I can’t believe it’s October already, that’s the end of another financial year, so lots of stock taking to do this week and hopefully the figures will come out ok. There are nearly always surprises when they are sorted out, but not usually nice ones!
This year is looking ok so far which is a relief as it has been such a struggle over the past few years to make sense of it all. Things are looking much more together now as we get our ranges and priorities sorted out and the current combination of great staff, customers and stock, as well as continuing positive business developments are making 2011 look even more exciting. Luckily we all get more out of this than major financial gain but with some cash return things are certainly easier.

A touch autumnal last week and next week looks the same, at least the reservoirs around the country will get a good topping up. I had a bit of a water related week with a trip to Lowaters Nursery to an irrigation orientated open day. They have installed a rainfall harvesting system to reduce their reliance on the increasingly expensive mains water supply and ensure future supplies as demand increases. It was very impressive with a range of collection ditches and ponds supplying a new large reservoir. The reservoir water was filtered through a series of iris beds to remove contaminants before going through a fine particle filter and returning to the new main nursery irrigation tank. They had researched the system very well (with some funding help) and have constructed a very sustainable and cost effective solution for their situation. Water has been cheap and freely available in most areas for a long time but as prices rise and continuous uninterrupted supplies possibly coming under threat in the future, it is something that many nurseries like us who currently rely on mains supply will need to address. The exciting bit was that the payback period was 4 years even without grant funding, which not only makes it sustainable but a great investment. Unfortunately it is yet another ‘jam tomorrow’ project, but does show the importance of finding enough funds to invest in the future and how this does help keep future costs down. Unfortunately there were probably only a dozen nurseries represented there and many of those were the inspiration behind a lot of the systems incorporated in the Lowaters project. Buffet lunch was great too!

Got the propagation tunnel finished on Friday after getting the double sheet attached the week before. It needs to be well sealed so that we can inflate it for the winter heating period. We don’t heat much until late Winter, but any heat we can conserve helps and running a weeny fan to inflate the double cover works brilliantly. Although it costs more for two skins they effectively protect each other so last quite a bit longer and the running costs of the fan are minimal.

Eco news

Spent most evenings this week raking the loose insulation in the loft. I’ll be back up there this afternoon to finish it off, it has recovered from 3 or 4 cm in depth to a nice fluffy 7 or 8 cm, so I will just need to top it up slightly to the rafter tops and we are there. Next is having a go at fitting some insulation under our suspended wooden floors. When the wind blows hard the carpet has been seen to rise off the floor which is not just inefficient heat retention but does bring on a feeling of motion sickness and that isn’t something you expect while watching telly!

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September.

Water consumption down 15.6%.

Nature notes

Last of the summer sights this week with a large flock (100+) of house martins feeding over the nursery. Red Kite spotted over the nursery last week.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries