Hi,
Another week closer to Christmas and the credit card is taking a pounding. Unfortunately for Caroline, it isn't on flash presents, but on a series of breakdowns that always seem to build up as the festive break gets close and guests threaten to visit. After several months of a deteriorating TV signal we lost all channels last week and had to call in an expert to sort us out. A very helpful chap has got us going again, with a new areal amplifier/splitter, which after 30 years had given up. Luckily we had just invested in a TV stick so could log into BBC iplayer and catch up on a few missed programmes, while the aerial was out of action. That went well for 24hrs until the wireless router in the house died, so a new one is now on the way. Then the electric fly killer in the loft burnt out and will have to be replaced. That's my three, so should be a good run in from now.
Talking of shopping, I have just sorted out a new 3.5t van purchase, which should be ready for the end of February, just in time for the new season to really get going. We were so busy last year we ended up hiring a van for most of the spring and summer, which was not only quite expensive but inefficient too. The hire vans are not set up to carry trolleys and payloads are not great, we end up with a load capacity 35% below our bespoke van, which is fine for emergencies but not good for the long term. I have researched electric options, in the hope that we could take another bold step, but it's not quite there yet. Fiat have one due next year that has promise, but we will need to wait until they are in operation to see what the practical implications on payload and range will be. The body maker we use, already has industry leading payloads, thanks to its super lightweight design and materials. This time we have been able to order a fractionally wider body than before, which fits the trolleys much better and allows us to use a shorter body length. The loading ramp also doubles up as one of the rear doors which adds practicality and saves more weight. We have lashed out a little extra on alloy wheels and an even lighter alloy back-frame, which gives even more payload. Both should pay back handsomely over time. The more we deliver on each trip, the lower the impact on both the environment and the wallet.
Plant passport changes have arrived ready or not!.
The official start date was the 14th of December and although we have, in theory, a 12 month grace period to get it all set up correctly, we are trying to get it right from the word GO. Like many producers we have had to take a bit of a punt on how we interpret the new rules, after a period of a lack of clarity or clear practical direction from the advisory bodies. The next stage will be seeing what the Plant Health Inspectors make of our efforts, although I don't suppose they will have time to make many visits, until the dust settles after the implementation date and the likely ministerial and EU developments coming over the next few weeks. I am hoping you will not actually notice too much of a change, we have tried to keep our implementation as seamless as we can.
Here are the main changes we have made that you will see, to comply with the new regulations;
- All individual plant labels from now on will have extra PP info on them (A- the genus and species of the plant, B-our producer plant passport number, C- a batch number, D- country of origin, an image of the EU flag).
- All delivery notes have been redesigned to included the same info.
- All invoices have been redesigned to included the same info.
In theory, at the moment, we need not put the PP details on each individual plant, if we are supplying retailers. We could just attached a label on each trolley listing all the plants. However complications may occur if the plant is then sold on to another professional, who is buying and planting for someone else (eg a landscaper), where the plant passport info really should be passed on. This is only practical if the PP info is passed on with each plant. Quite how the landscaper then keeps the info on record for the required three years I'm not sure, but I suspect that issue will get ironed out at a later stage.
All new colour labels will have the PP info printed on them, and all old label stock will be over-stuck with small sticky labels
with PP info on each. The wooden herb labels, which we print ourselves, are all having new printing plates made for them and the info will appear towards the bottom of the label.
The changes to the delivery note and invoice are so that you can easily comply with the regulations and keep the PP records for the required three years. You have to keep invoices as a tax record for a longer time than three years already, so you can just use these as your PP record, without involving any extra filing etc. Alternatively you can use the delivery notes as your record, or use a combination of the two.
If I don't catch you next week, have a great Christmas and New Year. May you be cool, cosy and relaxed over the whole period and well into the coming year.
Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 16 December 2019
Monday 9 December 2019
Hairy Passports
Hi,
I hope you are all having a good run up to Christmas. Our tree was decorated yesterday so I'm ready.
Plant passport changes are here.
Considering how quiet it should be for us at this time of year, I still find myself here late into the evening and weekends too. The whole updating of the plant passporting system has really thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. The official start date is the 14th of December and although we have, in theory, a 12 month grace period to get it all set up correctly, we would really like to get it right from the word GO. Like many producers we have had to take a bit of a punt on how we interpret the new rules, after a period of a lack of clarity or clear practical direction from the advisory bodies. Last week saw a flurry of new guidance, but I'm not sure if it's all a bit late for most.
I am hoping you will not actually notice too much of a change, we have tried to keep the implementation as seamless as we can. Here are the main changes we have made that you will see, to comply with the new regulations;
- All individual plant labels from now on will have extra PP info on them (A- the genus and species of the plant, B-our producer plant passport number, C- a batch number, D- country of origin, an image of the EU flag).
- All delivery notes have been redesigned to included the same info.
- All invoices have been redesigned to included the same info.
In theory, at the moment, we need not put the PP details on each individual plant, if we are supplying retailers. We could just attached a label on each trolley listing all the plants. However complications may occur if the plant is then sold on to another professional, who is buying and planting for someone else (eg a landscaper), where the plant passport info really should be passed on. This is only practical if the PP info is passed on with each plant. Quite how the landscaper then keeps the info on record for the required three years I'm not sure, but I suspect that issue will get ironed out at a later stage.
All new colour labels will have the PP info printed on them, and all old label stock will be over-stuck with small sticky labels with PP info on it (160,000 to stick). The PP info appears in the rather convenient blank space, behind the top of the skewer on the reverse side of the label. The wooden herb labels, which we print ourselves, are all having new printing plates made for them and the info will appear towards the bottom of the label and is obscured from general sight at or just below the compost level. Because we now treat the labels with a bit of water protection the details remain visible for many weeks. If the authorities are worried about this positioning, we may have to print the info on a separate label and insert that in the pot too but we are hoping to avoid this, to save on resources.
The changes to the delivery note and invoice are so that you can easily comply with the regulations and keep the PP records for the required three years. You have to keep invoices as a tax record for a longer time than three years already, so you can just use these as your PP record, without involving any extra filing etc. Alternatively you can use the delivery notes as your record, or use a combination of the two.
I won't bore you with the programming fun I have had changing spreadsheet fields and data, report formats, screen designs and alike, but I hope we are just about there on all the paperwork. The colour label over-sticker printing and application is well underway (up to E!) and about half the new herb printing plates are made. I suspect my £10,000 estimate on implementation costs will be conservative, but luckily our programmer, sticker printer and plate maker is super cheap and likes a challenge!
Wooden box collections
We are just about done now with the collections of our wooden boxes. We are not out much at the moment but if anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Cyclamen coum varieties are doing their thing, in bud and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Winter interest in vartieties of evergreens bowls along, with a wider range than usual of Bergenia's which will start flowering in very early spring, along with the lovely Euphorbia's.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
I hope you are all having a good run up to Christmas. Our tree was decorated yesterday so I'm ready.
Plant passport changes are here.
Considering how quiet it should be for us at this time of year, I still find myself here late into the evening and weekends too. The whole updating of the plant passporting system has really thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. The official start date is the 14th of December and although we have, in theory, a 12 month grace period to get it all set up correctly, we would really like to get it right from the word GO. Like many producers we have had to take a bit of a punt on how we interpret the new rules, after a period of a lack of clarity or clear practical direction from the advisory bodies. Last week saw a flurry of new guidance, but I'm not sure if it's all a bit late for most.
I am hoping you will not actually notice too much of a change, we have tried to keep the implementation as seamless as we can. Here are the main changes we have made that you will see, to comply with the new regulations;
- All individual plant labels from now on will have extra PP info on them (A- the genus and species of the plant, B-our producer plant passport number, C- a batch number, D- country of origin, an image of the EU flag).
- All delivery notes have been redesigned to included the same info.
- All invoices have been redesigned to included the same info.
In theory, at the moment, we need not put the PP details on each individual plant, if we are supplying retailers. We could just attached a label on each trolley listing all the plants. However complications may occur if the plant is then sold on to another professional, who is buying and planting for someone else (eg a landscaper), where the plant passport info really should be passed on. This is only practical if the PP info is passed on with each plant. Quite how the landscaper then keeps the info on record for the required three years I'm not sure, but I suspect that issue will get ironed out at a later stage.
All new colour labels will have the PP info printed on them, and all old label stock will be over-stuck with small sticky labels with PP info on it (160,000 to stick). The PP info appears in the rather convenient blank space, behind the top of the skewer on the reverse side of the label. The wooden herb labels, which we print ourselves, are all having new printing plates made for them and the info will appear towards the bottom of the label and is obscured from general sight at or just below the compost level. Because we now treat the labels with a bit of water protection the details remain visible for many weeks. If the authorities are worried about this positioning, we may have to print the info on a separate label and insert that in the pot too but we are hoping to avoid this, to save on resources.
The changes to the delivery note and invoice are so that you can easily comply with the regulations and keep the PP records for the required three years. You have to keep invoices as a tax record for a longer time than three years already, so you can just use these as your PP record, without involving any extra filing etc. Alternatively you can use the delivery notes as your record, or use a combination of the two.
I won't bore you with the programming fun I have had changing spreadsheet fields and data, report formats, screen designs and alike, but I hope we are just about there on all the paperwork. The colour label over-sticker printing and application is well underway (up to E!) and about half the new herb printing plates are made. I suspect my £10,000 estimate on implementation costs will be conservative, but luckily our programmer, sticker printer and plate maker is super cheap and likes a challenge!
Wooden box collections
We are just about done now with the collections of our wooden boxes. We are not out much at the moment but if anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Cyclamen coum varieties are doing their thing, in bud and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Winter interest in vartieties of evergreens bowls along, with a wider range than usual of Bergenia's which will start flowering in very early spring, along with the lovely Euphorbia's.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 25 November 2019
Hairy Perudo
Hi
I'm back, did you miss me? No, I don't think they did here either. But that's it for another year, only 49 weeks to go before we can do it all again. Mega diet now, to try and regain pre holiday status before it all goes out the window again at Christmas. Had a great time, with some wild seaside weather making for some spectacular seas. A few friends came along and a number of pasties and beers were consumed, between dodging the rain. Now I need a quiet rest, it's surprisingly hard work all that relaxing.
One relief on our return was that the new drains, finished as we left, seem to be doing a good job with no issues so far. Fingers crossed. Otherwise, there was the usual mountain of emails and a bit of post to sort out, which took a while, but I'm just about there now I think, just a few big ones needing a bit more research.
All the boxes returned over the last few weeks have been cleaned, dried and stored away, and the broken un-repairable ones have been knocked apart and cut for the wood burner. So that part of despatch looks pretty organised and tidy. The top part however, is still full of trolleys of potted bulbs just waiting for growth to start up, before putting down in the tunnels. Quite a few are down already, but we try and keep them out of reach of hungry pests as long as we can, they can decimate crops very quickly if they work out where they are and get a taste. A few well placed, covered traps, help keep on top of anything getting a bit too adventurous but it is an ongoing battle.
It's been a bit of an eye opener this week, with the realisation of the scale of the work needed to get on top of the new Plant Passport regulations, that come into force on December 14th. It is something that has been rumbling around for a while, but we have been waiting for everything to settle down before committing to any major changes. It is a great idea in principle and we definitely need to be able to track down where plants have originated from, to improve the UKs level of bio-security. Unfortunately it has all come to a head, right in the middle of Brexit and the election, which means that the officials are unable to give clear direction on any queries (something to do with purdah, which I believe means they are playing the pirate dice game). I have spent a long time on the phone and email over the week, trying to pin down exactly what we need to do. There is plenty of contradictory advice available from various different 'high up' sources and it's been a tricky job to get the detail right. In fact we haven't sorted all of it yet, but we have all been told to just to have a go, as best we can, and APHA and DEFRA will sort it out over the coming year. So our plastic free, colour label design, for next spring's new labels has been adjusted to include all the PP details (including the EU flag which is likely to need to be changed to a UK flag should we leave Europe), I have changed the software here so we can print our own colour labels with the new details, and I have created a little program to print little sticky labels to over-stick the old label stock (approx 160,000). Then the most fun will be to make an entire set of new printing plates for all the wooden herb labels and start printing new labels. All our wooden labels are made in-house which gives us a lot of flexibility in what we can do, but when something like this pops up it does seem a job too far. Trouble is we are good at it and we can't afford the cost or inflexibility of passing it over to an outside printer. Luckily the work for this has peaked at a relatively quiet time for us, so we have a few weeks to get on top of it, but the cost in time and materials is going to exceed £10,000, which isn't a great start to our new financial year or for the cash-flow going into the winter. I just hope they don't make too many changes to the system, once we are underway, or it could get worse.
Wooden box collections
We are just about done now with the collections of our wooden boxes. If anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush. Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme at this time. We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range, along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with just a few Hellebore orientalis in stock and plenty of the Bergenia's.
Erigeron Stallone is still producing the occasional bud and flower although I haven't marked them on the list as they could stop any time. we had some still in colour at Christmas last year outside the back door, it just goes on and on. The neat little Erodiums still have the odd flower opening. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
I'm back, did you miss me? No, I don't think they did here either. But that's it for another year, only 49 weeks to go before we can do it all again. Mega diet now, to try and regain pre holiday status before it all goes out the window again at Christmas. Had a great time, with some wild seaside weather making for some spectacular seas. A few friends came along and a number of pasties and beers were consumed, between dodging the rain. Now I need a quiet rest, it's surprisingly hard work all that relaxing.
One relief on our return was that the new drains, finished as we left, seem to be doing a good job with no issues so far. Fingers crossed. Otherwise, there was the usual mountain of emails and a bit of post to sort out, which took a while, but I'm just about there now I think, just a few big ones needing a bit more research.
All the boxes returned over the last few weeks have been cleaned, dried and stored away, and the broken un-repairable ones have been knocked apart and cut for the wood burner. So that part of despatch looks pretty organised and tidy. The top part however, is still full of trolleys of potted bulbs just waiting for growth to start up, before putting down in the tunnels. Quite a few are down already, but we try and keep them out of reach of hungry pests as long as we can, they can decimate crops very quickly if they work out where they are and get a taste. A few well placed, covered traps, help keep on top of anything getting a bit too adventurous but it is an ongoing battle.
It's been a bit of an eye opener this week, with the realisation of the scale of the work needed to get on top of the new Plant Passport regulations, that come into force on December 14th. It is something that has been rumbling around for a while, but we have been waiting for everything to settle down before committing to any major changes. It is a great idea in principle and we definitely need to be able to track down where plants have originated from, to improve the UKs level of bio-security. Unfortunately it has all come to a head, right in the middle of Brexit and the election, which means that the officials are unable to give clear direction on any queries (something to do with purdah, which I believe means they are playing the pirate dice game). I have spent a long time on the phone and email over the week, trying to pin down exactly what we need to do. There is plenty of contradictory advice available from various different 'high up' sources and it's been a tricky job to get the detail right. In fact we haven't sorted all of it yet, but we have all been told to just to have a go, as best we can, and APHA and DEFRA will sort it out over the coming year. So our plastic free, colour label design, for next spring's new labels has been adjusted to include all the PP details (including the EU flag which is likely to need to be changed to a UK flag should we leave Europe), I have changed the software here so we can print our own colour labels with the new details, and I have created a little program to print little sticky labels to over-stick the old label stock (approx 160,000). Then the most fun will be to make an entire set of new printing plates for all the wooden herb labels and start printing new labels. All our wooden labels are made in-house which gives us a lot of flexibility in what we can do, but when something like this pops up it does seem a job too far. Trouble is we are good at it and we can't afford the cost or inflexibility of passing it over to an outside printer. Luckily the work for this has peaked at a relatively quiet time for us, so we have a few weeks to get on top of it, but the cost in time and materials is going to exceed £10,000, which isn't a great start to our new financial year or for the cash-flow going into the winter. I just hope they don't make too many changes to the system, once we are underway, or it could get worse.
Wooden box collections
We are just about done now with the collections of our wooden boxes. If anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush. Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme at this time. We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range, along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with just a few Hellebore orientalis in stock and plenty of the Bergenia's.
Erigeron Stallone is still producing the occasional bud and flower although I haven't marked them on the list as they could stop any time. we had some still in colour at Christmas last year outside the back door, it just goes on and on. The neat little Erodiums still have the odd flower opening. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 4 November 2019
New Hairy Catalogue
Hi
Not quite there on the last tunnel cover. We had a chance first thing Monday but a late delivery of the replacement timber side rail meant we missed the chance. Never mind I'm sure we will find a day soon enough, the exposed crops are all well established so no harm done yet.
The new drain inspection chamber is installed and just needs a tidy up. It is going to be one of those jobs that looks like very little has been done in the end, but it should help out enormously in the long run. A relief all round to get it sorted out.
I've been busy knocking up the catalogue for next year in an effort to get the info out there before the season actually starts. If you receive the availabiliy list by e mail there is a link on the bottom of the email which should take you straight to the new catalogue, otherwise if you head to the website and track down the wholesale info page there is a link there too. I have added a couple of pages near the start, illustrating the new varieties that have appeared recently or are coming in the new season. There are likely to be a few more new ones on trial through the season, but it just gives a you taste of the things to come. There is a small price increase for 2020 (page 61 in the catalogue), but this will not kick in until 1st Jan 2020.
If we usually print our wooden price labels for you, perhaps you might want to have a think about next year's retail prices, and whether you may want to adjust them. If you can let me know in advance I can get some labels printed up over the winter in readiness for the hectic spring and summer ahead of us. I am always full of good intentions at this time of year to get preparations well underway before we get too busy and this year I'm determined it is going to happen. Now I have a nice warm highly insulated office and print room, there should be less incentive to slope off for tea and crumpets in front of the fire. We'll see what happens.
I am away now for a short while but the rest of the crew are still here to take any orders that come in, so I'm sure you won't miss me. I will reply to any queries that can't be dealt with by the remaining team on my return, it won't be too long, so please bear with us.
Wooden box collections
We are just about done now with the collections of our wooden boxes. If anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are still showing good colour, but only a few left now.
Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme at this time. We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range, along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with Hellebore orientalis in stock and the Bergenia's back on line. Erigeron Stallone is still producing bud and flower, it just goes on and on. The neat little Erodiums are still flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We still have an ongoing flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Not quite there on the last tunnel cover. We had a chance first thing Monday but a late delivery of the replacement timber side rail meant we missed the chance. Never mind I'm sure we will find a day soon enough, the exposed crops are all well established so no harm done yet.
The new drain inspection chamber is installed and just needs a tidy up. It is going to be one of those jobs that looks like very little has been done in the end, but it should help out enormously in the long run. A relief all round to get it sorted out.
I've been busy knocking up the catalogue for next year in an effort to get the info out there before the season actually starts. If you receive the availabiliy list by e mail there is a link on the bottom of the email which should take you straight to the new catalogue, otherwise if you head to the website and track down the wholesale info page there is a link there too. I have added a couple of pages near the start, illustrating the new varieties that have appeared recently or are coming in the new season. There are likely to be a few more new ones on trial through the season, but it just gives a you taste of the things to come. There is a small price increase for 2020 (page 61 in the catalogue), but this will not kick in until 1st Jan 2020.
If we usually print our wooden price labels for you, perhaps you might want to have a think about next year's retail prices, and whether you may want to adjust them. If you can let me know in advance I can get some labels printed up over the winter in readiness for the hectic spring and summer ahead of us. I am always full of good intentions at this time of year to get preparations well underway before we get too busy and this year I'm determined it is going to happen. Now I have a nice warm highly insulated office and print room, there should be less incentive to slope off for tea and crumpets in front of the fire. We'll see what happens.
I am away now for a short while but the rest of the crew are still here to take any orders that come in, so I'm sure you won't miss me. I will reply to any queries that can't be dealt with by the remaining team on my return, it won't be too long, so please bear with us.
Wooden box collections
We are just about done now with the collections of our wooden boxes. If anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are still showing good colour, but only a few left now.
Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme at this time. We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range, along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with Hellebore orientalis in stock and the Bergenia's back on line. Erigeron Stallone is still producing bud and flower, it just goes on and on. The neat little Erodiums are still flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We still have an ongoing flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Sunday 20 October 2019
Hairy Risks
Hi
Still topping up the water aquifer levels over the past week, which must be good news for next year's supplies locally. We had one lull in the dampness and managed to get one tunnel recovered, just 5 to go. I'm hoping the brighter forecast for early next week will appear as predicted, as I have taken a gamble and removed another two more covers in anticipation. It doesn't take us very long to attach a new cover, it's the preparation that can put a spanner in the works. It's not until you get the old cover off that you can really see the condition of the wooden beams along the tunnel edge and if the odd one has rotted or split,
then we need to get it replaced before the new cover goes back on. It doesn't take a huge amount of time or resources but it just adds in an irritating delay and the dreams of getting two covered in a day evaporate. With a good run we might get them all done next week which would be perfect timing, before temperatures drop and the tunnel sheets get less stretchy.
As the potting slows right up, just the odd little batch still going through, and sales drop away, we get started on the autumn clear out and clean up. All through the main season we just don't have the time to keep on top of all the housekeeping, sales and production output, naturally take priority. Now pressure on storage space in the barn builds as we squeeze all in the cleaned up wooden boxes to store dry through the winter. Suddenly the quantity of recycling materials we have stored away in there becomes a huge inconvenience, so to clear that away and make a load of space is very gratifying to all. Today we managed to take 16 pallets of material to Eco Gen Recycling in Alresford which is just a few miles away. The plastic tubs we use in the lab all get recycled along with the old tunnel sheets and big card boxes that the pots are delivered in all find a home there. The recycling collections we get from the local waste collectors are like many, more expensive and very restricted in what they will take away, so to get a higher percentage of our waste recycled we have to organise collecting stuff together ourselves and then finding other parties to help out on the recycling. It is surprising how much extra we can get recycled rather than incinerated with a bit of effort.
Tunnel clearing continues into the autumn as we amalgamate the remaining pots from some of the summer and autumn plant batches. It's another satisfying job, transforming the tunnel from a bomb site to a clear and clean space ready to produce mega crops again next spring. We aim to have 8 or so empty tunnels ready to put the potted bulbs down onto in a month or two, and for the late winter and early spring potting which needs a home before more space appears after the anticipated early spring sales. It's all go.
Time for a bit of shopping too. Our next big batch of card based colour pot labels is ordered which will, unfortunately for me, trigger a mind numbing session of proof reading in few weeks, before the actual print run. We are delighted and relieved how the new card labels we introduced last year, went down, we used about 160,000 which were used in about 50% of all the stock sold, without any know issues and the labels we have left are still in mint condition. These new initiatives are always a bit of a worry, however much testing you do beforehand, so to be able to order 288,000 for next year with confidence is a nice position to be in (until the invoice appears). As the first outdoor plant supplier to develop and commit to using this type of thing, we might even make a bit more fuss about it this year and perhaps mention it to the trade press, apparently single-use plastic avoidance is quite the in thing these days.
Wooden box collections
We are just about done with the collections of our wooden boxes, just a couple of outlying ones still to gather in. If anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush. Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with Hellebore orientalis in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in bud, it just goes on and on. Autumn is here with Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are still flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have an ongoing flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Still topping up the water aquifer levels over the past week, which must be good news for next year's supplies locally. We had one lull in the dampness and managed to get one tunnel recovered, just 5 to go. I'm hoping the brighter forecast for early next week will appear as predicted, as I have taken a gamble and removed another two more covers in anticipation. It doesn't take us very long to attach a new cover, it's the preparation that can put a spanner in the works. It's not until you get the old cover off that you can really see the condition of the wooden beams along the tunnel edge and if the odd one has rotted or split,
then we need to get it replaced before the new cover goes back on. It doesn't take a huge amount of time or resources but it just adds in an irritating delay and the dreams of getting two covered in a day evaporate. With a good run we might get them all done next week which would be perfect timing, before temperatures drop and the tunnel sheets get less stretchy.
As the potting slows right up, just the odd little batch still going through, and sales drop away, we get started on the autumn clear out and clean up. All through the main season we just don't have the time to keep on top of all the housekeeping, sales and production output, naturally take priority. Now pressure on storage space in the barn builds as we squeeze all in the cleaned up wooden boxes to store dry through the winter. Suddenly the quantity of recycling materials we have stored away in there becomes a huge inconvenience, so to clear that away and make a load of space is very gratifying to all. Today we managed to take 16 pallets of material to Eco Gen Recycling in Alresford which is just a few miles away. The plastic tubs we use in the lab all get recycled along with the old tunnel sheets and big card boxes that the pots are delivered in all find a home there. The recycling collections we get from the local waste collectors are like many, more expensive and very restricted in what they will take away, so to get a higher percentage of our waste recycled we have to organise collecting stuff together ourselves and then finding other parties to help out on the recycling. It is surprising how much extra we can get recycled rather than incinerated with a bit of effort.
Tunnel clearing continues into the autumn as we amalgamate the remaining pots from some of the summer and autumn plant batches. It's another satisfying job, transforming the tunnel from a bomb site to a clear and clean space ready to produce mega crops again next spring. We aim to have 8 or so empty tunnels ready to put the potted bulbs down onto in a month or two, and for the late winter and early spring potting which needs a home before more space appears after the anticipated early spring sales. It's all go.
Time for a bit of shopping too. Our next big batch of card based colour pot labels is ordered which will, unfortunately for me, trigger a mind numbing session of proof reading in few weeks, before the actual print run. We are delighted and relieved how the new card labels we introduced last year, went down, we used about 160,000 which were used in about 50% of all the stock sold, without any know issues and the labels we have left are still in mint condition. These new initiatives are always a bit of a worry, however much testing you do beforehand, so to be able to order 288,000 for next year with confidence is a nice position to be in (until the invoice appears). As the first outdoor plant supplier to develop and commit to using this type of thing, we might even make a bit more fuss about it this year and perhaps mention it to the trade press, apparently single-use plastic avoidance is quite the in thing these days.
Wooden box collections
We are just about done with the collections of our wooden boxes, just a couple of outlying ones still to gather in. If anyone still has any trays ready to go, just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. Thanks for all your help, on the whole we have kept up a great return rate, which helps the whole system continue to work sustainably.
Availability highlights
Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush. Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with Hellebore orientalis in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in bud, it just goes on and on. Autumn is here with Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are still flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have an ongoing flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Saturday 12 October 2019
Hairy trip and dip
Hi
Every cloud has a silver lining. The autumn rain puts a damper on many activities but it is topping up the very low local water levels down here and pushing the wind turbines round nicely. If the forecast is right over the next couple of weeks we could have a good run of output and catch up a bit on our slightly low numbers for this year. Night time temperatures are not too bad which should give the predatory nematodes I released last Saturday a good run at knocking out any vine weevil grubs they find, which makes me feel better about settling the last of the predator invoices. At this time of year when I see the totals spent on predators for the season it looks like a pretty major investment and all we do is let them go free in the tunnels. They are so small we can't see them actually doing anything, we just have to assume they are doing their job, based on the evidence of low pest populations. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
The bulb potting was finished this week and the top of despatch is matching the bottom with the level of congested mayhem. We have trolleys and trolleys of potted stock all waiting for those roots to get going and shoots to burst through. We put them onto trolleys initially to try and delay the local rodents from tucking into a free lunch. In the past we have had complete batches wiped out where we put them straight onto the beds, but the trolley trick allows them to be a bit more established before we put them down. It adds a bit more handling to the job but at least we can be more sure of getting a crop out of it in the end. Live and learn.
I managed an evening out last Saturday with a jive ball at the Guildhall. A big do with hundreds of party goers, it was a great night out despite a dodgy start and finish. Having scrubbed up fairly well from a day on the nursery, I arrived in my DJ and best shoes to find a host of security bouncers on the door. Wanting to make a cool and grown up entrance in front of the welcoming committee, I skipped up the stone steps, tripping over my own feet and landing on my hands and knees in front of them. Cool or what. The evening was rounded off by a dash back to the car park in heavy rain. I avoided the ramp which I had seen earlier had a muddy puddle at the bottom in favour of the steps. Stayed upright this time but didn't see the puddle in the dark at the bottom. One step in, sod it, another step, a bit deeper, another and I'm in over my laces. So I arrived in my best shoes and left not. This is why old folk don't go out much, we are such an embarrassment in public.
If anyone was paying attention last week you may recall I videoed Caroline resetting the turbine blade tip. Well I found a young person to help get it off my phone so here it is, it is a bit pixelated but you can get the drift of what's going on. The technique used is to push the blade away from you and as it swings back, hit it with your special foam covered extendable pole. The tip then pops back into position.
Wooden box collections
We are up to our necks now in cleaned and drying boxes as we draw close to finishing our big autumn sweep. There are pallets of them already stacked up nice and dry in the barn ready for next season, with the bottom of despatch festooned with carefully balanced piles of boxes all vying for that rare bit of sunshine or breath of drying air movement to get fully dried off. Thanks to all those for helping out with the collection and if anyone still has any trays ready to go just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. I know we have another Manchester run next week and a couple into London too, so by the end of the week we should have covered most bases. In this case all that reuse/recycling does work, well done to all.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in bud, it just goes on and on.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are looking colourful. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely.
Autumn must be here with Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have an ongoing flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Every cloud has a silver lining. The autumn rain puts a damper on many activities but it is topping up the very low local water levels down here and pushing the wind turbines round nicely. If the forecast is right over the next couple of weeks we could have a good run of output and catch up a bit on our slightly low numbers for this year. Night time temperatures are not too bad which should give the predatory nematodes I released last Saturday a good run at knocking out any vine weevil grubs they find, which makes me feel better about settling the last of the predator invoices. At this time of year when I see the totals spent on predators for the season it looks like a pretty major investment and all we do is let them go free in the tunnels. They are so small we can't see them actually doing anything, we just have to assume they are doing their job, based on the evidence of low pest populations. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
The bulb potting was finished this week and the top of despatch is matching the bottom with the level of congested mayhem. We have trolleys and trolleys of potted stock all waiting for those roots to get going and shoots to burst through. We put them onto trolleys initially to try and delay the local rodents from tucking into a free lunch. In the past we have had complete batches wiped out where we put them straight onto the beds, but the trolley trick allows them to be a bit more established before we put them down. It adds a bit more handling to the job but at least we can be more sure of getting a crop out of it in the end. Live and learn.
I managed an evening out last Saturday with a jive ball at the Guildhall. A big do with hundreds of party goers, it was a great night out despite a dodgy start and finish. Having scrubbed up fairly well from a day on the nursery, I arrived in my DJ and best shoes to find a host of security bouncers on the door. Wanting to make a cool and grown up entrance in front of the welcoming committee, I skipped up the stone steps, tripping over my own feet and landing on my hands and knees in front of them. Cool or what. The evening was rounded off by a dash back to the car park in heavy rain. I avoided the ramp which I had seen earlier had a muddy puddle at the bottom in favour of the steps. Stayed upright this time but didn't see the puddle in the dark at the bottom. One step in, sod it, another step, a bit deeper, another and I'm in over my laces. So I arrived in my best shoes and left not. This is why old folk don't go out much, we are such an embarrassment in public.
If anyone was paying attention last week you may recall I videoed Caroline resetting the turbine blade tip. Well I found a young person to help get it off my phone so here it is, it is a bit pixelated but you can get the drift of what's going on. The technique used is to push the blade away from you and as it swings back, hit it with your special foam covered extendable pole. The tip then pops back into position.
Wooden box collections
We are up to our necks now in cleaned and drying boxes as we draw close to finishing our big autumn sweep. There are pallets of them already stacked up nice and dry in the barn ready for next season, with the bottom of despatch festooned with carefully balanced piles of boxes all vying for that rare bit of sunshine or breath of drying air movement to get fully dried off. Thanks to all those for helping out with the collection and if anyone still has any trays ready to go just drop me a line and we will pop in when next close by. I know we have another Manchester run next week and a couple into London too, so by the end of the week we should have covered most bases. In this case all that reuse/recycling does work, well done to all.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in bud, it just goes on and on.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are looking colourful. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely.
Autumn must be here with Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have an ongoing flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 7 October 2019
Hairy Clamber
Hi,
It's looking pretty autumnal out there, as the wind blows and rain patters on the roof of the shed, sorry I mean office. The forecast for next week doesn't look much different either, so we are gathering ourselves for a last potting push in the wet and cool conditions. Still have my fingers crossed for a few warm still days at some point, so we can get the replacement tunnel covers on before the winter sets in. It all seems to have changed so quickly.
It's been a week of all action jobs, on top of the potting and box collecting. We had two turbines throw out their centrifugal pinned blade tips on Sunday afternoon, that's the first time they have done that for nearly four years. It is one of the safety measures to avoid over-speeding blades if the power cuts out and the brakes don't come on in time. Unfortunately it was too wild on Sunday to send Caroline up the mast, but first thing Monday it was harnesses and hard hats on for a quick clamber.
All went smoothly, once I remembered how to park the blades in the right position for Caroline to knock back into position. I've got a nice little video clip of her in action, but I don't have a young person here at the moment to get it off my phone and onto the computer so that will have to wait.
Then we had a double whammy in the loos, with a water pipe coming adrift and the outflow getting blocked on the same day. The water pipe was ok but the other was a bit more of a challenge. Pipes were disconnected and a variety of poking rods, hoses and sticks deployed, but in the end we had to get the pit pumped out to reduce resistance to the flow and then it all cleared. Not much fun but still a relief to all in the end! So much for the fab lifestyle of running you own nursery.
It's our financial year end, so the rest of the week has been spent doing a lot of counting, not one of my favourite jobs as it all seems so unproductive. One of those things that just has to be done. At least after 35 years of doing it we have lots of useful spreadsheets and systems to make it as easy as possible. Although much of the stock is listed on the nursery computer programme, it still needs double checking and adjusting to get it accurate. Just a few more tunnels to go, so I should be finished on Sunday before the real work gets going again on Monday.
The last of the summer predators arrived this week. It's getting a bit cool in most tunnels for most to be active enough, so we restrict them to the warmer micro prop weaning tunnels, especially the main heated and lit one, where the pests tend to keep growing all year as well as the plants. The only 'whole nursery' release will be the three nematode species which should go out on Sunday evening. It will be the last of our vine weevil control applications for this year and will hopefully knock out any
late weevil hatches before the winter sets in. Our small monthly applications, applied throughout the growing season, certainly seem to do the trick in keeping this nasty pest under control. With the range application hiccups that can occur, especially when it's me in charge, the multiple applications spread the risk, providing a constant background population of weevil eaters.
Wooden box collections
Thanks for all the box collection responses, we have made a great start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. The barn is filling up rapidly with cleaned, dried and mended boxes which is great to see. All that reuse/recycling does work, well done to all.
To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan. but the more trays we know about the better.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in bud, it just goes on and on.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a good from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
It's looking pretty autumnal out there, as the wind blows and rain patters on the roof of the shed, sorry I mean office. The forecast for next week doesn't look much different either, so we are gathering ourselves for a last potting push in the wet and cool conditions. Still have my fingers crossed for a few warm still days at some point, so we can get the replacement tunnel covers on before the winter sets in. It all seems to have changed so quickly.
It's been a week of all action jobs, on top of the potting and box collecting. We had two turbines throw out their centrifugal pinned blade tips on Sunday afternoon, that's the first time they have done that for nearly four years. It is one of the safety measures to avoid over-speeding blades if the power cuts out and the brakes don't come on in time. Unfortunately it was too wild on Sunday to send Caroline up the mast, but first thing Monday it was harnesses and hard hats on for a quick clamber.
All went smoothly, once I remembered how to park the blades in the right position for Caroline to knock back into position. I've got a nice little video clip of her in action, but I don't have a young person here at the moment to get it off my phone and onto the computer so that will have to wait.
Then we had a double whammy in the loos, with a water pipe coming adrift and the outflow getting blocked on the same day. The water pipe was ok but the other was a bit more of a challenge. Pipes were disconnected and a variety of poking rods, hoses and sticks deployed, but in the end we had to get the pit pumped out to reduce resistance to the flow and then it all cleared. Not much fun but still a relief to all in the end! So much for the fab lifestyle of running you own nursery.
It's our financial year end, so the rest of the week has been spent doing a lot of counting, not one of my favourite jobs as it all seems so unproductive. One of those things that just has to be done. At least after 35 years of doing it we have lots of useful spreadsheets and systems to make it as easy as possible. Although much of the stock is listed on the nursery computer programme, it still needs double checking and adjusting to get it accurate. Just a few more tunnels to go, so I should be finished on Sunday before the real work gets going again on Monday.
The last of the summer predators arrived this week. It's getting a bit cool in most tunnels for most to be active enough, so we restrict them to the warmer micro prop weaning tunnels, especially the main heated and lit one, where the pests tend to keep growing all year as well as the plants. The only 'whole nursery' release will be the three nematode species which should go out on Sunday evening. It will be the last of our vine weevil control applications for this year and will hopefully knock out any
late weevil hatches before the winter sets in. Our small monthly applications, applied throughout the growing season, certainly seem to do the trick in keeping this nasty pest under control. With the range application hiccups that can occur, especially when it's me in charge, the multiple applications spread the risk, providing a constant background population of weevil eaters.
Wooden box collections
Thanks for all the box collection responses, we have made a great start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. The barn is filling up rapidly with cleaned, dried and mended boxes which is great to see. All that reuse/recycling does work, well done to all.
To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan. but the more trays we know about the better.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in bud, it just goes on and on.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a good from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sunday 29 September 2019
Hairy sheets
Morning all,
Ok tan had washed off now, definitely feeling autumnal. Looks like a damp windy few days to come, not great for retail or visitor footfall but great for our wind turbines.
We are needing to make up a bit of lost ground on the wind front, as it has been the quietest year on kW hours output so far, over the 8 years we have run the turbines. Luckily other factors, like our continued reduction in electric use (approx 25% less over the 8 years and 45% since 2008) and increases in income per unit, mean that the combined income and savings over the year so far, are not so bad at 5th out of the 8. Can you tell I am sadly obsessed with the numbers, I have a fab spreadsheet with all the daily meter readings, both in and out, and I have had the time this week to get it all up to date, it was the highlight of the week.
The bulb peat-free compost is tipped out and ready to go, and the bulbs arrived on Thursday so no excuse, it's heads down for the rather long winded job of counting out the right number of bulbs into each pot for each different variety. It takes at least three times as long to pot them as it would to pot a growing plant but needs must, we haven't yet found a short cut.
We had some very intensive downpours this week. The rain gauge only goes up to 44mm and it overflowed one day. Luckily we are on a sloping site and shallow top-soiled chalk land so it drains away pretty readily but not before it overwhelms the track ways and drains and floods and deposits mud where it shouldn't be. It is happening more often and another reminder for us to do more both on the preparations for such events and reducing carbon output where we can.
I've started doing a bit more planning preparation for our first electric van investment. It started with another exciting spreadsheet, with all the daily delivery mileages done over the last few years. Luckily we fill in a daily safety check sheet on all the vehicles and that records the milometer readings each day, so it is quite easy to transfer the data and work out how many of the trips could be within the scope of an electric delivery. The basic vehicle range is a starting point plus we have the
option of recharging over breaks to add a few more miles. I may have to wait for more accurate practical figures for the ranges and charging times of the new models coming out, but at least I will have a much better idea of the range we will need. We will need to keep the electric recharging cost as low as we can to help the payback period, so recharging off site will be restricted and charging on the cheap from our turbines the priority. That would give us an extra small advantage and possibly help push an earlier entry into the market than perhaps other businesses. Can you hear me talking myself into this! It won't be in 2020, but perhaps the following year when one of the vans will be due a trade in.
Wooden box collections
Thanks for all the box collection responses, we have made a great start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. The barn is filling up rapidly with cleaned, dried and mended boxes which is great to see. All that reuse/recycling is working. well done to all.
To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line.
Achillea Little Moonshine is back in stock. Short and in flower with its yellow flowers over grey foliage, it's looking good. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely.
We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Ok tan had washed off now, definitely feeling autumnal. Looks like a damp windy few days to come, not great for retail or visitor footfall but great for our wind turbines.
We are needing to make up a bit of lost ground on the wind front, as it has been the quietest year on kW hours output so far, over the 8 years we have run the turbines. Luckily other factors, like our continued reduction in electric use (approx 25% less over the 8 years and 45% since 2008) and increases in income per unit, mean that the combined income and savings over the year so far, are not so bad at 5th out of the 8. Can you tell I am sadly obsessed with the numbers, I have a fab spreadsheet with all the daily meter readings, both in and out, and I have had the time this week to get it all up to date, it was the highlight of the week.
The bulb peat-free compost is tipped out and ready to go, and the bulbs arrived on Thursday so no excuse, it's heads down for the rather long winded job of counting out the right number of bulbs into each pot for each different variety. It takes at least three times as long to pot them as it would to pot a growing plant but needs must, we haven't yet found a short cut.
We had some very intensive downpours this week. The rain gauge only goes up to 44mm and it overflowed one day. Luckily we are on a sloping site and shallow top-soiled chalk land so it drains away pretty readily but not before it overwhelms the track ways and drains and floods and deposits mud where it shouldn't be. It is happening more often and another reminder for us to do more both on the preparations for such events and reducing carbon output where we can.
I've started doing a bit more planning preparation for our first electric van investment. It started with another exciting spreadsheet, with all the daily delivery mileages done over the last few years. Luckily we fill in a daily safety check sheet on all the vehicles and that records the milometer readings each day, so it is quite easy to transfer the data and work out how many of the trips could be within the scope of an electric delivery. The basic vehicle range is a starting point plus we have the
option of recharging over breaks to add a few more miles. I may have to wait for more accurate practical figures for the ranges and charging times of the new models coming out, but at least I will have a much better idea of the range we will need. We will need to keep the electric recharging cost as low as we can to help the payback period, so recharging off site will be restricted and charging on the cheap from our turbines the priority. That would give us an extra small advantage and possibly help push an earlier entry into the market than perhaps other businesses. Can you hear me talking myself into this! It won't be in 2020, but perhaps the following year when one of the vans will be due a trade in.
Wooden box collections
Thanks for all the box collection responses, we have made a great start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. The barn is filling up rapidly with cleaned, dried and mended boxes which is great to see. All that reuse/recycling is working. well done to all.
To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line.
Achillea Little Moonshine is back in stock. Short and in flower with its yellow flowers over grey foliage, it's looking good. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely.
We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing great colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 23 September 2019
Hairy Charging
Hi,
Topped up the nursery workers tan this week (head and forearms only, the rest is lillywhite). Not a good look on the beach, although everyone I meet socially seems to think I spend all my time on holiday. Might all get washed off next week, although the gardens down here will be glad of a soaking. All my rolls of sheeting arrived for the split tunnels yesterday, now we just need a bit of time, the sun to shine again and the wind to drop. Potting is nearly up to date so time may be available, although with the bulb delivery imminent, the Erysimums on the way and another batch of staff holidays in the diary over the next couple of weeks it will be a juggle. We always get there in the end so I won't get too stressed about it and the end of the manic season is definitely in sight.
I have already been having a look at what investments we might make over the winter, which combines the excitement at making some purchases and the fear of what it does to the overdraft during the critical winter and early spring months. We have just had our biggest sales year ever, which is really encouraging, but as sales grow and costs continue to rise we need to find ways of getting even more efficient so that there is something left at the end of the year to reduce our dependency on the bank and pay our wages. One of the potential purchases is another 3.5T van to reduce the time we are having to hire one. This year we used a hire van over a much longer period, which obviously increased the cost, but also reduced our delivery efficiency. The hire vans tend not to have anywhere near the payload level of our super-lightweight low loader van and also need a tail-lift to get the trolleys on board which reduces payload even more. We end up getting far less on board for each trip, which means more trips, more miles and more time. There is an electric version coming out later in 2020, but I think that will have to wait until next time, at an expected £60,000+ (more than twice the cost of a diesel version) and as yet untested in the real world, it would be a step too far at the moment. We would be ok on running costs with our turbines producing cheap electricity, but with the initial cost and with a range of just 230 miles between charges, it would be a bit tight. Hopefully it won't be long before we can take that step and at least deliver that way to the reasonably local customers. Recharging over lunch could get us another 100 miles, so it's not too far off.
Wooden box collections
We have made a start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals over the last couple of weeks and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
We do have records on the ins and outs of the wooden box stock, so I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go, but if you can let us know when you are ready for a collection and roughly how many you have, that would be great. It all helps. It may take a week or two to get to you but we will be there as soon as we efficiently can.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Achillea Little Moonshine is back in stock. Short and in flower with its yellow flowers over grey foliage, it's looking good. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely. We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing great colour.
Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Topped up the nursery workers tan this week (head and forearms only, the rest is lillywhite). Not a good look on the beach, although everyone I meet socially seems to think I spend all my time on holiday. Might all get washed off next week, although the gardens down here will be glad of a soaking. All my rolls of sheeting arrived for the split tunnels yesterday, now we just need a bit of time, the sun to shine again and the wind to drop. Potting is nearly up to date so time may be available, although with the bulb delivery imminent, the Erysimums on the way and another batch of staff holidays in the diary over the next couple of weeks it will be a juggle. We always get there in the end so I won't get too stressed about it and the end of the manic season is definitely in sight.
I have already been having a look at what investments we might make over the winter, which combines the excitement at making some purchases and the fear of what it does to the overdraft during the critical winter and early spring months. We have just had our biggest sales year ever, which is really encouraging, but as sales grow and costs continue to rise we need to find ways of getting even more efficient so that there is something left at the end of the year to reduce our dependency on the bank and pay our wages. One of the potential purchases is another 3.5T van to reduce the time we are having to hire one. This year we used a hire van over a much longer period, which obviously increased the cost, but also reduced our delivery efficiency. The hire vans tend not to have anywhere near the payload level of our super-lightweight low loader van and also need a tail-lift to get the trolleys on board which reduces payload even more. We end up getting far less on board for each trip, which means more trips, more miles and more time. There is an electric version coming out later in 2020, but I think that will have to wait until next time, at an expected £60,000+ (more than twice the cost of a diesel version) and as yet untested in the real world, it would be a step too far at the moment. We would be ok on running costs with our turbines producing cheap electricity, but with the initial cost and with a range of just 230 miles between charges, it would be a bit tight. Hopefully it won't be long before we can take that step and at least deliver that way to the reasonably local customers. Recharging over lunch could get us another 100 miles, so it's not too far off.
Wooden box collections
We have made a start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals over the last couple of weeks and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
We do have records on the ins and outs of the wooden box stock, so I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go, but if you can let us know when you are ready for a collection and roughly how many you have, that would be great. It all helps. It may take a week or two to get to you but we will be there as soon as we efficiently can.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Achillea Little Moonshine is back in stock. Short and in flower with its yellow flowers over grey foliage, it's looking good. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of flower and bud and more to come. A good range of colours, showing off nicely. We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing great colour.
Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Sunday 15 September 2019
Hairy Box Collections
Hi,
A fantastic splash of sunshine and warmth down here in the south. A whole weekend of it too. Make the most of it. Caroline has gone off to the Romsey Show to check out all the farm animals and I suspect take part in a bit of well earned retail therapy. Unfortunately I have just got too much to do here today, just trying to catch up on all the stuff I didn't finish off yesterday. It's that end of summer holiday time and we keep running out of bodies to get everything done in regulation time. It's a time of year when every day counts when it comes to getting the plants into their pots in time to put on a healthy spurt of growth before the light fails and temperature drops. A days growth now is worth at least a week in December, so can't afford to slow up just yet although the end is coming into sight.
Looking at the records it looks like we are slightly ahead of last year's potting timing which is good as not only will the plants benefit but we should be able to get onto the recovering of the split tunnels before the temperature drops too low. I had noted 3 that were goners but had a recount yesterday and we are up to 6, so that will add a bit of excitement when the appropriate weather pitches up. We can usually get a couple stripped and recovered in a day if we get a good uninterrupted run and the right folk on site. It's a slightly tricky undertaking, quite stressful to uncover the crop and unfurl the new sheet. No matter how still it is when you make the decision to start, the wind always gets up as the new sheet is dragged out and when the breeze gets under one of those sheets you soon know about it. Having said that, there have been few occasions when we have had to actually abandon the task completely, and once the sheet is fixed on the sense of achievement is fab.
Wooden box collections
We have made a start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals over the last couple of weeks and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
We do have records on the ins and outs of the wooden box stock, so I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go, but if you can let us know when you are ready for a collection and roughly how many you have, that would be great. It all helps.
It may take a week or two to get to you but we will be there as soon as we efficiently can.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour, but they are showing off nicely. We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
A fantastic splash of sunshine and warmth down here in the south. A whole weekend of it too. Make the most of it. Caroline has gone off to the Romsey Show to check out all the farm animals and I suspect take part in a bit of well earned retail therapy. Unfortunately I have just got too much to do here today, just trying to catch up on all the stuff I didn't finish off yesterday. It's that end of summer holiday time and we keep running out of bodies to get everything done in regulation time. It's a time of year when every day counts when it comes to getting the plants into their pots in time to put on a healthy spurt of growth before the light fails and temperature drops. A days growth now is worth at least a week in December, so can't afford to slow up just yet although the end is coming into sight.
Looking at the records it looks like we are slightly ahead of last year's potting timing which is good as not only will the plants benefit but we should be able to get onto the recovering of the split tunnels before the temperature drops too low. I had noted 3 that were goners but had a recount yesterday and we are up to 6, so that will add a bit of excitement when the appropriate weather pitches up. We can usually get a couple stripped and recovered in a day if we get a good uninterrupted run and the right folk on site. It's a slightly tricky undertaking, quite stressful to uncover the crop and unfurl the new sheet. No matter how still it is when you make the decision to start, the wind always gets up as the new sheet is dragged out and when the breeze gets under one of those sheets you soon know about it. Having said that, there have been few occasions when we have had to actually abandon the task completely, and once the sheet is fixed on the sense of achievement is fab.
Wooden box collections
We have made a start on our late summer/autumn box retrievals over the last couple of weeks and will be trying to get round everyone to collect up all the empty wooden boxes we can over the next few weeks. To keep it efficient we will try and tie in trips with other deliveries we may be doing in the area, so there is no obvious master plan, but the more trays we know about the better.
We do have records on the ins and outs of the wooden box stock, so I have a pretty good idea of where we need to go, but if you can let us know when you are ready for a collection and roughly how many you have, that would be great. It all helps.
It may take a week or two to get to you but we will be there as soon as we efficiently can.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is in colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour.
The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour, but they are showing off nicely. We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium Rose are now showing colour. Cyclamen coum varieties are now beginning to bud up and flower. These hardy stars will flower from now until mid Spring. Nicely subtle bloomers with a constant feed of new flower rather than one huge flush.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Sunday 8 September 2019
Hairy Onsie
Hi,
Another busy week with the potting now flying along. Once the orders where picked up we managed to have a good run on both the bed clearing and potting machine despite a bit of a shortage of bodies. We are really getting the hang of the bed cleaning beast now as our technique improves and experience accrues. We took delivery of a couple of monster double bladed floor squeegees early in the week for clearing the loosened muck from the bed surface, what a difference they made. We had been shovelling and brushing before, but the squeegee is much more effective, saving a bit more time and leaving an 'eat your dinner off that' finish. We have added a second pass of the beast after the initial debris clearance to achieve that near polished finish, very satisfying.
Plants are still pitching up to pot each week just to keep the pressure on, I think it's just the spring flowering bulbs and Erysimums to come now and both of those won't come until early October. The Erysimum are an amazing crop, they just keep growing throughout the autumn and winter despite the lower light levels and short day-length, assuming that is we can keep the rots at bay, we always loose a few. If we make the mistake of potting too early they are just too lanky in the spring, rather than the lovely pot full of bud we usually manage to achieve. Then we have the fun and games of finding enough trolleys and shelves to pot the bulbs onto. We keep them on trolleys away from the mice for as long as we can, but with my over enthusiastic ordering this year I wonder if we will have enough shelf stock to cope. It has been noticeable that the quality of shelf stock has deteriorated over the last year, we have stacks of broken stock with only a reduced small quota being allowed back to base for repair under our maintenance contract. We are going to have to get creative!
With the season beginning to show signs of slowing up we are able to retrieve a bit more personal time by reducing the working week to under 75 hours and it looks like we are in for a treat, heading for a whole day off on Sunday. A walk with friends near Oxford along the river and a pub lunch beckons, sounds great. Not quite as exciting as one customer who was lucky enough to see Ed Sheeran recently, supported by the Darkness who's lead singer apparently was wearing nothing but a black lace body suit. That must have been a sight to behold. Reminds me a bit of, no let's not go there, it was a long time ago. It'll be a hectic weekend with a gig tonight in Wimbourne to see our favourite boogie-woogie pianist Ben Waters who is approaching the end of his farewell retirement tour. I suspect there will be a few comeback special appearances over the coming years but we'll miss him. You never know who will pop up on stage with him, we've seen Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Chris Jagger (Mick's brother!) and a host of Jools Hollands big band players but even if he is on his own it will be an entertaining and sweaty night. If I'm fit enough there is a freestyle jive night at the Guildhall in WInchester on Saturday, but I suspect I'll be needing a lie down by then, especially as I've got about £250 worth of taps and fittings to plumb into the nursery on Saturday too.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Coreopsis Sunkiss and Illico are showing great colour. A bright show with more flower to come.
Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Just Carmine Brilliant and Babylon left. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour, but they are showing off nicely.
We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are on the way. A few flowers showing but not quite enough to highlight it on the list.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Another busy week with the potting now flying along. Once the orders where picked up we managed to have a good run on both the bed clearing and potting machine despite a bit of a shortage of bodies. We are really getting the hang of the bed cleaning beast now as our technique improves and experience accrues. We took delivery of a couple of monster double bladed floor squeegees early in the week for clearing the loosened muck from the bed surface, what a difference they made. We had been shovelling and brushing before, but the squeegee is much more effective, saving a bit more time and leaving an 'eat your dinner off that' finish. We have added a second pass of the beast after the initial debris clearance to achieve that near polished finish, very satisfying.
Plants are still pitching up to pot each week just to keep the pressure on, I think it's just the spring flowering bulbs and Erysimums to come now and both of those won't come until early October. The Erysimum are an amazing crop, they just keep growing throughout the autumn and winter despite the lower light levels and short day-length, assuming that is we can keep the rots at bay, we always loose a few. If we make the mistake of potting too early they are just too lanky in the spring, rather than the lovely pot full of bud we usually manage to achieve. Then we have the fun and games of finding enough trolleys and shelves to pot the bulbs onto. We keep them on trolleys away from the mice for as long as we can, but with my over enthusiastic ordering this year I wonder if we will have enough shelf stock to cope. It has been noticeable that the quality of shelf stock has deteriorated over the last year, we have stacks of broken stock with only a reduced small quota being allowed back to base for repair under our maintenance contract. We are going to have to get creative!
With the season beginning to show signs of slowing up we are able to retrieve a bit more personal time by reducing the working week to under 75 hours and it looks like we are in for a treat, heading for a whole day off on Sunday. A walk with friends near Oxford along the river and a pub lunch beckons, sounds great. Not quite as exciting as one customer who was lucky enough to see Ed Sheeran recently, supported by the Darkness who's lead singer apparently was wearing nothing but a black lace body suit. That must have been a sight to behold. Reminds me a bit of, no let's not go there, it was a long time ago. It'll be a hectic weekend with a gig tonight in Wimbourne to see our favourite boogie-woogie pianist Ben Waters who is approaching the end of his farewell retirement tour. I suspect there will be a few comeback special appearances over the coming years but we'll miss him. You never know who will pop up on stage with him, we've seen Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Chris Jagger (Mick's brother!) and a host of Jools Hollands big band players but even if he is on his own it will be an entertaining and sweaty night. If I'm fit enough there is a freestyle jive night at the Guildhall in WInchester on Saturday, but I suspect I'll be needing a lie down by then, especially as I've got about £250 worth of taps and fittings to plumb into the nursery on Saturday too.
Availability highlights
Autumn evergreen coloured foliage seems to be a popular theme among the remaining stock in flower, We have fab looking Ajuga in an attractive range along with the lovely Euphorbia's. Winter interest lines in evergreens bowls along too, with a few Hellebores in stock and the Bergenia's coming back on line. Coreopsis Sunkiss and Illico are showing great colour. A bright show with more flower to come.
Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Just Carmine Brilliant and Babylon left. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. The next batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour, but they are showing off nicely.
We have a few varieties of Phlox in bud and flower after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The Soft Pink and Violet White are showing the best colour. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still making a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are on the way. A few flowers showing but not quite enough to highlight it on the list.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 2 September 2019
Agent Hairy
Hi,
After the heat of last week it looks like a little taste of autumn for the weekend. Still plenty of good growing weeks to come but the pressure is on here to get as much potting done as quickly as possible to make the most of the day-length and warmth.
I know it must be close to autumn because I have just ordered in our bulb compost mix in readiness for the delivery at the end of September. I have been told not to get too carried away with things after the excitement of a very busy season, and I have tried to be careful, but on adding up the number of bulb pots to be potted I seem to have increased the production by about 40%! I couldn't resist a bit of upcoming spring optimism and a few new varieties. It'll be fine, no worries, just need to keep the mice and squirrels at bay.
With all the political turmoil over the recent days and weeks we are just having a few concerns as to how we keep the flow of cuttings and seedlings coming onto the nursery in the event of no-deal. HMRC have been on to us this week with all the new rules, regulations and processes we would need to do to bring in material from Europe. We are signed up with all the necessary departments I think, and got our ID codes, but they are suggesting that we may need to use specialist import/export agents to make sure all the admin is sorted and correct, to prevent any potentially disastrous delays. Luckily we won't be doing any plants movements for a few months after the end of October so the dust will hopefully have settled by then and we can make a bit more sense of everything. There could be some significant cost implications I suspect if we all start having to use agents, but it could well encourage more use of UK growers in the long run which must be good for the industry. Luckily a high proportion of our propagation stock already comes from UK suppliers so it's not the end of the world but it adds another challenge.
We have a bit of a mass exodus over the next few weeks as loads of staff take well earned holidays and students slip away back to university. The reduction in numbers potentially could easily dent the potting output, but I'm hoping that the time saved with the new bed cleaner will free up one or two staff to keep the machine going and get those numbers done. Just adds a bit of extra excitement at the end of a long season.
Apologies to anyone who tried to phone last week and missed us. We had a couple of days when the new phone system periodically dropped out. Something to do with failing to hold the internet gate open for calls to come in. Hoping it is now on a permanent latch. Having said that, the new router did drop out earlier today and we lost all hi-fibre stuff including the phones. We were only off for a minute or two as it was cured with the usual 'turn it off and on again' solution, but it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence when we are now so dependent on having that link.
Availability highlights
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. Only a few left. Coreopsis Sunkiss and Illico are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come.
Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Just Carmine Brilliant and Babylon left. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on.
Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum Autumn Joy and Matrona in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are on the way. A few flowers showing but not quite enough to highlight it on the list.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
After the heat of last week it looks like a little taste of autumn for the weekend. Still plenty of good growing weeks to come but the pressure is on here to get as much potting done as quickly as possible to make the most of the day-length and warmth.
I know it must be close to autumn because I have just ordered in our bulb compost mix in readiness for the delivery at the end of September. I have been told not to get too carried away with things after the excitement of a very busy season, and I have tried to be careful, but on adding up the number of bulb pots to be potted I seem to have increased the production by about 40%! I couldn't resist a bit of upcoming spring optimism and a few new varieties. It'll be fine, no worries, just need to keep the mice and squirrels at bay.
With all the political turmoil over the recent days and weeks we are just having a few concerns as to how we keep the flow of cuttings and seedlings coming onto the nursery in the event of no-deal. HMRC have been on to us this week with all the new rules, regulations and processes we would need to do to bring in material from Europe. We are signed up with all the necessary departments I think, and got our ID codes, but they are suggesting that we may need to use specialist import/export agents to make sure all the admin is sorted and correct, to prevent any potentially disastrous delays. Luckily we won't be doing any plants movements for a few months after the end of October so the dust will hopefully have settled by then and we can make a bit more sense of everything. There could be some significant cost implications I suspect if we all start having to use agents, but it could well encourage more use of UK growers in the long run which must be good for the industry. Luckily a high proportion of our propagation stock already comes from UK suppliers so it's not the end of the world but it adds another challenge.
We have a bit of a mass exodus over the next few weeks as loads of staff take well earned holidays and students slip away back to university. The reduction in numbers potentially could easily dent the potting output, but I'm hoping that the time saved with the new bed cleaner will free up one or two staff to keep the machine going and get those numbers done. Just adds a bit of extra excitement at the end of a long season.
Apologies to anyone who tried to phone last week and missed us. We had a couple of days when the new phone system periodically dropped out. Something to do with failing to hold the internet gate open for calls to come in. Hoping it is now on a permanent latch. Having said that, the new router did drop out earlier today and we lost all hi-fibre stuff including the phones. We were only off for a minute or two as it was cured with the usual 'turn it off and on again' solution, but it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence when we are now so dependent on having that link.
Availability highlights
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. Only a few left. Coreopsis Sunkiss and Illico are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come.
Classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) still showing good bud and colour. Just Carmine Brilliant and Babylon left. Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on.
Pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. The short orange Geum varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum Autumn Joy and Matrona in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. We have another flower flush on the ever popular Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. It just keeps on going. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are on the way. A few flowers showing but not quite enough to highlight it on the list.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 26 August 2019
Too hot to pot
Hi,
Here comes summer again. A cracking bank holiday weekend in store for many, with possibly record temperatures again. Looks a bit too hot for me but getting back to more sensible levels in the following week.
Close to home things look ok, with several interesting nursery developments in the pipeline and the arrival and first run out of the bed cleaning beast, while further afield monstrous calamities are afoot with the glaciers disappearing and the Amazon basin apparently on fire. Then there is there is all the Brexit turmoil which I still have no real idea of what is really going on or how we are going to be affected. Hopefully it will all fall into place without too much upheaval in the end, but with the end of October only a matter of weeks away there is going to have to be some major strategy changes somewhere to get it sorted.
I am already struggling to cope with handling all the bigger stuff, it's beginning to get a bit too scary, so all I can sensibly do is focus on our little corner and try to encourage our rather weeny sphere of influence,
Celebratory cream bun on Monday evening after completing my CPC training, so I can continue to rescue Phil, our main driver, when he runs out of driving hours in the big van. All commercial drivers of vehicles over 3.5 t need to do this 35hrs of refresher training every 5 years to get there CPC driving card from the DVLA. 7 hours in the classroom feels way longer than the 12+ I spend on the nursery each day, but to be fair I did pick up a few useful bits of info over the five days. We now have new trucker road atlases with all the bridge heights and weights, just in case, and I now know that the number of rows of stitching on a racket strap denotes the weight capacity of the belt. Five stitched rows = 5 tonnes.
Thursday night saw the ITV Tonight programme take a look at the environmental impact of the plants sold in garden centres. I think there was some trade trepidation about how it might come across and although there were a few areas that where perhaps a little misleading, overall I thought it was reasonably balanced and in fact fairly muted in any level of criticism. There were plenty of chances throughout the programme for industry experts to explain what was changing which they did pretty well. For me things haven't got radical enough yet in our thought processes of how we consume so much stuff generally, but the mood is changing which is a big step in the right direction, and the acknowledgement that the consumer is looking for more a more environmentally positive experience is heartening. There wasn't enough time for them to look at the plastic use and waste in the now hugely busy catering side of the centres or the tonnes of disposable Christmas consumables that are about to invade the stores. Give me a gummed paper chain any day.
Hope you all have a good bank holiday. I am hoping for an afternoon off if I play my cards right. It's going to be too hot to pot!
Availability highlights
We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) all showing colour now with plenty of bud to still to open.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two compact pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. Our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, they will soon be showing off nicely.
Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh flower. The short orange varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a nice tidy splash of colour. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Here comes summer again. A cracking bank holiday weekend in store for many, with possibly record temperatures again. Looks a bit too hot for me but getting back to more sensible levels in the following week.
Close to home things look ok, with several interesting nursery developments in the pipeline and the arrival and first run out of the bed cleaning beast, while further afield monstrous calamities are afoot with the glaciers disappearing and the Amazon basin apparently on fire. Then there is there is all the Brexit turmoil which I still have no real idea of what is really going on or how we are going to be affected. Hopefully it will all fall into place without too much upheaval in the end, but with the end of October only a matter of weeks away there is going to have to be some major strategy changes somewhere to get it sorted.
I am already struggling to cope with handling all the bigger stuff, it's beginning to get a bit too scary, so all I can sensibly do is focus on our little corner and try to encourage our rather weeny sphere of influence,
Celebratory cream bun on Monday evening after completing my CPC training, so I can continue to rescue Phil, our main driver, when he runs out of driving hours in the big van. All commercial drivers of vehicles over 3.5 t need to do this 35hrs of refresher training every 5 years to get there CPC driving card from the DVLA. 7 hours in the classroom feels way longer than the 12+ I spend on the nursery each day, but to be fair I did pick up a few useful bits of info over the five days. We now have new trucker road atlases with all the bridge heights and weights, just in case, and I now know that the number of rows of stitching on a racket strap denotes the weight capacity of the belt. Five stitched rows = 5 tonnes.
Thursday night saw the ITV Tonight programme take a look at the environmental impact of the plants sold in garden centres. I think there was some trade trepidation about how it might come across and although there were a few areas that where perhaps a little misleading, overall I thought it was reasonably balanced and in fact fairly muted in any level of criticism. There were plenty of chances throughout the programme for industry experts to explain what was changing which they did pretty well. For me things haven't got radical enough yet in our thought processes of how we consume so much stuff generally, but the mood is changing which is a big step in the right direction, and the acknowledgement that the consumer is looking for more a more environmentally positive experience is heartening. There wasn't enough time for them to look at the plastic use and waste in the now hugely busy catering side of the centres or the tonnes of disposable Christmas consumables that are about to invade the stores. Give me a gummed paper chain any day.
Hope you all have a good bank holiday. I am hoping for an afternoon off if I play my cards right. It's going to be too hot to pot!
Availability highlights
We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) all showing colour now with plenty of bud to still to open.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two compact pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing good colour. Our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, they will soon be showing off nicely.
Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh flower. The short orange varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower.
Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a nice tidy splash of colour. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 19 August 2019
Hairy Reception
Morning,
It's difficult to believe that there could be plenty of summer still to come as the rain beats down on the office roof. Hopefully the worst of it will be out of the way by Saturday morning and it looks like a drier spell coming for the following week, in the south anyway. It's been another hectic week as we try and press on with tunnel clearance and potting for next season, the days just seem to evaporate and suddenly it's the weekend again.
Got off to a cracking start on Monday morning, although I had an inkling that not all was well on Sunday night. I use compressed air to agitate our nematode stock solution when applying our monthly vine weevil control, which I tend to do in the late evening (nematodes don't like the UV in sunlight). On returning to the stock tank at the end of the process I turned off the air supply and shut everything down. All had gone well, reassuringly the nematodes were no longer in the tank so they hopefully must be in the crop and the last job was to turn off the compressor. As I approached, I could tell that all was not quite as it should be, it was still running and the safety valve was venting. I turned it off, hoping for the best, maybe it had got a bit hot and was briefly misbehaving. It was 11.30 on Sunday evening, I was not in the mood to investigate further. Forgot about it until I turned it on again on Monday, to get the label printing and potting underway. Struggled to get it to actually start and then it refused to turn off again once it's pressure limit was reached. After a brief bit of research I confirmed that it was a problem with the pressure switch and checked out a couple of videos to see how to change it. Luckily we have a little emergency compressor, just in case, and it had an identical pressure switch. An hour or two later we were up and running and I've spent the rest of the week trying to catch up!
Last job of the day was to drop the big van in for its 10 weekly inspection at the garage which. Lots of traffic out there on a Friday evening in the real world. Left the garage with a slightly bewildered receptionist, all my fault, I had a little moment. After a jolly greeting I mentioned that one of the gas struts that supports the overhead flap above the tail-lift had broken and could they order us a new one, at the same time I handed over the keys. After our chat I noticed that she was holding a pair of glasses that looked remarkably similar to mine and was muttering something about 'had I found these in the yard?' Slight confusion followed on my part as I took my glasses back and handed over the keys this time. Don't let me multitask, it doesn't work anymore.
Availability highlights
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) beginning to show their colour now, with the bold Emberglow the first to show, but Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are close behind. Lucifer which is our biggest and boldest red is also at last in bud. They are all slightly later than usual because our bulb supplier forgot to deliver our order and they got held back in cold storage, but they are none the worse for that.
Achillea Milly Rock Rose is still looking great, plenty of bud and colour on compact tidy plants.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. We still have a few nice looking hardy Fuchsia left, lots of flower on tidy compact plants. We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall.
I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh flower. The short orange varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show.
We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a nice tidy splash of colour. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Our summer crop of Oxalis Iron Cross are still looking good. It has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
It's difficult to believe that there could be plenty of summer still to come as the rain beats down on the office roof. Hopefully the worst of it will be out of the way by Saturday morning and it looks like a drier spell coming for the following week, in the south anyway. It's been another hectic week as we try and press on with tunnel clearance and potting for next season, the days just seem to evaporate and suddenly it's the weekend again.
Got off to a cracking start on Monday morning, although I had an inkling that not all was well on Sunday night. I use compressed air to agitate our nematode stock solution when applying our monthly vine weevil control, which I tend to do in the late evening (nematodes don't like the UV in sunlight). On returning to the stock tank at the end of the process I turned off the air supply and shut everything down. All had gone well, reassuringly the nematodes were no longer in the tank so they hopefully must be in the crop and the last job was to turn off the compressor. As I approached, I could tell that all was not quite as it should be, it was still running and the safety valve was venting. I turned it off, hoping for the best, maybe it had got a bit hot and was briefly misbehaving. It was 11.30 on Sunday evening, I was not in the mood to investigate further. Forgot about it until I turned it on again on Monday, to get the label printing and potting underway. Struggled to get it to actually start and then it refused to turn off again once it's pressure limit was reached. After a brief bit of research I confirmed that it was a problem with the pressure switch and checked out a couple of videos to see how to change it. Luckily we have a little emergency compressor, just in case, and it had an identical pressure switch. An hour or two later we were up and running and I've spent the rest of the week trying to catch up!
Last job of the day was to drop the big van in for its 10 weekly inspection at the garage which. Lots of traffic out there on a Friday evening in the real world. Left the garage with a slightly bewildered receptionist, all my fault, I had a little moment. After a jolly greeting I mentioned that one of the gas struts that supports the overhead flap above the tail-lift had broken and could they order us a new one, at the same time I handed over the keys. After our chat I noticed that she was holding a pair of glasses that looked remarkably similar to mine and was muttering something about 'had I found these in the yard?' Slight confusion followed on my part as I took my glasses back and handed over the keys this time. Don't let me multitask, it doesn't work anymore.
Availability highlights
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud and a hint of colour. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) beginning to show their colour now, with the bold Emberglow the first to show, but Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are close behind. Lucifer which is our biggest and boldest red is also at last in bud. They are all slightly later than usual because our bulb supplier forgot to deliver our order and they got held back in cold storage, but they are none the worse for that.
Achillea Milly Rock Rose is still looking great, plenty of bud and colour on compact tidy plants.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. We still have a few nice looking hardy Fuchsia left, lots of flower on tidy compact plants. We have a few varieties of Phlox coming into bud after a late haircut, looking fresh, full of promise and not too tall.
I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh flower. The short orange varieties Koi and Cooky are coming up with another batch of bud and flower. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum Autumn Joy in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show.
We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a nice tidy splash of colour. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Our summer crop of Oxalis Iron Cross are still looking good. It has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 12 August 2019
Exciting Hairy Beast
Hi,
I think all the water leaks and breakdowns are behind us now, touch wood. We have had a whole week of nearly faultless irrigation which is such a relief. Both buggies are running well and the electrics in the tool-shed have kept dry despite some heavy downpours overflowing the barn gutters again.
Looks like a bit of a stormy weekend coming up with quite a bit of disruption already with cancelled festivals and alike. One of our younger crew is at the local Boomtown festival which is now a massive event but could be a bit of a challenge in high winds and rain, Fingers crossed it all goes ok.
This week we have been getting stuck into more tunnel clearing and potting for next seasons crops as autumn rushes towards us, were does all the time go? Having too much to do and too little time just piles on the pressure towards the end of a busy sales season. Every week potting is delayed risks more winter losses if it gets really cold or very wet, although we have been doing this long enough to know we will get there in the end. In an effort to make tunnel preparation easier we had an exciting demo this week of a mechanical assistant to help clean the muck from our production beds. It's always been a long winded operation using hoes, shovels and brushes to start the new crop on a clean base, but this big motorised rotating brush device took most of the hard work and a handy bit of time out of the operation, it was very impressive. In the past when we have looked at this sort of thing the danger of ripping up the cover and making even more work has always put us off, but this one was hardworking but gentle on the cover. There is that slightly frustrating element that all it really does is redistribute the crud rather than taking it away, but getting it released from the surface is actually the hardest job so it is a big step forward. A collecting device is on trial but we will have to wait and see if that will be up to the job. Meanwhile we have ordered the beast and with a bit of luck it might be here in a week or two, just in time to help us out over the last 8 or 9 weeks of clearing and potting. It's always exciting to buy a new toy so I'm looking forward to that particular delivery.
Availability highlights
Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) beginning to show thier colour now, with the bold Emberglow the first to show, but now Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are close behind. Lucifer which is our biggest and boldest red is also at last in bud. They are all slightly later than usual because our bulb supplier forgot to deliver our order and they got held back in cold storage, but they are none the worse for that. I may well split the order next year to get a longer season, you live and learn from most mishaps.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We still have a few nice looking hardy Fuchsia left, lots of flower on tidy compact plants. I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater.
Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise with Matrona and its rosy-purple flush looking good too.
We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a splash of colour. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are looking good. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers but triangularis has nearly all gone now.
Another popular summer special are the blue balloon flowered Platycodon Astra which are now available. Just a few left. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
I think all the water leaks and breakdowns are behind us now, touch wood. We have had a whole week of nearly faultless irrigation which is such a relief. Both buggies are running well and the electrics in the tool-shed have kept dry despite some heavy downpours overflowing the barn gutters again.
Looks like a bit of a stormy weekend coming up with quite a bit of disruption already with cancelled festivals and alike. One of our younger crew is at the local Boomtown festival which is now a massive event but could be a bit of a challenge in high winds and rain, Fingers crossed it all goes ok.
This week we have been getting stuck into more tunnel clearing and potting for next seasons crops as autumn rushes towards us, were does all the time go? Having too much to do and too little time just piles on the pressure towards the end of a busy sales season. Every week potting is delayed risks more winter losses if it gets really cold or very wet, although we have been doing this long enough to know we will get there in the end. In an effort to make tunnel preparation easier we had an exciting demo this week of a mechanical assistant to help clean the muck from our production beds. It's always been a long winded operation using hoes, shovels and brushes to start the new crop on a clean base, but this big motorised rotating brush device took most of the hard work and a handy bit of time out of the operation, it was very impressive. In the past when we have looked at this sort of thing the danger of ripping up the cover and making even more work has always put us off, but this one was hardworking but gentle on the cover. There is that slightly frustrating element that all it really does is redistribute the crud rather than taking it away, but getting it released from the surface is actually the hardest job so it is a big step forward. A collecting device is on trial but we will have to wait and see if that will be up to the job. Meanwhile we have ordered the beast and with a bit of luck it might be here in a week or two, just in time to help us out over the last 8 or 9 weeks of clearing and potting. It's always exciting to buy a new toy so I'm looking forward to that particular delivery.
Availability highlights
Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come. The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) beginning to show thier colour now, with the bold Emberglow the first to show, but now Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are close behind. Lucifer which is our biggest and boldest red is also at last in bud. They are all slightly later than usual because our bulb supplier forgot to deliver our order and they got held back in cold storage, but they are none the worse for that. I may well split the order next year to get a longer season, you live and learn from most mishaps.
Yet another fresh batch of Erigeron Stallone is coming into colour, it just goes on and on. The two pretty pale yellow Leucanthemum's Banana Creme and Broadway Lights are looking stunning, very strong, lots of bud and showing colour. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We still have a few nice looking hardy Fuchsia left, lots of flower on tidy compact plants. I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now showing masses of bud. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater.
Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise with Matrona and its rosy-purple flush looking good too.
We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a splash of colour. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are looking good. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers but triangularis has nearly all gone now.
Another popular summer special are the blue balloon flowered Platycodon Astra which are now available. Just a few left. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Sunday 4 August 2019
Hairy Neptune's wrath
Hi,
Yet another marathon week. I don't know where all the fun comes from.
The 'simple' installation of the phone system went as all new tech projects go. It took from Saturday until Tuesday lunchtime to get operational, with a further visit on Thursday for some fine tuning and fitting of another base station. Rerouting of calls covered most of the down time ok we think, so I hope no-one missed us early in the week. Really impressed with the new system , much better kit with rugged outdoor, easy to use cordless handsets with much better nursery coverage, hi-fibre broadband and the monthly charges which were substantially less than our previous supplier was asking for. I'm still slightly peeved that we were forced off our old system by escalating maintenance costs but we do have a system that is better. We did bite the bullet and buy it outright rather than leasing it, we have been stung too many times before on paying way over the odds on long-term leasing options which the phone company reps are very keen to sell.
Other expensive mending went on this week with new inverters and a pressure vessel fitted onto the irrigation pumps which means they are running perfectly again. Both pumps were misbehaving apparently which doubled the repair but at least they are talking to each other again and running much more efficiently and reliably which is a huge relief. The engineer did a lovely job with the minimum of fuss, it was a joy to part with the dosh.
Monday saw the cold water tank overfill in the loft where the ball-cock failed, no damage just a quick replacement needed, then today we sprang a leak below one of the nursery taps and in the sink water heater. Not sure what I've done to upset the water gods but they are lining up to have a pop at the moment.
On top of all that, the old mans elasticated trousers have let go, the strain was just too much.
Availability highlights
I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Cosmos Chocamocha left. Buds are visible on most and the odd dark velvety flower is open giving off that famous chocolate scent. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come.
The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Fresh batches of the Monarda Barmy series are looking good, nice and bushy with bud in evidence, colour just a week away. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now coming into bud We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise with Matrona and its rosy-purple flush looking good too.
Just for one more week we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. It is getting quite tall now but still upright. We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a splash of colour.
The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) are fast approaching flowering with the bold Emberglow was the first to show its young flower buds but now Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are showing too.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in flower and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers. Salvia Hot Lips is in full flow. The full red and white petal display is now showing although there aren't many left.
Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour.
We have short Campanula currently in bud, the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers. Achillea are still putting on a good show. A new compact form called Little Moonshine is on for this week, not many there but looks like a good one.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Yet another marathon week. I don't know where all the fun comes from.
The 'simple' installation of the phone system went as all new tech projects go. It took from Saturday until Tuesday lunchtime to get operational, with a further visit on Thursday for some fine tuning and fitting of another base station. Rerouting of calls covered most of the down time ok we think, so I hope no-one missed us early in the week. Really impressed with the new system , much better kit with rugged outdoor, easy to use cordless handsets with much better nursery coverage, hi-fibre broadband and the monthly charges which were substantially less than our previous supplier was asking for. I'm still slightly peeved that we were forced off our old system by escalating maintenance costs but we do have a system that is better. We did bite the bullet and buy it outright rather than leasing it, we have been stung too many times before on paying way over the odds on long-term leasing options which the phone company reps are very keen to sell.
Other expensive mending went on this week with new inverters and a pressure vessel fitted onto the irrigation pumps which means they are running perfectly again. Both pumps were misbehaving apparently which doubled the repair but at least they are talking to each other again and running much more efficiently and reliably which is a huge relief. The engineer did a lovely job with the minimum of fuss, it was a joy to part with the dosh.
Monday saw the cold water tank overfill in the loft where the ball-cock failed, no damage just a quick replacement needed, then today we sprang a leak below one of the nursery taps and in the sink water heater. Not sure what I've done to upset the water gods but they are lining up to have a pop at the moment.
On top of all that, the old mans elasticated trousers have let go, the strain was just too much.
Availability highlights
I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Cosmos Chocamocha left. Buds are visible on most and the odd dark velvety flower is open giving off that famous chocolate scent. Several Coreopsis varieties (Sunfire, Sunkiss and Illico) are showing great colour. A bright show with lots of flower to come.
The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. I've put Liriope muscari as in bud at the moment. They are only just beginning to appear but they are definitely on the way and on strong bushy plants too. I doubt they will hang about long they tend to disappear on landscaping projects pretty quickly. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Fresh batches of the Monarda Barmy series are looking good, nice and bushy with bud in evidence, colour just a week away. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now coming into bud We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them. Autumn must be on its way with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a great show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise with Matrona and its rosy-purple flush looking good too.
Just for one more week we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. It is getting quite tall now but still upright. We have another fresh batch of the compact Verbena Lollipop in bud with a splash of colour.
The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) are fast approaching flowering with the bold Emberglow was the first to show its young flower buds but now Carmine Brilliant, Babylon and George Davidson are showing too.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in flower and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers. Salvia Hot Lips is in full flow. The full red and white petal display is now showing although there aren't many left.
Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour.
We have short Campanula currently in bud, the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers. Achillea are still putting on a good show. A new compact form called Little Moonshine is on for this week, not many there but looks like a good one.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 29 July 2019
Hot and Hairy
Hi,
We seem to be fitting so much into a week at the moment. It used to be spring that was manic but know it seems to have spread to fit in summertime too. I can't believe it was only Monday that we had the crane in to replace our little borehole pump. It may be small but it was a long way down! All went well (nice pun). Unfortunately as soon as that was sorted out, one of the irrigation pumps started tripping out the electric supply and stopping the watering. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing we
think we have got to the bottom of it and a man is coming on Monday to replace the inverter controls and relieve us of another several thousand pounds! Meanwhile I rigged up the text alert socket we got during the winter which tells us when the power drops out, so no matter what time of day or night I can pop out and reset all the trips to restart the irrigation programme. Luckily the programme remembers where it was and just continues on. Good job it hasn't been too hot this week.
A replacement telephone system is part-way to being installed (the wires are up) and the system goes in on Saturday so if we are unavailable over the next few days you will know the likely reason why. New control systems went into the buggies on Monday to allow them to charge properly which worked very well. I can't remember the buggies going this well for a long time. The electrics in the tool-shed was all beautifully moved and reinstalled onto a dry wall which makes us much safer, slightly more efficient, but sadly a lot poorer. One of the vans had a puncture on Thursday and the big one flashed lots of lights and had to be interrogated at the garage (going in for a small repair very soon).
So a quiet week really. It was so busy we nearly didn't notice the heat wave, but we are delighted to have come out the other end unscathed. Must go now as we have to set up a 'Chelsea-like' plant display in Kings Somborne village hall for the annual plant show and fete. Luckily we have all the plants ready so it should only take an hour or two to set out, which is about how long it takes to set up a Chelsea display! Good job we aren't judged on it.
Availability highlights
I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Cosmos Chocamocha left. Buds are visible on most and the odd dark velvety flower is open giving off that famous chocolate scent. Several Coreopsis varieties are showing great colour. A bright show with lots more flower to come.
The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely. Geum Lady Stratheden and Mrs Bradshaw are putting up a nice flush of fresh bud.
Fresh batches of the Monarda Barmy series are looking good, nice and bushy with bud in evidence, colour just a week away. We have another batch of Nepeta Junior Walker coming into bud and ready to roll. A great compact and neater habit when compared with its larger more spreading relatives. Six Hills Giant are also tidy plants and in bud. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now coming into bud We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them. Autumn must be coming soon, with a few Sedum in bud. We have trimmed them short to flower low, but the flowers are still going to make a good show. Autumn Joy is the most popular and looking full of promise.
Just for a couple more weeks we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. I know it will romp away in height in a minute and we will have to cut them back but at the moment they are manageable.
The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) are fast approaching flowering with the bold Emberglow the first in showing its young flower buds, Carmine Brilliant and George Davidson are now showing too. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers. Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing.
Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds. Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. We have short Campanula currently in bud, the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers.
We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Saturday 20 July 2019
Dark and Hairy
Morning!
Yet another exciting week but this time for different reasons to last week's chaos. Actually all mayhem has continued, with the buggies still down and the water pump still out of action. We are hoping for some resolutions early next week with all sorts of replacement parts and engineers pitching up. We will have electricians in the tool-shed too, relocating a consumer unit, sockets and lights about to get them away from an irreparable leaking gutter (not a happy combination). Hopefully that will help with more reliable charging of the buggies, once they are up and running again. I also added a few new toys to the project just to make it feel like we were progressing rather than just emptying the bank account and ending up with what we started with. The lights are naturally LED with the added bonus of turning on automatically when its dark and personnel are detected, rather than groping around in the dark trying to find the light switch. I've also added a new light and socket in the spray shed which will tidy that up nicely and a motion detector to my label printing bench so it only lights up when I'm under it. This week was one of natural performances brightening our day and night. After several years without seeing a hedgehog in the garden, we have had at least one hoovering up under the bird feeders over the last 3 or 4 weeks which has been great to see. Then this week a large amount of rustling under the old foliage of a pampas grass drew Caroline's attention to a litter of, at least 4, weenie offspring. The rest of the week we have been having to avoid stepping on them as they forage about at dusk, hedgehog food has been supplied and accepted, so we can build them up to a good size before summer ends. Managed to stay awake long enough on Tuesday night to get out and see the partial eclipse of the moon. For a change it was clear skies and a comfortable temperature to watch it for a good half an hour or so. A great show, made all the more entertaining by a feeding frenzy around our heads by four or five good sized bats. We very regularly see a couple of small pipistrelles feeding along the hedge lines but I'm sure these were bigger and definitely more numerous. They were so close you could hear and feel the flapping as they shot by.
Availability highlights
Erigeron kerv. Stallone are looking good with lots of bud and the odd open flower too. I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Cosmos Chocamocha left. Buds are visible on most, so not long to wait for those dark velvety flowers and the famous chocolate scent. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We have another batch of Nepeta Junior Walker coming into bud and ready to roll. A great compact and neater habit when compared with its larger more spreading relatives. Both Walkers Low and Six Hills Giant are also tidy plants and in bud. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now coming into bud We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them.
Just for a couple more weeks we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. I know it will romp away in height in a minute and we will have to cut them back but at the moment they are manageable.
The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) are fast approaching flowering with the bold Emberglow the first in showing its young flower buds. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Summer seaside flowers abound, with Armeria maritima back on the list, bud showing on both the white and pink forms. Masses of bud on upright stems of Catananche caerulea . The occasional flower showing a flash of its papery sky blue petals, but only a few left now.
Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers.
Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing. Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds.
Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. We have short Campanula currently in bud, the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers.
We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Yet another exciting week but this time for different reasons to last week's chaos. Actually all mayhem has continued, with the buggies still down and the water pump still out of action. We are hoping for some resolutions early next week with all sorts of replacement parts and engineers pitching up. We will have electricians in the tool-shed too, relocating a consumer unit, sockets and lights about to get them away from an irreparable leaking gutter (not a happy combination). Hopefully that will help with more reliable charging of the buggies, once they are up and running again. I also added a few new toys to the project just to make it feel like we were progressing rather than just emptying the bank account and ending up with what we started with. The lights are naturally LED with the added bonus of turning on automatically when its dark and personnel are detected, rather than groping around in the dark trying to find the light switch. I've also added a new light and socket in the spray shed which will tidy that up nicely and a motion detector to my label printing bench so it only lights up when I'm under it. This week was one of natural performances brightening our day and night. After several years without seeing a hedgehog in the garden, we have had at least one hoovering up under the bird feeders over the last 3 or 4 weeks which has been great to see. Then this week a large amount of rustling under the old foliage of a pampas grass drew Caroline's attention to a litter of, at least 4, weenie offspring. The rest of the week we have been having to avoid stepping on them as they forage about at dusk, hedgehog food has been supplied and accepted, so we can build them up to a good size before summer ends. Managed to stay awake long enough on Tuesday night to get out and see the partial eclipse of the moon. For a change it was clear skies and a comfortable temperature to watch it for a good half an hour or so. A great show, made all the more entertaining by a feeding frenzy around our heads by four or five good sized bats. We very regularly see a couple of small pipistrelles feeding along the hedge lines but I'm sure these were bigger and definitely more numerous. They were so close you could hear and feel the flapping as they shot by.
Availability highlights
Erigeron kerv. Stallone are looking good with lots of bud and the odd open flower too. I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Cosmos Chocamocha left. Buds are visible on most, so not long to wait for those dark velvety flowers and the famous chocolate scent. The first batches of our mini Chrysanthemum (Garden Mums) are growing away well. Lovely bushy plants with lots of bud already showing and more to come. The odd splash of colour so far, but they will soon be showing off nicely.
We have another batch of Nepeta Junior Walker coming into bud and ready to roll. A great compact and neater habit when compared with its larger more spreading relatives. Both Walkers Low and Six Hills Giant are also tidy plants and in bud. Rudbeckia Little Goldstar is now coming into bud We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but Goldstar is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them.
Just for a couple more weeks we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. I know it will romp away in height in a minute and we will have to cut them back but at the moment they are manageable.
The classic summer flowering Montbretia (Crocosmia) are fast approaching flowering with the bold Emberglow the first in showing its young flower buds. The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Summer seaside flowers abound, with Armeria maritima back on the list, bud showing on both the white and pink forms. Masses of bud on upright stems of Catananche caerulea . The occasional flower showing a flash of its papery sky blue petals, but only a few left now.
Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers.
Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing. Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds.
Rhodanthemum Casablanca are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud and flower on show. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. We have short Campanula currently in bud, the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers.
We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Sunday 14 July 2019
Hairy Mondays
Hi,
Wow that was an eventful week. I can't believe how much has happened over such a short time.
Started off with slight panic as we organised ourselves to leave the nursery for an afternoon and overnight. So much to sort out and prepare, surely it would be easier just to stay here. However a 60th birthday do, hog roast, farm cider and live music, as well as meeting a few old friends was too good to miss and so it proved to be. Did a lot of catching up, emptied a few barrels (it was a big do) and rolled out a bit of dad dancing, a perfect evening. Bit of a sore head the following morning,
I think it must have been the sun, and an easy drive home meant we could get the nematodes irrigated onto the crops and spend a few hours preparing for Mondays excitement.
So Monday morning dawns to welcome us back with a failed water pump (good job it's not too summery), two broken down electric buggies, 4 staff missing (found them now), hi-fibre installation day, and lots of orders to get sorted. Now that is an exciting start to the week. Mondays are already pretty chaotic with getting all the deliveries organised for the week as they come in, while starting to process some at the same time, and then 'extras' added a certain frisson to it all.
One of the buggies has been not charging well for a while but for the second to go down with the same issue was really frustrating. We ended up towing the trailer around with the forklift which isn't ideal but it did the job. Meanwhile I organised a specialist buggy man to visit at vast expense and he nailed the issue down very quickly to failed onboard computers that control the charging process. New ones ordered and should be fitted sometime next week. New water pump ordered too which also should get fitted next week and Hi-Fibre successfully installed (tested at over 200mbps compared with about 6 currently) to be usable in a couple of weeks. And that was just Monday!
Availability highlights
Erigeron kerv. Stallone are looking good with lots of bud and the odd open flower too.
We have been asked before if we could grow some Cosmos which we are having a go at. I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Chocamocha left. There are definitely buds forming on many of the Chocamocha, not long to wait for those dark velvety flowers and the famous chocolate scent.
We have another batch of Nepeta Junior Walker coming into bud and ready to roll. A great compact and neater habit when compared with its larger more spreading relatives.
Another compact form of a classic cottage border plant is Rudbeckia Little Goldstar. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but this is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them, to give an impressive black and gold display.
Just for a couple of weeks we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. I know it will romp away in height in a minute and we will have to cut them back but at the moment they are manageable.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Summer seaside flowers abound, with Armeria maritima back on the list, bud showing on both the white and pink forms. Masses of bud on upright stems of Catananche caerulea . The occasional flower showing a flash of its papery sky blue petals. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers.
Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing.
Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds. Mixed pastel coloured flowers of Lewisia Elise are showing well with plenty more bud to follow. This one flowers all summer. Rhodanthemum Casablanca and Marakesh are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud on show and the odd open daisy flower. They will go on all summer long, producing so many delightful blooms.
Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. The new Marvel Blue hold much bolder flowers which I think are pretty impressive, I will get more of these next year. We have three short Campanula currently in bud, carpatica Blue with their domed habit and large single cupped flowers are neat and chunky with masses of bud. Another is the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers. Dianthus Scent First varieties are selling through quickly. Buds are thrusting through on all varieties and the flowers opening. The warmer weather adds to the delightful scent levels.
We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Wow that was an eventful week. I can't believe how much has happened over such a short time.
Started off with slight panic as we organised ourselves to leave the nursery for an afternoon and overnight. So much to sort out and prepare, surely it would be easier just to stay here. However a 60th birthday do, hog roast, farm cider and live music, as well as meeting a few old friends was too good to miss and so it proved to be. Did a lot of catching up, emptied a few barrels (it was a big do) and rolled out a bit of dad dancing, a perfect evening. Bit of a sore head the following morning,
I think it must have been the sun, and an easy drive home meant we could get the nematodes irrigated onto the crops and spend a few hours preparing for Mondays excitement.
So Monday morning dawns to welcome us back with a failed water pump (good job it's not too summery), two broken down electric buggies, 4 staff missing (found them now), hi-fibre installation day, and lots of orders to get sorted. Now that is an exciting start to the week. Mondays are already pretty chaotic with getting all the deliveries organised for the week as they come in, while starting to process some at the same time, and then 'extras' added a certain frisson to it all.
One of the buggies has been not charging well for a while but for the second to go down with the same issue was really frustrating. We ended up towing the trailer around with the forklift which isn't ideal but it did the job. Meanwhile I organised a specialist buggy man to visit at vast expense and he nailed the issue down very quickly to failed onboard computers that control the charging process. New ones ordered and should be fitted sometime next week. New water pump ordered too which also should get fitted next week and Hi-Fibre successfully installed (tested at over 200mbps compared with about 6 currently) to be usable in a couple of weeks. And that was just Monday!
Availability highlights
Erigeron kerv. Stallone are looking good with lots of bud and the odd open flower too.
We have been asked before if we could grow some Cosmos which we are having a go at. I have just a few of the more compact and bushier Chocamocha left. There are definitely buds forming on many of the Chocamocha, not long to wait for those dark velvety flowers and the famous chocolate scent.
We have another batch of Nepeta Junior Walker coming into bud and ready to roll. A great compact and neater habit when compared with its larger more spreading relatives.
Another compact form of a classic cottage border plant is Rudbeckia Little Goldstar. We still sell lots of the taller classic Goldsturm which is a fabulous garden plant but this is dramatically shorter and neater. The flowers are bold but not quite as big but it carries a lot of them, to give an impressive black and gold display.
Just for a couple of weeks we will have Verbena bonariensis in bud. I know it will romp away in height in a minute and we will have to cut them back but at the moment they are manageable.
The neat little Erodiums are flowering well. Neat and tidy, they will flower for ages.
Summer seaside flowers abound, with Armeria maritima back on the list, bud showing on both the white and pink forms. Masses of bud on upright stems of Catananche caerulea . The occasional flower showing a flash of its papery sky blue petals. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers.
Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing.
Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue, both are now showing buds. Mixed pastel coloured flowers of Lewisia Elise are showing well with plenty more bud to follow. This one flowers all summer. Rhodanthemum Casablanca and Marakesh are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud on show and the odd open daisy flower. They will go on all summer long, producing so many delightful blooms.
Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. The new Marvel Blue hold much bolder flowers which I think are pretty impressive, I will get more of these next year. We have three short Campanula currently in bud, carpatica Blue with their domed habit and large single cupped flowers are neat and chunky with masses of bud. Another is the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and strongly coloured violet-blue flowers. Dianthus Scent First varieties are selling through quickly. Buds are thrusting through on all varieties and the flowers opening. The warmer weather adds to the delightful scent levels.
We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer.
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 8 July 2019
Hairy PVC
Hi,
So many flowers to highlight, there is not much room for gossip.
Still madly busy here, sales are bowling along and pressure is building with lots of next year's cutting and seedlings already sitting here demanding to be dealt with. There's plenty of tunnel clearing, pricking out and potting going on, even when the sunshine says it's time for an ice cream and a lie down.
Picked a good day yesterday to don my very fetching green PVC full body suit and wellies to replace a couple of worn out valves in the acid pump (for adjusting the ph of the irrigation water). Who needs to pay out for a spa and sauna when you have an irrigation system to keep running?
Both Phil, our main driver, and I are having a few 'days off' over the coming few weeks as we have to refresh our CPC lorry driver training. I can't believe it's been five years since the last lot. Phil does all our big van driving so he gets good use out of his card, but I only go out on rescue missions when he occasionally runs out of driving time and I suspect I have spent more time in training than I have behind the wheel. It's quite handy really as I can count this as my summer holiday, a change is as good as a rest.
Big week next week, as we go Hi-Fibre. We have a new router all ready to go, just need the expert man to fit it, then the only thing holding us up will be the driver of the keyboard but sadly we are unlikely to be able to upgrade him.
Availability highlights
Erigeron kerv. Stallone are looking good with lots of bud and the odd open flower too. We have been asked before if we could grow some Cosmos which we are having a go at. I have just a few of the larger Cosmos Chocolate and a reasonable number of the more compact and bushier Chocamocha. I have a feeling I can see buds forming on the Chocamocha but as I haven't grown this one before it may just be wishful thinking. Anyway both varieties have similar dark velvety flowers and the famous chocolate scent.
Summer seaside flowers abound, with Armeria maritima back on the list, bud showing on both the white and pink forms. Masses of bud on upright stems of Catananche caerulea . The occasional flower showing a flash of its papery sky blue petals. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers. Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing. Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue and quicker into flower.
Mixed pastel coloured flowers of Lewisia Elise are showing well with plenty more bud to follow. This one flowers all summer. Rhodanthemum Casablanca and Marakesh are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud on show and the odd open daisy flower. They will go on all summer long, producing so many delightful blooms. Twinkly white flowers of our compact Calmintha Marvelette are beginning to open and looking great. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. The new Marvel varieties hold much bolder flowers which I think are impressive, I will get more of these next year, I believe there are now three colours available for 2020 so that will be a treat.
Our range of Hemerocallis (Daylilies) are rushing into bud now. The darker colours of Crimson Pirate and Summer Wine are always popular but the jolly yellow of the repeat flowering Big Time Happy must be worth a look too! We have four short Campanula currently in bud. Carpatica White and Blue with their domed habit and large single cupped flowers are neat and chunky with masses of bud. Another is the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and pretty violet-blue flowers. Viola Etain and Rebecca are doing their thing, plenty pretty buds and flowers all raring to go Dianthus Scent First varieties are back on line. Buds are thrusting through on all varieties and the first flowers opening. The warmer weather and opening flowers are adding to the delightful scent levels. We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer. Summer must be here, the Gaura's are coming on line with early bud already in evidence. I have a few summer flowering plants trialling at the moment, with a range of Diasica's now all in full flower. They are promise to flower their heads off all summer long and they've got off to a great start. I haven't got many as it's just a taster. So if you fancy a few just tick the list. Sorry but the other trial plants have all gone, more next year!
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
So many flowers to highlight, there is not much room for gossip.
Still madly busy here, sales are bowling along and pressure is building with lots of next year's cutting and seedlings already sitting here demanding to be dealt with. There's plenty of tunnel clearing, pricking out and potting going on, even when the sunshine says it's time for an ice cream and a lie down.
Picked a good day yesterday to don my very fetching green PVC full body suit and wellies to replace a couple of worn out valves in the acid pump (for adjusting the ph of the irrigation water). Who needs to pay out for a spa and sauna when you have an irrigation system to keep running?
Both Phil, our main driver, and I are having a few 'days off' over the coming few weeks as we have to refresh our CPC lorry driver training. I can't believe it's been five years since the last lot. Phil does all our big van driving so he gets good use out of his card, but I only go out on rescue missions when he occasionally runs out of driving time and I suspect I have spent more time in training than I have behind the wheel. It's quite handy really as I can count this as my summer holiday, a change is as good as a rest.
Big week next week, as we go Hi-Fibre. We have a new router all ready to go, just need the expert man to fit it, then the only thing holding us up will be the driver of the keyboard but sadly we are unlikely to be able to upgrade him.
Availability highlights
Erigeron kerv. Stallone are looking good with lots of bud and the odd open flower too. We have been asked before if we could grow some Cosmos which we are having a go at. I have just a few of the larger Cosmos Chocolate and a reasonable number of the more compact and bushier Chocamocha. I have a feeling I can see buds forming on the Chocamocha but as I haven't grown this one before it may just be wishful thinking. Anyway both varieties have similar dark velvety flowers and the famous chocolate scent.
Summer seaside flowers abound, with Armeria maritima back on the list, bud showing on both the white and pink forms. Masses of bud on upright stems of Catananche caerulea . The occasional flower showing a flash of its papery sky blue petals. Our summer crop of Oxalis are up and running. Both are in bud and looking perky. Iron Cross has dramatic green and black foliage under deep pink flowers while triangularis is equally showy with its purple leaves under pretty pale pink flowers. Salvia Hot Lips is now in bud with the some flower open. The full red and white petal display is now showing. Another popular summer special are the Platycodon which are on available this week for the first time. A new variety to us is Twinkle Blue, it is slightly more compact than the Astra Blue and quicker into flower.
Mixed pastel coloured flowers of Lewisia Elise are showing well with plenty more bud to follow. This one flowers all summer. Rhodanthemum Casablanca and Marakesh are showing well with bushy grey foliage and lots of bud on show and the odd open daisy flower. They will go on all summer long, producing so many delightful blooms. Twinkly white flowers of our compact Calmintha Marvelette are beginning to open and looking great. Lots of fab Salvia nemerosa varieties now back on line with most in bud and showing flashes of colour. The new Marvel varieties hold much bolder flowers which I think are impressive, I will get more of these next year, I believe there are now three colours available for 2020 so that will be a treat.
Our range of Hemerocallis (Daylilies) are rushing into bud now. The darker colours of Crimson Pirate and Summer Wine are always popular but the jolly yellow of the repeat flowering Big Time Happy must be worth a look too! We have four short Campanula currently in bud. Carpatica White and Blue with their domed habit and large single cupped flowers are neat and chunky with masses of bud. Another is the prolific scrambler posharskyana with its smaller lilac blue bell flowers, and a new one for us Clockwise is another scrambler but neater growth habit and pretty violet-blue flowers. Viola Etain and Rebecca are doing their thing, plenty pretty buds and flowers all raring to go Dianthus Scent First varieties are back on line. Buds are thrusting through on all varieties and the first flowers opening. The warmer weather and opening flowers are adding to the delightful scent levels. We have gone to town on Scabiosa this season, Lots potted ready for summer flowering, Butterfly Blue and Mariposa Blue are budding up nicely now in good numbers, these beauties will keep flowering all summer. Summer must be here, the Gaura's are coming on line with early bud already in evidence. I have a few summer flowering plants trialling at the moment, with a range of Diasica's now all in full flower. They are promise to flower their heads off all summer long and they've got off to a great start. I haven't got many as it's just a taster. So if you fancy a few just tick the list. Sorry but the other trial plants have all gone, more next year!
Have a great week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)