Monday 23 January 2012

Just a quick one today as I can’t sit still too long this morning. I over did it a bit this week and my over-eating and lack of exercise has caught up with me. After collecting, moving and splitting a load of logs last weekend ready for next winter I felt a bit stiff. Rather than holding back I tried to keep up with a couple of youngsters on the nursery during the week, helping shift and spreading tonnes of soil and a bit of road-stone as we finished off tidying up the turbine sites. Naturally I still attempted a game of hockey yesterday and although I didn’t play a whole game as I was substituted quite quickly when it became obvious I could do little else but imitate a slow moving pregnant goose. I am now dosed up on muscle relaxant and need to move gently about on a regular basis to prevent complete seizure. Oh to be 30 again.

I am hoping to attach a couple of images to this note of the new tray insert we have been working on to make the watering of our hairy pots quicker and easier. The shallow tray provides a slow draining pool of water allowing the compost more time to absorb the irrigation overspill. The tray corners are open so the water does get away after a few minutes preventing the pots from sitting in a permanent puddle.


There is also an image of the new collection of POS boards we have had made. They each explain a little more detail about the whole hairy pot thing to give more depth to the whole hairy story. It has taken us a while to identify the right style of POS to use to create a complimentary, informative and good value effect and we feel we have pulled it off with these free boards. They simply fold into one of our display boxes which effectively act’s as a picture frame. You can simply lean it on or close to your display, or insert a hook or two and hang the box in an appropriate position.







Eco News

It has now been six months since the turbine were plugged in and as expected we fell just short of anticipated output. The wind forecast was about right but the one turbine with the sensor problem meant that we fell short by just under 2,000 units. At this time of year that is about 6 days wind, so not bad. Mind you will are still waiting for the first FIT payment so payback hasn’t really started yet.

Having tidied up each of the three turbine sites this week by topping the levels back up to ground level, I can see that they should look nicely established by the summer. The hedge plants we cut back to get the foundations in are already showing signs of rejuvenating so they will quickly grow back towards the towers and I’ve got a nice chalk wildflower seed mix to re-sow around the rest of the foundation area.

The water system is up and ready to go, the borehole pump is now running the right way, the leaks are sealed and all the time-clocks and heat protection are all more or less in place. Now we need to save a lot of water to pay for all the new equipment and work done to install it. If only horticulture paid as well as electricians.

We planted some more native hedge plants this week in small clumps around parts of the nursery that are a bit far from other natural habitats. We are hoping that we might get more overwintering of natural predators nearer the tunnels.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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