Monday 28 September 2015

Hairy Gas

Morning all,

Another bright weekend, joyously autumnal feel to it, pretty nippy early on but the sun makes up for that.
We had a great week ploughing through the last batch of potting compost and getting several tunnels cleared of the end of season debris. I am hoping for another good splurge on the potting this week keeping back just enough compost to pot the spring flowering bulbs and last Erysimum batches both due in over the next couple of weeks. Might be a bit tougher this week I reckon we are 7 people down on Monday compared to last week, a combination of holidays and the last of the uni students getting back to their ‘studies’.
Great game of rugby last night, very entertaining, certainly more competitive than our 9-2 defeat on the hockey pitch. Our first competitive game was doomed from the start. Away against one of the best teams in our league, only 10 men to start with, down to 9 within 2 minutes with an injury, he limped back on later, just before another one went off after being hit on the eyebrow defending a shot on goal. In the end we did pretty well keeping it to 9, I did my bit saving at least three off the line. Main bonus was getting off still upright, stiff today and resolved to get fitter for next time. Like that is going to happen! Had a very productive box collecting session over the last couple of weeks so thanks for putting those all together. We are well underway repairing and drying them all out ready for the winter. If anyone still has any boxes to collect please do drop us a line, we lose Phil our driver after this week for a while so it might take a little while to get to you but we can add you on the list.
Bought our first mince pies yesterday, just for a laugh. Shocking really how much retail commitment there is towards that one day. Still need to get the log cutting started. Used up a few of last year’s this week as it got a bit cool in the house, just took the edge off nicely and sent me to sleep. Hopefully all that house insulation and the wood-burner we put in will pay dividends again this winter and we can keep the central heating off again, bar a few of the coldest days.
Disappointing VW revelations this week, once again big business lets us all down and it turns out we diesel drivers are polluting more than we were told, all in the name of making a fast buck. It makes a mockery of anyone trying to do the right thing, why bother if no one else cares. Maybe because more and more do care. Let’s hope so. There wasn’t much sign of balanced discussion at Sparsholt college last week where they put on an open evening to show their plans for a green gas plant. Basically a modest bio-digester producing gas from fermenting grass to pump straight into the mains gas pipe. A relatively simple scheme, well hidden on the edge of the campus using grass and rye grown as part of a cereal crop rotation and supplied from local farms. The main impact would be the extra tractor journeys to bring the crop into the site of a maximum of 21 tractor return trips a day during the 5 month harvesting period. It would not only produce almost carbon neutral gas but be used as part of the development of renewable energy training and education courses for the engineers of the future. No extra traffic in the village and virtually no impact, but to stand in the middle of the room and listen you would think they had announced the building of a nuclear waste dump. All the queries of the local parish council were nicely answered on a sheet of A4 but any thought of reasoned discussion seemed to pass the majority of the visitors by. Come on boys and girls let’s put some thought into the legacy we are leaving the following generations and make a bit of a difference by promoting and changing to a better way. Our postcode is one of the highest carbon producing in the land and it shows little sign of wanting to change. Come on we can’t do it alone.

Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 21 September 2015

Hairy Drips

Morning all,

Lovely day today, bright sunshine and a light breeze, great day to be out in the garden. We certainly got a good drenching during the week but with the forecast looking on the damp side we had taken the precaution of clearing out a few blocked drains in advance which paid dividends in the following deluge. Some planning works. Better than the rather disappointing summer for which I blame myself, sorry. The hot weather came to an instant stop the moment I cut big holes in the roof of despatch to keep temperatures down. The cooling result was more effective than I could have imagined.
Potting is flying now as the orders slow up and we find a bit more time, last load of compost comes in on Monday so just 60,000 pots or so to go. Might take a weekend off then in celebration of getting to the end of another season, perhaps a visit to the pub, we’ll see. I think this is the last week for most of our summer casuals, university beckons, I’m sure they won’t miss us as much as we will miss them!
Dressing up tonight for a 1940’s ball at the Guildhall, no food just dancing and liquid refreshment. Not really quite fit enough for this after a week carrying a bit of a sniff (worst cold anyone ever had) but I can’t let my dance partners down so will keep taking the pills and soldier on. Live big band apparently, so could be good.
We are well underway picking up our empty wooden box stock from everyone, we are planning a trip up north next week so let me know if you need us to call in. I have a few destinations listed already so should be able to fill the van nicely. That’s it for today, my brain is a bit fuzzy for clear thinking or getting anywhere near entertaining, so I’m quitting in favour of a lie down for an hour or two before the night time heroics.
Only one swallow left in the shed now, all the others have gone, house martins as usual are the last to go but their trip south must be imminent. Another summer slips by. Must get on with the log cutting, that was another job I was going to get done before the summer ended.

Availability highlights
The traditional autumn flowering Asters now coming back on stream, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Hairy Head

Morning all,

Still busy trying to get through the late summer/autumn clean up and potting, there are never enough hours in the day. It doesn’t seem possible that in a very few weeks we will be all done and ready to batten down the hatches for the winter, awaiting the arrival of a hopefully early spring! Plant growth is still strong and it is always a relief to see the plants get away so fast after potting, producing such a strong framework for those stonking spring plants again. We have a huge crop of Pulmonaria varieties this year looking like they are going to make a fantastic spring show of colour. Marginal panic setting in that I might have got carried away on the numbers but they did so well last spring and with a few extra varieties adding to the appeal I hope with a nice run of favourable weather during the sales period they should fly out. Before the Pulmonaria make their mark we should have a great crop of hardy cyclamen to give us a bit of colour right through the autumn, winter and early spring. Again we have extended the range to add C. hederifolium colours to the lovely C. coum varieties we tried out last year.

Monster amount of work going on this last week on analysing the production output of the microprop lab to try and identify how we can keep the operation viable with the impending ‘living wage’ rises due to take effect over the next five years. We had considered stepping away from it when we considered the increasing global competition in this market where wages are at a fraction of our own, transport of such compact stock is so easy and price pressures continue to reign supreme. However the potential loss of one of the last plant labs in the UK seems to have galvanised more support than we had hoped for and there does look like there could still be a future in it even if not quite using the same model as we currently have. Quality product and local supply does have its supporters so although we may have to lose quite a few plant varieties in the lab, where the market won’t pay the extra few pence needed to make it viable here, we should be able to carve out some future in there. Frustration doesn’t really cover the position on some plants. We grow a great range of Hostas including many new varieties picked out for us by a specialist in the field. He acknowledges that we have the best, strongest, healthiest young plants he gets, foreign labs and open ground nurseries suffering from mixed and virus ridden stock but we recently lost a big customer attracted by the cheap prices from abroad and unfortunately our fab stock will not be there when someone decides price isn’t the be all and end all in producing quality plants. Still that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes, we just need to bit the bullet and make some tough choices.

Struggling to find mirth this morning, suffering the after effects of a big wedding yesterday, head, legs and feet sore after over indulgent dad dancing. Good band, nice beer and energetic happy company, well worth the pain of the next day. Glad not to have too much to do today, just a little bit of gentle production bed preparation for Mondays potting while The Strypes thrash away through the headphones. Caroline drew the short straw on the driving front yesterday, so I need to at least look busy while she prepares her 4,000 microprop modules for delivery first thing on Monday. Oh the joys of the idyllic rural life.

Availability highlights

The traditional autumn flowering Asters now coming back on stream, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.

A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.

The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.

Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.

Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 7 September 2015

Uplifting and Hairy

Morning all
Great result on Sunday for Saints got us off to a good start, followed by a relaxing Bank Holiday Monday. Started well with the cat letting go a lively young rat in the bedroom at 6.00am! Managed to catch it by 10.30 and eject it well away from the house so it hopefully won’t come back. It was all a bit much but it did get us to move all the furniture and have a bit of a clean up afterwards so not all bad. Popped down to Ikea with the rest of the population of Southampton for a few picture frames and I did a rehanging in the ‘dining room/dump’. Our collection of gig posters previously littered around the floor now make a patchwork on the biggest wall and it all looks pretty good even if I say so myself. The inherited cocktail cabinet looks majestic if underused on the other side, now just need to sort out the rest of the room to make it presentable, maybe a party room, I think that will have to wait for another year. One thing at a time.
Nursery staffing dwindled this week with some of the young seasonal staff disappearing back to school/college but still got lots to do. It will be flat out getting the tunnels cleared, autumn potting completed and ripped tunnel covers replaced before it gets too cold. We’ll get there, despite an annual panic we always get to the other side, then the quieter winter period allows us a breather to gather our thoughts.
The microprop lab’s future is looking slightly more promising after a big meeting with one of our biggest customers last week. It appears we are loved and needed by someone on the propagation front and there may be a way forward through the impeding big pay hikes of the next 5 years, it might mean a redirection of production to higher value lines and eliminate the waste and low value stuff where the foreign competition is too strong or the market won’t pay any extra. A shame for some of those markets where quality and virus free stock don’t stack up against saving a few pennies for each plant. Mind you the donning of my rose tinted specs after the meeting might have been down to all the right buttons being well pressed, we all want to be loved!
After a run of recent funerals including a special one last week, we are looking forward to a couple of nice celebrations next week, not only has Queeny reached her longest reign but Elaine on the nursery has reached 30 years service, she obviously started as child labour all those years ago and we can’t believe it has been so long since she pitched up in white jeans and heels! Also got a young person’s wedding to go to next weekend so looking forward to embarrassing all with some serious dad dancing. Hopefully my back will have recovered from yesterdays first hockey game, might be time to retire.
Availability highlights
Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant and slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking good. More traditional Asters now coming back on stream too, the ever popular dwarf violet/red Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful but only a few left now. The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Lovely fresh growth on the Lamium Beacon Silver, more really attractive and effective ground cover.The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Hairy Strypes

Morning all
Not the best of summer weather, bit damp and a distinct lack of the yellow stuff. We have a slight lull between flowering crops at the moment after record summer sales and some slow growth in the following crops. Still at least we are not as affected by the dull August as the local arable farmers. After a good start to the harvest it has all come to a grinding halt in the damp and crops are now being lost or at best downgraded as the grain begins to germinate in the ears. On top of a big drop in the prices as the world grain markets falter it looks like becoming a tricky year. Sods law always seems to make an appearance at times like this and sure enough late on Friday, just before the bank holiday weekend, a crucial part breaks and with Saturday being the first day for cutting for ages and no carriers available to get the part to the farm before Wednesday, the call goes out for an emergency driver. So that was my Saturday sorted, a 10hr round trip to the East Coast, perfect timing as I had planned most of the day off anyway.
That rounded off a week stuffed with exciting stuff. Last Sunday we had a great day at Avebury, a bit longer in the tea rooms and pub than planned but who’s complaining about that? Got soaked within 2 minutes at The Sanctuary our first stop and things looked dodgy but after a restorative tea and cake the rain slowed and we got round everything in reasonable comfort suitably educated, entertained and watered. Back in the same direction to Marlborough on Tuesday evening to a tiny independent record store who had The Strypes performing a short set to promote their new CD (Little Victories) in the coffee shop next door. Just brilliant, refreshing, vibrant, noisy and youthful. Got a copy signed and excitedly told them that we both thought they were as exciting live as the Police we had seen back in 79 before they became superstars. Only then realising their parents might not have even been born then! New cd on here all the time, getting better and better with each listen.
Big step this week with successful application for a new fuel card. Doesn’t sound much but it is quite difficult to get a new account in an industry that has struggled financially over the last few years. Our existing supplier had been taking advantage of this situation by adding more and more extra charges to our account so it was nice to land ourselves a much better deal. Should help contain costs a bit next season as the living wage kicks in. Having said that we had to replace the card reader this week as the model we had became ‘noncompliant’. A suspicion of clever in-built obsolescence in these expensive bits of kit? Very handy I know but we don’t really use it enough to not notice the monthly bill!
Must go, holiday treat today with a ticket to see Southampton play Norwich this afternoon. Well it seems like a treat at the moment, fingers crossed.

Availability highlights
The small yellow Kniphofia Little Maid looks very chunky and strong with buds now shooting through.
Aster frikartii Flora’s Delight, mildew resistant and slightly more purple than the ever popular blue Aster Monch and looking good. There is a new flush of Oxalis triangularis growth and flower, looking neat and cheerful but only a few left now The very popular straight form of Verbena bonariensis is just unmanageable when it gets towards flowering in our smaller pots so we keep them short and bushy, losing out on the colour in the pot but producing wonderfully strong plants ready to plant out.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Lovely fresh growth on the Lamium Beacon Silver, more really attractive and effective ground cover. The short neat Geum Koi is still going strong with bud and colour.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries