Monday 9 September 2013

Morning all,


Spectacular autumn weather here, nice drop of rain, a bit of sun and some stonking rainbows. Glad we didn t get that hail storm that hit Falmouth. Lets hope the garden interest continues to run on, we certainly have some great stock looking perky
Availability
Fresh Asters coming on song with loads of bud showing. Furthest advanced of those we have left are the pretty dwarf Starlight and Lady in Blue which are just starting to open the first flowers. Loads of other colours close behind including some of the ever popular Monch and a fresh batch of the stunning Purple Dome.
We also have a fresh batch of Anemones coming into their own. Strong plants with flower stems appearing either now or in the next week or two.
The short Verbena bonariensis Lillipop is in flower and a fresh batch of Verbena bonariensis is looking very strong and chunky. The grasses are coming into their own at the moment as many summer blooms pass by. Carex Evergold and Ice Dance both look fantastic. The silver variegated Miscanthus Morning Light is very strong this year and Panicum Prairie Sky looks great too with its tall, upright, elegant blue/grey foliage and flower stems bursting forth.
There are some late summer blooms appearing on the new bushy Salvia which will brighten the border.
Winter and early spring favourites are coming beautifully with strong late growth on the Helleborus, Pulmonaria, and Bergenia varieties. There are even a few stray flowers on the Primula vulgaris having a quick practice for their spring performance.
The Achillea varieties are have a splash too with some delightful Achillea The Pearl flowering on short upright stems.

Box returns
We have started picking up a lovely lot of boxes over the last week or two as we deliver our orders. If you have any of ouempty wooden trays ready to return please do let us know (email is fine) and we will arrange to pop in and pick the up when we are next in the area. It may take a little while if you are far away but we will try and put together some efficient runs to keep costs and carbon footprints down. Don’t worry if the boxes are damaged as we will still record them as returned and may well be able to repair them through the winter. If we can’t repair them we can break them up for the wood-burner and I can toast my cocktail sausage during those long winter evenings. If you have sold some on to your customers please let us know so we can get the figures balanced. It is really important we get these boxes returned so we can maintain such a good looking and sustainable delivery and display system.
Eco news
The LED light news for the growth room this week wasn’t very exciting after all but I did manage to get an order in for the latest TLED design lamps which should do an even better job than the previous model we put in a couple of years ago. Naturally the prices have increased since March except for the model we no longer want. Now we have a few weeks to wait before delivery and I can get them installed. Better light output and wider distribution means we can squeeze the shelves a bit closer together to increase the production area once we are completely converted. That might take a few years at the current rate of change but you never know we might win the lottery and do it quicker. After all what else would you spend a windfall on?
We monitor our water use daily just to keep an eye on things. We have caught a couple of major leaks quickly over the last year or two but we this week we resolved one that rather sneaked up on us. Greg spotted a mini spring appear between a couple of beds but well away from the know water system. On further investigation it turned out to be an old pipe that fed a water trough on the other side of the field. This was from when the farm was a dairy 40+ years ago and although everyone thought the pipe work was not live it turned out to be still fitted to our mains supply. Our consumption had stepped up on August 10th 2012 by just about 1 cubic meter a day but we had checked all the obvious places for leaks and just put it down to extra use, lab water purification, automatic loo flush, plant watering etc. Anyway after capping the pipe we are now back down to the old levels of use saving us about £1 a day. Not a lot but over the period of the leak that cost us £350+. Naturally having cured one leak another appeared within a couple of days with the mess room tap deciding to give up and coming on at full output as you are turning it off. Of course I chose exactly the wrong moment to go and get the replacement tap valve , just after 12.00 on a Saturday when all plumbing merchants shut. So that has got my Monday morning sorted out. My top tips for taking taps apart, put the plug in when taking out the little screw and put the tap parts down before taking a comfort break! Its been a good day.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

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