Slightly more organised this week and sending this a day early in preparation for a day off to visit my Mum & Dad in sunny Stafford tomorrow. This is a trial run because in 9 days time we are going to have a whole week off, and we need the practice in taking time away from the nursery.
This will be the first full day off since the middle of March so we are really looking forward to it. All the usual pre-break sorting out still has to be done, fitting in all the jobs we usually leave until the weekend but it all looks promising for an early start at the moment.

The potting machine has been pounding away all week as we get stuck into producing some of next spring’s crops and we have been putting together quite a few orders again which is great.

Friday marked a special moment when we completed the final plant despatch processing of our last ‘high street multiple’ plastic pot contract. The last trolleys actually get packed and loaded on Wednesday but it does mark the end of an era. We have supplied several of these customers over the last 20 years and this one for 10, each year it has got tougher and tougher to make it work financially let alone get any sort of personal satisfaction out of the relationship, so it is quite a relief to be able to ‘let them go’!

This winter we will have the entire pot production area on the nursery down to hairy pots, hurrah. This means that we will have changed the nursery production from all plastic pots to all hairy in 4 years, let’s hope the sales continue to grow and soak up the extra capacity, it certainly shows all the signs of doing so at the moment. As the last pot was cleaned and priced there was a slightly bizarre, but touching, spontaneous round of applause. I think a round of cakes and sparkling grape juice may be in order for later in the week!

No resting on laurels here though. We have a whole load of further projects aimed at improving the hairy production system combining quality improvements, labour saving and improving overall sustainability. Several irrigation developments to introduce a wet/dry cycle naturally improving plant quality and reducing liverwort growth on the compost, beds and pots, rainfall harvesting, wind turbine installation (one day!), energy and resource saving, tunnel renovation (replacing gantries with trolley paths) and wildlife enhancement. It’s all go, not really got time for a break, still when you work on a nursery life’s one long holiday really, as we trundle about in our clogs carrying our trugs and secateurs!

Eco news

No news on bat survey yet.

One of our things to look at on our sustainability list this year was whether to put in a beehive to help out on the bee survival front. But I have just had a walk about, updating the availability list, and I suspect that we are probably already providing a useful habitat for the bumble bee populations and competition from honey bees may put them off. We don’t have enormous areas of flowering stock as hopefully most gets sold before it gets that far but there were loads on the mints and African Blue Basil in particular. I don’t know a lot about bees but there were several sorts and a lot of them, probably over 100 on the basil alone. I shall see if Sparsholt college fancy doing a project on it, we could also do with some input on overwintering facilities we can install in the tunnels to keep the lady birds and lacewings on site too. I will add it to my list.

Went to my Plato Sustain meeting last week and took along a wooden box of hairy herbs and one of our internet delivery boxes (clever award winning recycled card thing). This was by request, as they all wanted to see what we were up to. I’m glad to say they were quite impressed and excited, I think that their image of what a hairy nurseryman gets up to all day has improved and they can see what can be achieved with a bit of thought and application.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm