Hairy Weather

Morning all,
Not a nice day to be on the nursery. The wet I can cope with but when I can feel the office moving in the wind it all gets a bit tense. Luckily for me I can retreat to the sanctuary of the house later and listen to the football on the radio. Work on the new mess room cabin has been rained off, we’ve got the floor and walls up and the whole thing sheeted over but the roof will have to wait for some calmer conditions. Pre-treating the timbers worked brilliantly as I got the rain timings all wrong and ended up finishing the wall construction in rather wet conditions but all the water shed off nicely. Quite pleased with the results although it isn’t quite as spacious as I had imagined. It will be very cosy with twin walls and loads of insulation and not much space to heat! Looks like tomorrow is going to be better building weather, but still too windy for the roofing insulation sheets, but should get the last of the wall insulation fitted and some of the roof parts in place all ready for a last sprint to finish it off.
Struck down with stinker of cold which has completely shut down my brain. A nice lie down this afternoon is just what I need to recover a bit. No hockey this week so might have the time, although the chimney is demanding attention. Had to let the fire out this morning when the house filled with smoke. Something is stopping a decent draw so the brushes are ready for action. Hope it clears ok otherwise the heating is going to have to come on again.

Availability highlights
Still early days yet, but there are a lot of early signs of plant activity, many not quite ready for the list but it won’t be long if the weather doesn’t take a dive. The relatively mild winter, so far, has encouraged the Pulmonaria’s and Erysimums into bud and some are even showing some colour too. They are nice chunky plants with lots of potential and if the weather doesn’t go drastically cold there will be more to follow.
The Tulips and Alliums are poking through nicely with roots bursting through the pot sides, if anyone needs a few bulbs, Fritillarias are nicely showing now, it will be a little while before buds show but looking full of promise. Evergreen Liriope muscari looking verdant, definitely the best crop of these we have ever grow, always a tricky one to get leaf and roots both doing well at the same time! We have changed the production process completely and although a bit longer and more effort the results are really satisfying.

Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
During the winter our range of available stock is limited by the lack of enthusiasm of a lot of stock to show their face in the cold, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing and a few early season show offs too. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries