Hairy variety

Hi Everyone,

Busy on sales again this week and still desperately short of herbs. We managed to fulfil quite a few orders with a selection of our own choice of the herbs and just squeezed through to the end of the week. I'm going to have to offer the same service next week as numbers are so low and batches are selling through so quickly. The perennial list is getting shorter too although for both ranges there are lots more in the pipeline, in fact I'm a bit nervous now that the ranges will reappear as the customer do the opposite! Fingers crossed we will keep things rolling along with fresh yummy plants that keep those tills ringing.
The modules for next year's crops have started rolling in, where has the time gone? The whole season looks like being a race to try and keep up and catch up. Luckily the fast rate of sales at the moment does help a lot with the crop turn-around and production efficiency, which should help lessen the blow of all the earlier chaos. It also gives everyone a boost that things are turning in our favour for the moment.
Still trying to catch up on the label printing and seed sowing, but should get a good run again this weekend as we have no potting team in on Saturday. After a long run of overtime and Saturday sessions everyone has earned a little rest so they can come back hopefully refreshed on Monday. The fact that we ran out of compost today has nothing to do with the pause really! Potting solidly for 12 days out of the last 14 has eaten through supplies really quickly and the next load isn't due in until Tuesday, but we should have plenty of despatching and tunnel clearing to do on Monday so we aren't going to be short of useful things to do.
The microprop lab has been suffering from cancelled orders, both current and future, but things are picking up on that front too. Demand is firming up again and we are having to plan a return of more lab staff into a safe working environment. This is tricky in a work room with six staff sat next to each other, all working in their laminar air flow cabinets. We have had two or three staff in there so far, to maintain a safe distance, but with the arrival of new Perspex screens this week, to position between everyone, we should have more options from next week. I fitted out the first cabinet last night as a test and all seems to have worked ok, so I'll try and get the rest sorted over the weekend. The workload hasn't built up in there yet to be flat out, but we are going to have to start quite an investment in staff hours to ramp things up again. It's a long way back in there, you can't just leave the stock unattended for very long before it all falls apart. I'm sure it will be the same for many in this crisis, it's going to be a long haul to recovery.
Good chance last week to get fully kitted out in my second favourite PVC outfit. A head to toe job with wellies, gloves and face shield, quite a performance! Our first delivery of nitric acid this year into our special caged, vapour proofed, bunded little acid tank, just so we can drip it into the irrigation storage tank to balance out the PH of the water. It is a brilliant system when compared to the old way of using little drums which constantly needed handling and changing. Now we have one pump-over delivery into the tank every 9 months or so, where the driver (all kitted up too) does all the hose fitting and pump operation while I stand at a safe distance with my emergency hose at the ready, just in case of any problems. It is all over in 10 minutes and all is stripped off and locked away safely again. Not quite a joy, but not far off it and so much easier and safer than the old days.

Availability list highlights
As already mentioned herbs stocks are now at an all time low and can only offer a mix of our own choice. Just let me know how many you can manage with for the moment and we will put something tasty together if we can. We have more stock growing but not quite ready yet.
We will all have to continue to be a bit more flexible than usual if we are to get all the stock delivered over the next few weeks, but as always we will be doing our best, most of the time it seems to be working ok, bar the very occasional brain freeze on my part.
Main current highlights on the flowering stock front are;
Eucomis autumnalis are just beginning to throw up their pale yellow flowers, an exotic plant for the garden. Most of our Hemerocalis are now in bud. Short and stocky Crimson Pirate has the odd flash of dark colour showing. We have some strong bushy Crocosmia varieties looking great, it will be a while before they flower, perfect for planting now. Cosmos Chocamocha and Osteospermum Tresco Purple are back on the list again, hopefully enough for a couple more weeks! There are more batches on the way for these beauties too. The Salvia Hot Lips and Amythyst Lips are back on line this week but Cherry Lips are having a break, more of these later.
Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.