Morning all,

Still a bit of a nip in the air but spring is just around the corner. The forecast looks to be promising warmer temperatures next week which will be great although a bit of the wet stuff later on we could probably do without. Still, it might just be a passing shower. Orders are picking up now as thoughts turn to warmer times and a return to spring madness. Let’s hope it happens this year.

It’s been a week of certificates here. We successfully completed all the paperwork for our NVQ’s and 14 sets of certificates arrived earlier in the week. 2 more to come and then we can have more celebratory cake (PAT testing competence cake was very good). We are just discussing whether to have a combined cake fest or 16 separate celebrations. All my good work retreating from the last buckle hole on my belt could easily be undone. Although there was a lot more time and paperwork involved in completing the training than we perhaps realised, it should pay back quickly in saved time, more teamwork, better organisation of the workplace and a tidier and safer work environment. I think the trainers were quite impressed with our general set up in comparison with some they have visited so it was a bit more of a challenge to find any major improvements but we have still made a lot of changes. We are now heading towards an exemplary standard rather than just good which hopefully will become self motivating and propel us into profitability again. At least we won’t have to fill in as much paperwork to complete a project now the qualifications are done, we can just cherry pick the relevant stuff and get on with the job.

We refreshed the trolley storage in the yard this week to make it easier and simpler to operate and sensibly separate and store all the broken bits that come in. As with all the other improvements we now just have the most difficult bit, to maintain the level achieved when it gets busy. Having all done the training and improvements together, it might just work.

We also received our certification from the Carbon Smart scheme which recognises efforts to reduce your carbon footprint.
We are proud to say we have leapt straight into the scheme with the top Gold Award, hurrah. Their report was reassuring in that we are on the right track and their carbon foot print calculations came out the same as ours. This means we have reduced our levels from over 120 tonnes in 2008 to just over 50 in 2012. We know we can still do a lot more to further reduce this but need some cash to invest to achieve it so let’s hope for a good year. The savings would represent a good return on the investment needed but that doesn’t make finding the cash any easier!

http://www.carbonsmart.co.uk/carbon-smart-winchester

Eco-news

I have accepted an invitation to St Bede’s Primary School to have a chat about all things waste and windy . They are having a ‘waste week’ to raise awareness about waste and more general eco topics and as we still have (I believe) the largest wind installation in Hampshire (shame on you Hampshire) I’ve been asked to do a turn. Not too worried yet, 7-10 year olds are about my sort of intellectual level so communication should easy.

Nature notes

Still no frog spawn. I hope we haven’t missed out, they might have gone off the boil in the cold. I can’t say the pond looks like a very romantic venue at the moment.

1st March sees the official start of spring and the bird nesting season so don’t forget to survey any trees or hedging well before any cutting is carried out. It is apparently an offense to disturbed wild bird nests when occupied whether it is a peregrine or a pigeon. I have heard the NFU are asking for an extension for hedge cutting for a couple of weeks as it could well be a delayed nesting season with the lack of warm days over the last couple of months, so you still might see a bit going on, but time is really up until the autumn.

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