Marco:  No, we don't.

Amanda:We do at the cottage.

Marco:  Oh, but I meant here.

Amanda:Yeah. Wow, you really came for me on that one.

Marco:  Well, because we don't have hydrangeas. Because I saw hydrangeas.

Amanda:Our neighbor has hydrangeas.

Marco:  I was like, should we plant hydrangeas? But I just don't think our patch.

Amanda:Let's do it. Let's plant our patch.

Marco:  Can't support it. It can't support it.

Amanda:You know what? The flowers that are meant to come

Marco:  will come m. We also have lemon balm that's growing. And,

Amanda:What are those?

Marco:  I wonder if the sage we planted.

Amanda:The sage will come back. What are those plants called? It's driving me crazy. It's a really a, common plant.

Marco:  Pansies.

Amanda:No, no, violets. No, it's. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Marco:  The purple?

Amanda:I don't think you do. If you're saying pansies and violets. it's mostly a plant and it's green obviously. And if you can picture at the. Your mom pulls the tops off of them.

Marco:  Oh, yes, of course she pulls. Yeah. Hostas.

Amanda:Hostas. Hostas, yeah. But sorry, what? Hostas.

Marco:  Hostas.


You love hostas. Your mother doesn't like purple flowers

hostas.

Amanda:Hostas. Yeah.

Marco:  I love hostas. They're more of a decorative plant that, that tend to bloom purple long flowers which. Yes, my mother. You're really painting my mother as a bad gardener. But she doesn't like the little.

Amanda:She's an excellent gardener.

Marco:  Yeah, she's a great gardener, actually. No, but she doesn't like those purple flowers.

Amanda:She doesn't like the purple flowers because they're a little bit, they're because hostas themselves, you think more of the leaves, those big green leaves and they bush out and they really cover a lot of ground and then the flowers are. That's one of those plants where it's more about the leaves than the flowers. The flowers kind of poke out and they're like little bell flowers, but they, I don't mind them, but they're not, you know, it's no peony, that's for sure.

Marco:  Right, sure, sure.

Amanda:But sometimes you're just a hosta among the peonies and that's what it.

Marco:  I love hostas. You know our good friend Ann.

Amanda:You love hostas.

Marco:  I do like hostas. I've always liked the look of them.

Amanda:I didn't know that.

Marco:  And you know who has beautiful hostas? I mean N&FI in Stratford, Ontario, good friends of ours.

Amanda:Yeah.

Marco:  There's a hosta that need a lot

Amanda:of sun for hostas.

Marco:  They almost look purple. Oh, sorry. They almost look a blue.

Marco:  Blue.

Amanda:Yeah. Yeah.

Marco:  And those are my favorite hostas. And they've got, they've got a lot of them. I really, I really like, their garden. They have a little pond in the back with, with koi fish. So I always go out with Fi and we look at the, the koi.

Amanda:I have question. Are, ah, koi fish the same as goldfish? Like the common goldfish?

Marco:  Yes and no.

Amanda:What does that mean?

Marco:  They are a, member of the goldfish family, but they're fancy goldfish. So what do you think?

Amanda:What about carp?

Marco:  Well, yes, carp is part of that family too. No, but carp is kind of in that sort of same vein. You can have decorative or ornamental carp.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  But koi are their own thing, as best as I know.

Amanda:Ornamental carpenter. In fact, fish can be ornamental.

Marco:  Well, they're. They're ornamental in that, you know, you have them in the pond and they have beautiful colors and whatnot.

Amanda:Okay. But they're still a living being, part of an ecosystem.

Marco:  I will refer you and our listeners to the koi episode which was done in season one, where I actually talk about koi with Phi the Gentleman. I'm talking about right now. This is our koi episode. So if you, want more information about way back catalog, you go back nine years to the koi episode.

Amanda:Nine years a. Way back. Playback. A decade ago.


I've had issues with squirrels in my garden eating my bulbs

Marco:  I want to talk about a couple of things, all right? One, I'm going to give a tip because I know our listeners enjoy a good tip, and that is. I've had issues with squirrels in my garden eating my bulbs.

Amanda:hm.

Marco:  Especially my tulip bulbs. M. Nobody wants their bulbs eaten by a squirrel.

Amanda:No. All of this episode feels like a euphemism, by the way.

Marco:  Well, no, that's. Yes. Take, it with a grain of salt.

Amanda:You need to. Nobody wants their bulbs eaten by a squirrel. You know what I mean?

Marco:  So I've tried everything to keep the squirrels away from my bulbs. I've put bloodworm sauce on them. I've used.

Amanda:M. I'm sorry, what?

Marco:  Like, you can get this like this mixture that's kind of like bloodworm sauce. No, it's not bloodworm. It's like blood. Like, like it's a. It's a thing that smells like blood so that keeps them away.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  Then I had like.

Amanda:It's a. Like a.

Marco:  Like, it's not a sauce. It's. It's like a thing. Look it up if you want. You'll. You'll get what I'm saying.

Amanda:Bloodworm sauce?

Marco:  no, it's bloodworm. I feed blood worms to fish. That's what I used to do. But, you can have like a ornamental fish. Yeah. To beta fish. But don't take me off course here. So I've tried the blood, I've tried using.

Amanda:So the tip is don't use bloodworm sauce.

Marco:  I've tried to use chicken scat that you get. You get in.

Amanda:I'm sorry, where did you get that?

Marco:  It comes in a little box in this house.

Amanda:You've done these things on our little

Marco:  patch of garden to keep the squirrels away.

Amanda:I don't ever remember a day where you came home from the market and went, hey, babe, I got some chicken scat to pull, throw in the front,

Marco:  it comes like in a milk carton. What is tried.

Amanda:are you hiding chicken scat from me?

Marco:  No. It didn't work and it smelled really good.

Amanda:It's one of the tenants of a marriage.

Marco:  No.

Amanda:Do not hide your chicken skirt.

Marco:  I did all this for our tulips, and still the squirrels got to them.

Amanda:Our, last year tulips. All of this has happened.

Marco:  No, because I. Last year. This is the tip I want to share. you won't let me get past the chicken scat.

Amanda:These are all things I've never seen you do. That's why I'm a little bit taken aback.

Marco:  Yeah. Because I do all this for our garden.

Amanda:Not on the sly.

Marco:  Yeah, not on the sly. To keep a beautiful garden.

Amanda:Yeah. But I've never seen a, grocery bill that had chicken scat and blood meal sauce.

Marco:  Okay, so first of all, Amanda doesn't do very much in the garden. In the front, I do all the work. Clearly. If you don't know that I'm doing

Amanda:all the work now. You're coming for me.

Marco:  M. No, I'm just. You're just. You're not letting me get past my tip.


Pine branches are a great way to protect your garden from squirrels

Okay, so, listeners, I finally figured out what to do to save my tulips. To salvage my tulips. When we cut our Christmas tree down, I had extra branches. So I put those. I laid those branches needle side up.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  Onto where I planted the tulips.

Amanda:Right.

Marco:  So I planted the tulips, then I laid those branches needle side up so that they were too pinchy for the squirrels to go.

Amanda:Is there a needle side down? Yeah. Okay.

Marco:  Pinch side up. So if you put them the other way, they're flat. Well, just picture, branches. If you put your hand on pine branches, if it feels a little prickly, that's the right way.

Amanda:My memory of pine branches is if you put it on either side, it's going to feel prickly. Like, I don't remember a flat side and then a prickly side. To my understanding of how branches work,

Marco:  I think it depends on the pine. And I put it the pricklier side

Amanda:up is what I did in any

Marco:  event, and kept the squirrels away.

Amanda:One could also do this after they're done with their Christmas tree. They could chop it now.

Marco:  No, because you've got to plant your tulips before you're done with your plants.

Amanda:Well, that was my question. So we did this in. You did this in when? December, January.

Marco:  I planted the tulips late November.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  And then I had.

Amanda:That's when we got the tree because

Marco:  we also got branches to make wreaths and stuff. So I had some branches already. So then that gave me the idea because I just planted the tulips.

Marco:  And I realized I had the these. I had an excess amount of branches and so I laid them on the ground covering where I put the tulips. And it wouldn't give access. You'd have to get through prickly branches to get through.

Amanda:Pine branches are a great way to protect your garden.

Marco:  But remember, you have to remove those branches early in the spring before your flowers come up.

Amanda:Right.

Marco:  And I did.

Amanda:I mean, otherwise you just have a branch garden. Nobody wants that with blood meal sauce. Chicken scat.

Marco:  We also planted beautiful begonias.

Amanda:We did.

Marco:  In our little pot.

Amanda:In a little pot. Well, we bought them. I don't, know if we planted them. We bought them.

Marco:  Well, we bought them and then I replanted, into that little pot.

Amanda:Okay. Begonias are great. They're annual, so you're not gonna. They're not gonna keep coming back. Unlike the tulips and the dahlias and the allium. But they're great. They're like roses and they're hardy. They're kind of like a geranium meets a rose.

Marco:  They remind me of my grandmother. And I fear that it's going to need more water this summer than I anticipate. How much do I have to water them?

Amanda:I think you're fine. I mean, that pot gets a lot of water. Every time it rains, it gets water. I think you're fine. I do. We've done pretty well with that little spot.

Marco:  I really love that front garden, I have to say.

Amanda:Wow.

Marco:  Yeah, I guess I will post a video of our tulips that we described.

Amanda:Off the top. I mean, you're going to just remember there's not much there.

Marco:  No, I have some that I took.

Amanda:No, I just mean people. When you watch it, we're acting like we live in a palatial estate with a rose garden. Believe us when we say it's a sidewalk and a door and then the teensiest, tiniest little patch of land.

Marco:  I had some horrible roses in front of the fire hydrant when I first moved here.

Amanda:Oh, really? I didn't know that.

Marco:  Yes, they were like, whitish, but they were never full roses. And they were, they were. It was very thorny.

Amanda:The thing with roses are so tricky and they don't do great in. I don't know. My mom always had roses and she does about the best you can do with them, but As a kid, we always had them in Massachusetts, and they're always thorny. And you gotta do a lot of work to get one flower. Like, we think of roses, long stem roses that we buy.

Marco:  I also think roses need the right climate to do anything great. Like, they don't.

Amanda:There's a reason they do well in England, I think. Like, we tend to have really bright and hot sun. And, you know, my mom has them in Florida. She does okay with that.


We inherited some pothos plants from an actor moving to Calgary

Which is insane that they would even grow at all in Florida because it's so hot.

Marco:  It's really quite impressive, actually.

Amanda:She's an amazing gardener, though.

Marco:  I want to say this, that, we just, inherited a couple of,

Amanda:pothos plants we did from a fabulous, actor who's moving to Calgary.

Marco:  And so we got all these beautiful. Pothos is pothi. What is plural? Pothos.

Amanda:Pothosis. Pothosius.

Marco:  And the really big one we got started to turn yellow, and I got it.

Amanda:I feel like it doesn't like us.

Marco:  no. I think it just went through stress.

Amanda:I know, but I'm worried that it's gonna lose all the leaves.

Marco:  I'm gonna really baby it.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  We're not to water it for a couple of weeks.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  Let it acclimatize. Let it. If you have a pothos. Yeah, A few weeks. Yeah. Two or three weeks. We're gonna let it just chill.

Amanda:Okay.

Marco:  If you have pothos advice, let us know.

Amanda:Yeah. Ah. Because we have not had luck with them. And apparently they're the ones you can like. I had a pothos in university. I remember that. You know, we just grow it and then make. It was like a border to the bathroom. Like, it was like our bathroom decoration. We just wound it around.

Marco:  Sure. I want to know this. That prayer plant, which I don't think I'm going to be very good at taking care of, looks really like it's enjoying itself.

Amanda:I know, it's funny. That's supposed to be. The pothos is supposed to be the hardy, sturdy, can't kill it thing. And it's immediately, like, showed up here and it's like, nope, I'm out. so we're losing a lot of leaves off that. And then the prayer plant, which is supposed to be a very persnickety plant, looks very happy here.

Marco:  And not only that. So I re. I re potted the prayer plant and the pothos and I left the prayer plant outside, and we had a torrential storm last night.

Amanda:Like a storm. Like, there are notable storms moving from Texas up. Through Michigan. And then we got our version last night. So this is like a legit storm. It was a storm, like lightning, thunder, the whole nine yards.

Marco:  It was wonderful to fall asleep to.

Amanda:Yeah, it was lovely.

Marco:  But I said to Amanda, oh, no, I left the prayer plant outside.

Amanda:And you were like, well, I better pray.

Marco:  And you're like, it's not going to make it. Not with that. We could hear.

Amanda:Did I say that?

Marco:  You're like, the rain just sounds so hard.

Amanda:I mean, it sounded like if. If it makes it. And then this morning, it looked great.

Marco:  It was like, ah, welcome.

Amanda:That's what I wanted.

Marco:  It was really like.

Amanda:It wanted the drama.

Marco:  It wanted the drama. And now I put it in a spot and, it looks happy. So we'll see what happens there. But that's our little journey.


Amanda Barker: Our home is small, our garden is small

I feel like we're constantly talking about flowers and plants on this podcast. It's almost.

Amanda:We're not exciting people. But that's not why you're here.

Marco:  It's almost become a potting podcast. But.

Amanda:But we're not experts at all on it.

Marco:  We're not. But I do, I. I think this year and last year, I sort of fell in love with plants in our garden.

Marco:  And so that's what's been going on for me.

Amanda:I feel bad. I feel like we should get a house that has a really big, proper garden that you could love.

Marco:  No.

Amanda:Too much work.

Marco:  No, no, not for a garden.

Amanda:Yeah.

Marco:  I'm happy with a little. I'm happy with the little garden that I overcrowded.

Amanda:I like small things.

Marco:  Yeah.

Amanda:And, you know our favorite design show, Hometown, Erin Napier. It's, Erin and Ben Napier. If you don't follow them, they're lovely, or they seem to be lovely. And she said the other day, we don't like big entertaining. Like they were, you know, designing a home for someone who does a lot of entertaining and wanted a big kitchen and all this. And she said, we don't like that. We like, you know, six people. We just want a kitchen table that seats six to eight people. That's it for us. And I think there's such a movement for people reclaiming small spaces and not needing the bigger and the best of everything, but wanting. I saw something today that said, just normalize small. That's our life. Our home is small, our garden is small. but our needs are few.

Marco:  That's true. Well, whatever you need, I hope it comes to you. Ah, including sleep. I hope you were able to listen to this particular episode where we went on about plants and flowers. And I hope you were able to sleep. And we'll see you next time. I'm MarcoTimpano.

Amanda:I'm Amanda Barker. Still wondering if there's remnants of chicken scat in her garden or otherwise.