Monday 10 June 2013

Morning all,


Great news with yet another very nice weekend and still not too hot. We had a nice drop of rain during the week and there is a bit more forecast for the middle of next week so hopefully that will keep everything in the garden fresh and push any thoughts of drought away for a bit. Sales are still bowling along, gradually whittling away at the deficit of the earlier ‘spring’ so cheers all round for that.

More young plant material due to arrive this coming week, so we are well into sticking it out for another season. The team of ladies in Sri-Lanka have made and packed our next shipment of pots so they will be with us in a few weeks when the ship docks in Southampton. We are not keeping them a busy as they would like but hopefully they will get by and continue developing their lovely pots in the hope that things will pick up and maybe they can find other markets. It is quite a responsibility this end to keep them gainfully employed as they don’t have the support out there that we get if things don’t work out. I suspect other more savvy business people would have high tailed it out of this job by now without a second thought but there is so much more than money invested in this enterprise.

Missed out on my Saturday morning Waitrose experience this weekend as I had to pop out on a delivery to the Eden Project. I was able to replace the usual Saturday delights with a carbohydrate binge session instead. They make and bake fantastic breads down there and after an early lunch of coffee, toasted teacake with Eccles cake for dessert I cleared out a large section of the shop with a collection of goodies to bring home. Having distributed a few bits to some of the family, I wasn’t quite sure where to start on getting back so tea ended up as slices of rye fruit loaf, the crust from the end of the white loaf, a lump of rosemary, onion and sundried tomato speciality loaf and a fruit scone with fresh clotted cream and jam washed down with a big mug of tea. So much pleasure from such a small outlay, who needs millions? Couldn’t move for the rest of the day.

Availability

Primula bulleysiana showing colour, great chunky plants.

Storming Salvia’s are all very well budded, still lovely chunky plants with colour now showing.

Incarvillea are showing buds and flower, looking chunky, an exotic but hardy surprise to many in the garden.

Campanula glomerata Acaulis in bud and showing colour, short and bushy. Carex Evergold and Ice Dance both look fantastic.

Delicate ferny foliage of Thalictrum diptocarpum with strong flower shoots thrusting through, a beauty but only a handful left.

The dwarf Polemonium Bambino Blue is looking great, strong chunky growth with colour just bursting through, very few left. Catananche have started pushing up their flower spikes ready to show off yummy sky blue summer flowers

Dainty but striking red flowers of Heuchera Ruby Bells and Firefly look delightful.

The dark flowering Verbascum Cherry Helen and the Pink Petticoats are also just beginning to throw up their flower shoots and looking strong.

Geums have plenty of bud and colour coming now.

We have our best Japanese Anemones ever at the moment, stonkingly bushy plants although flowering is still a little way off. The Hostas are very chunky and yummy this year too, get them before the slugs do! We use the organic and pet/wildlife safe Ferramol pellets to protect ours as well as encouraging the natural predators.

Fresh batches of Delphiniums and Lupins looking rampant.

Nature notes

In the local paper they are reporting house martin numbers down by two thirds over recent years. They still don’t know where they migrate to over the winter and are hoping to track them with tiny devices to see if they can l ocate ay issues. I was wondering if the missing 2/3’s are on our house. We are very lucky to have plenty nesting under the eaves and their numbers are building over the years. A new batch arrived this week boosting numbers to maybe 8-10 pairs. I will have to survey the nests carefully once they settle on a home and see how many are occupied. They fly so fast it is very difficult to count them on the wing, the best spot is by our house martin puddle in the yard where we have seen 14 on the ground at once. Little heads are popping out of the swallow nest and hopefully the weather improvement will make food supply abundant for them. We have had over the past 2 or 3 years a dusky backed Greater Spotted Woodpecker feeding on the suet and seeds along with the normal smarter pair. The washed out version is likely to be a European incomer apparently making the best of our generosity and we are honoured to have him around.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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