Hairy and Woolly

Hi Everyone,

Here comes that September blast of summer again. We so often get a little late weather bonus and hopefully it will encourage everyone into their gardens again. Certainly down here in the south we have had a very pleasant weather window, once the downpours earlier ceased. We even recovered one of the polytunnels this week. We would have done more if the chap in charge had got the sheets ordered early enough! Fingers crossed they will be here on Monday as it looks like Monday and Tuesday could be good covering days with sunshine and high temperatures. There's nothing quite like a warm supple sheet to get a nice taught finish. We have uncovered and prepared a couple more tunnels in anticipation I just hope I've not been getting a bit too much ahead of myself. Tunnel cover production has got pretty sophisticated over recent years. We have lashed out on one sheet in this batch, for one of our heated propagation tunnels, which has 8 different layers in its construction which makes it really good at retaining heat. In combination with another clear sheet underneath it, kept apart by inflating the gap with a little fan, we should be super heat efficient and have a cover that lasts at least 8 years. Putting on one sheet can be a challenge at times, so putting two on at the same time does add a little extra to the excitement, especially when you have to get both slightly slack to allow room for inflation but not too loose that they balloon to far apart, plus you have to get a near perfect seal all around the edge to ensure it stays inflated. We have only done this twice before so I'm just hoping the memories of quite how we did it come flooding back. As usual we will make it up as we go.

Potting is slowing up a bit now as we begin to see the light at the end of the polytunnel. We have a couple of days worth of compost left in this load and then we have 10 bulk bags of a trial compost to test out it's overwintering performance. It is a mix we tried it out on a small scale in January and it performed remarkably well. It was a bit of a wild card, a mix of mostly wool and bracken and the ingredients are all UK produced. Rather scarily it doesn't have any added slow release fertiliser so I was pretty sceptical that it would cope with some of our hungrier or longer term crops. I still have most of the plants here in the trial, other than a few that got snaffled into a landscapers collection, and they have all done really well. There is no sign of nutritional stress despite the planting of some pretty vigorous plants. The wool (you really can't see it in the mix) is supposed to (and does seem to) reduce the water demand which could be a very useful characteristic. We also seem to have less liverwort growth on the compost surface but that could just be a fluke, we will have to judge it in the larger trial. Quite excited by it, as it is a bit of a radical mix, but a move away from added slow release fertilisers would be great and using more local ingredients is potentially more sustainable. It is a bit pricey but if the benefits are good enough I would love to give it a real go at some point.

Availability list highlights

Salvia nemerosa varieties are showing colour nicely. Particularly good this week are fresh plants showing colour of Pink Marvel and Blue Marvel too. They carry bigger flowers than most other varieties and good strong colour. Don't miss them I don't think they will hang around long. Fresh batches of Scabious Mariposa looking good with buds appearing. Ajuga's are still looking great, bold fresh foliage and a few buds coming too. Persicaria Inverleith are strong and compact, in bud and showing some 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. New batches of Salvia Amethyst Lips and Hot Lips are in bud and flower again but only a few left.

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. 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 strong chunky foetidus and argutifolius.

Short and bushy Penstemon Garnet are showing bud now. A late potting that looks full of promise. Sour Grapes looking good too although I can't see bud yet. 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

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