Monday 24 January 2011

Morning all,

We had our first repeat order of the year last week so there must be some action out there, hurrah. I know it’s still early but it’s nice to know that there are some springtime thoughts taking shape out there. We are going to need some early cash flow to cope with the new CC trolley scanners which seem to be going through batteries at an astonishing rate! We are due some rechargables in the next week or two which hopefully will help, but at the moment it’s costing about 50p a trolley in batteries. If they flatten the rechargables at the same rate we will also need to invest in a mobile recharging kit as well as the desktop one. Of course it could just be me and the combination of old fart vs. new technology!

Struggling to stand up straight this morning after several hours spent yesterday splitting logs, followed by a tough game of hockey (won 1-0, and I saved one on the line in last 5 mins). Off this afternoon to collect more logs for splitting, might leave the splitting until I can walk without watching my knees!

Still haven’t made my mind up about attending the Grower of the Year awards dinner, I can’t get round the fact that in our push for sustainability the cost of this night out would pay for over a year’s supply of logs for the wood burner (if I can’t stand upright again). If anyone is planning to attend themselves, please let me know, I will help fund a ticket if you will volunteer to collect our reward should we receive one (unlikely if we don’t attend I know, but at least all bases would be covered). For the price of the car park I can get two tickets to see the brilliant Imelda May in Southampton the night after.

On the nursery we are continuing our big winter sort out. Now we have stopped supplying our last DIY customer we have been able to revamp our despatch area to concentrate solely on the garden centre & nursery customers. This meant moving & rebuilding the coffee shack, which proved to be a bigger job than we thought, and opening up a bigger plant preparation area to help throughput. The lower despatch area which used to be used for the DIY job is now home to the rebuilt shack and the completed order holding bay. It’s surprising how exciting a little more space and a jiggle out can be! Hopefully we can finish the revamp this week ready for the busy times ahead.

With a big effort this week, we managed to spread mulching bark along our 3 Km of tunnel edges as planned, this should help control moss, liverwort and weeds in this awkward gap, which we used to spray.

We have also prepared the new 60 metre strip where we are planting a double row of mixed native hedging. The plants are here ready for planting next week if the weather is ok. This is a strip that is being planted as part of the ecology enhancement scheme drawn up for the planners as part of the conditions laid down for putting up our 3 turbines. We still have to sow a wide wild flower strip next to the hedge and replant part of the hedge removed for the turbine foundation work. All this despite that, in total, we will lose only about 5 or 6 metres of hedge when the turbines are up. To be fair we would have planted this length of hedge anyway so it’s not a huge problem.

Although the basic planning consent for the turbines was given in September we only just managed to fulfil all the conditions laid down before Christmas, and are just awaiting official clearance of those conditions before we can actually start any works. The final cost quotes are just coming in and the financing looks to be coming together, so all being well we could see some serious money being spent very soon. It will still be weeks before any serious action takes place on site, but at least the ball will be rolling.

Nature stuff

So far we don’t seem to have lost too many small birds in the cold snap. Those usually vulnerable small ones, like wrens and long tailed tits, are all still about in good numbers here, and the other garden birds seem to be in good heart. We got through sacks and sacks of different types of bird food on the nursery as well as the garden, and hopefully we will be rewarded with some extra help with pest control later on.

Thanks, have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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