Hairy and Windy

Hi Everyone,

Not everything goes according to plan does it. Although the weather was bright and warm as expected, the main task of the week was abandoned when my polytunnel covers didn't get here until Wednesday, coinciding with a massive pick up in wind speeds. We've had our windiest days of the month so far, since their arrival, good for the turbines but not so good for my plans to re-sheet. Also on Wednesday, to add insult to injury the potting machine died again. It has been worked pretty hard this summer so we have to expect some gremlins to make an appearance every now and then, The variable speed belt gave up so we lost all drive and added a rather rubbery aroma to the air. Managed to track down a replacement after several hours on line and missed the delivery slot for 'next day, by a couple of minutes. An offer of midday delivery today would get us set up for a good start to next week, but the carrier said we weren't in when they tried to deliver (I haven't been out for weeks!), so we now won't get it until Monday. Ace.

Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining and all that, and we ended up getting stuck into the nursery drainage recovery project and that went brilliantly. Several blocked channel drains and silt traps were cleared out and the first section of the gravel filled drainage ditch was emptied, relined and refilled. We enlarged the ditch and used a tough but more permeable fabric than before, which should keep the silt from clogging everything up, and let the water through more quickly, making it better able to cope with those torrential downpours we seem to be experiencing more of. We used my new trommel (rotating sieve) to clean the gravel so we could reuse it and I must say it worked a treat. A very worthwhile and satisfying purchase.

As we get towards the end of the season I can safely report that we are going to be fine for next year. Ongoing record hairy pot sales throughout the summer and super efficient hard work from everyone concerned, has pulled us out of the pickle we found ourselves in a few months ago. Luckily for us the lockdown plant giveaway scheme kick started the recovery, giving us a chance to clear out, re-pot and trade right through the summer period. The microprop lab is going to take a bit longer to get back on its feet because of the massive loss of sales and breakdown in the production program, but given a few more months we can get it back on track.

We saw the new bank manager last week who was delighted with our recovery efforts and very supportive in both word and deed. He was a bit over excited as we were his first site visit since lockdown. As a result the necessary finance is assured for the winter and we can almost relax. I received some sage advice from my very old friend Roger who popped in this week to catch up on our news, 'don't spend it all'! Sadly it was too late, I had just ordered 10 brand new wheelbarrows in an extravagant flourish. Hopefully there will be enough now to reduce the number that go 'walkabout' when they are in high demand. Autumn and winter is our wheelbarrow season, we never seem to have enough.

I hope you are all feeling as relieved as we are with the recovery in our market, we are luckier than many.

Availability list highlights

Salvia nemerosa varieties are showing colour nicely. Particularly good this week are fresh plants showing colour of Blue Marvel and Compact Caradonna. Fresh batches of Scabious Mariposa looking good with buds on show. Ajuga's are still looking great, bold fresh foliage. Persicaria Inverleith are strong and compact, in bud and showing colour. Darjeeling Red have bud and colour too. Strong batch of Nepeta Junior Walker now in bud and showing a little colour. A properly compact form of catmint.

As the time moves on we shift into Aster season. We have a great range of healthy chunky stock at the moment and the buds are now showing but numbers are dwindling fast. A new crop of Verbena Lollipop and rigida are ready, plenty of colour but not too big. Squeezed on a couple of our most popular lines through the year, Erysimum Bowles Mauve onto the list this week as well as Erigeron Stallone. Both have tight bud showing.

Fresh Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have the first few niger and orientalis on the list now as well as some of the larger ones, foetidus and argutifolius. Attractive foliage colour on our range of Heuchera. Young and fresh. Sedum Autumn Joy are in bud. Classic late summer flowering and so good for the bees, trimmed back earlier to produce nice short plants. Munstead Dark Red are nearly there. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.