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