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.