Morning all,


Holiday weekend already, where does all the time go. Not a great weather day yesterday but looks promising for today so hopefully everyone will be out and about loosening those purse strings a bit. Still a bit more summer to come and the Paralympics about to start which should make us all inspired to do good things. With a bit of luck the Southampton football team will absorb the positive vibes and recover quickly from a quiet start back in the premiership.

We have been back a couple of days now after a few days in Cornwall. It’s a bit of a shock going away and coming back but the nursery looks great and lots got done so perhaps we need to go more ofte  n. We did loads of stuff while away, the usual walking, not too far, and the usual eating, way too much, with a little something to wash it down with. One of the highlights was an evening picnic in a boggy mosquito ridden forest border. A chance encounter I had that morning on Marazion Marsh with a very chatty twitcher led to him disclosing a great spot to see and hear nightjars (a nocturnal insect eating bird). Not knowing the area very well I got him to repeat the forest name twice so I wouldn’t forget and got directions as to where to park and which track to take in the wood to get to the best spot. I offered the chance to see the nightjars to the rest of the gang who were surprisingly keen to give up their evening to stand about in the dark watching for birds they could barely see.
Where was the forest? Ahh. Umm. I think it was two words, the second was something like goose and the first maybe burn or burnt. Anyway some hours later we trooped into Croft Pascoe Forest just before sunset. It was very wet, puddles all over the place and loads of horse flies and mosquitoes. We made a marginal miscalculation with the lighting equipment considering the conditions, one tiny pencil light with a weak battery between four of us. Easy enough to find our way in but tricky on the return trip in virtual blackout conditions. Anyway after eating dinner and a downing a couple of bottles sunset arrived and we were treated to a near perfect display of nightjar activity. Very shortly after sunset the calling started, a very distinctive ‘churring’ from 3 or 4 birds coming from along the forest edge. Then all went quiet and just before it went too dark they started flying past us over the scrub along the forest edge. It was too dark to see in colour but we got some great views of them flitting about chasing their prey and one very close encounter as one flew straight towards us, halting its path just a few meters away. As darkness fell we could see them only silhouetted against the night sky and heard them calling again. It was just great to witness a sight not too many people see. Who needs a foreign holiday when you can stand in a swamp in Cornwall enjoying bread and butter, beer and get eaten alive!

Need to go and unblock the drains, nice to be back.

Potting is progressing well for next seasons crops. We have put some of our crops this year through an extra production phase to increase the size of plant we are potting which should help improve plant size, reduce moss and liverwort levels and reduce wastage through losses of the smallest plants. We used chunky module trays which already have on site so there were no extra material costs just the extra labour to do it. Results look good so far with really strong growth being seen in some of the more troublesome subjects. This may also be partly down to the great new peat free compost we are using this summer which is performing well beyond our expectations and the miles better than our previous mixes of the last few years whether they were peat free or not.

Eco News

Chickens looking good and are starting to lay, but only tiny eggs so far.

Great weather this summer for frogs and toads, they are all over the place.

Second batch of swallows have just fledged form the donkey shed, Hopefully they will find enough to eat to build up their reserves before the long migration flight in a few weeks/days.

If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries