Another rather brisk morning here. Glad to be tucked out of the wind for a couple of hours, the office is a cosy 12C (everything is relative) and I’ve got to put the brain in gear to create a few coherent sentences. I know I always say it’s been a busy week, but it’s happened again. You would think that after 27 years doing this we would stand still for a moment every now and then, but we don’t seem to be able to manage that. Luckily most of the stuff happening is positive in the long run if a little inconvenient just at the moment. We managed to get the reconditioned potting machine plumbed in and running towards the end of the week. Holly, our resident potting machine expert, even managed an overhaul of the conveyor belt, which involved a fair bit of fine tuning with the lump hammer. It worked brilliantly and we now have a near silent potting process having lost the combination of crashes and groans from the machine and an incessant squeak from the conveyor that has plagued the potters for years. Luckily for everyone they can hear clearly now the latest pop tunes from their record collections!

Unfortunately Richard, who many of you will have met or talked to on the phone, is leaving us at the end of the month. He has only been working part time over the last year since his family grew in number, and he has now been offered a very attractive position back at Hillier Nurseries researching, developing and trialling new plants for their production side of things. He has helped us through an enormous period of change since he arrived all those years ago, which we do appreciate and we are left with a much more manageable and rewarding business in the end.


I had a couple of rush jobs to do this week, one a surprise and the other just something that sneaked up on me. The sneaky one was the entry into the local business awards competition. We won a category a couple of years ago (innovation, for the hairy stuff) which was nice, but we had kept a low profile since then. But with the wind turbine planning stuff over the last year we have been noticed again and have had a couple of calls encouraging us to enter. I thought I had weeks to do it but then got an email reminding me the closing date was on Friday. I put aside a couple of evenings to cobble something together, it always takes me ten times as long as I expect, but managed to get something away. Then in yesterday’s paper they have extended the dates! Still, at least it’s done. If we get through to the finals we get to go to the awards dinner and last time there were two free tickets for the finalists, that’s a bit more attractive than the £180 each for the Grower of the Year awards!

With all this change it’s always nice to have some old standards to fall back on. I always enjoy a corny play on words, I’m sure emanating from the day my dad asked me if I wanted a whole piece of toast (when we were little we might only have a half slice), after a positive response I was presented with a slice with a huge hole cut out of the middle. That was to scar me for life! Every time at home when I get offered an avocado the response is of course ‘Yes please, I’ll avacardo’. Hilarious, especially after 27 years. Saturdays example was based on the arrival of a Jamaican Ginger cake for coffee break. ‘Hmm, Jamaca cake’,‘No, I got it from Sainsburys’. When I used to do a lot of knapsack spraying, the chant accompanying the repetitive pumping action was along the lines of, ‘Red Spider Mite, Red Spider Might, Red Spider might.’ I’m easily pleased!

If for some reason you lose your list you can now download it from the http://www.kirtonfarm.co.uk/website which should have the latest up to date version.

Eco news
The surprise job on Friday was to put together a last minute proposal for the bank to fund the turbine project. Having initially been very positive last summer, then the opposite in the autumn, they have had another change of heart at the very last minute. It might turn out to be a fortunate break for us as they are looking to run a pilot lending scheme and they need some ready-to-go projects to play with. This should mean quite attractive rates/charges etc and hopefully a very quick decision, but we still have to press enough of the right buttons to qualify. I have pressed all the buttons I can and we now await some response, hopefully some time in the next week.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries