Hairy Wheelbarrows

Hi Everyone,

Big week for wheelbarrows on the nursery. We are approaching the busiest time for wheelbarrow use as most of the team will shortly be taking off to the tunnels, to initially top the compost in all of the pots with bark to slow up the liverwort and moss growth which can take over during the winter, if we are now vigilant, and then cutting all the deciduous plants back once they die back. Everyone needs at least one wheelbarrow and finding one can become a bit of a battle. I'm hoping that an extravagant splash out on several new ones and several replacement frames will bring so many back into circulation, we won't know what to do with them all. Deposit is paid on the new loo block and the electricians are due to start work on the new lights and heating in despatch and the potting tunnel. It's all go.

The bulb potting is all but finished, just a couple of hours to go which is a relief. It always takes so much longer than you think especially when compared with the throughput we achieve when potting single plants. Normally we would surround the potting machine with lots of helping hands to get them all counted and placed in the pots super quick, but with social distancing in place we had to restrict the numbers in there. With long polycarbonate screens and divides in place over machine and conveyor belt we managed to get a couple of extras in there, while keeping them safe, but it's not the same. Quite pleased with the screens though which hang on chains from the roof. They seemed a little like overkill because there is plenty of room to keep apart in there normally, but it is difficult to always keep your distance when you are focussed on getting a job done. The screens reduce that occasional closer proximity but are not too much in the way and are adjustable in position, to accommodate different potting tasks . I suspect we will have to adapt them a bit as we go, but they just help reduce the overall risk which is the main aim.

Nursery drain improvements continued this week with another two tunnels protected from the flooding with new drains dug down their entire length, drainage pipe installed and gravel laid. Four lovely new small bunkers have been installed around the site, to empty the bulk bark bags into, making filling all those wheelbarrows so much easier. It is great to do some positive improvements around the place when the news generally is not terribly uplifting.

Talking of fun things to do, I have added another job to the list for this winter. The new format plant passports introduced last winter, are changing again. The paperwork should be fairly straight forward to update, but I am going to have to make another full set of printing plates for all the herbs (etched steel plates) so we can print the right info on each label. Ace. I'm hoping we will be given a little bit of leeway on using up last year's formatted labels for the perennials, otherwise it will be another winter of over-sticking the old passport details with the new, on about 200,000 labels. The main changes are the removal of the EU flag, changing the plant passport issuer number to just a number (no GB on that bit) and change the wording of the words 'Plant Passport' to 'UK Plant Passport'. I had tried to pre-empt the change last winter by including a version with the UK flag on my plate etching but I guessed wrong, there is no flag at all, and I failed to guess the other changes. 

Wooden box returns

We have made a good start on collecting up our wooden boxes as this crazy season slows up for the autumn and winter. The barn is filling really quickly with cleaned, repaired and dried trays all ready for 2021 sales to get going again. We are a week or two later than usual starting this task, due to the volume of sales still going on, but if you haven't heard from us yet and have a collection ready to be picked up please do drop me a line.

Availability list highlights

Ajuga's are still looking great, bold fresh foliage. Fresh batch of Scabious Butterfly Blue looking good with buds appearing. We have a nice range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock. Watch out for the more unusual Dumbo which as it matures produces really big fleshy and rather hairy leaves, but this is a actually deciduous variety. It will lose its leaves in a few weeks before re-growing in the spring with a flush of pale pink flowers preceding the fresh new leaves.

As the time moves on we are well into Aster season. Only a few varieties left now. The ever popular Erigeron Stallone with bud on show with the odd open flower. In our garden they will often still be showing colour at Christmas. Fresh Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have niger and orientalis on the list with some bud showing on the niger already. Attractive foliage colour on our range of Heuchera. Young and fresh. Those were the days.

Cyclamen hederifolium on the list again this week. Not too many left but most of the flower has passed now. We have the longer flowering little Cyclamen coum available now as well. Only the first few ready at the moment but they will flower all winter and into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range and again in limited numbers.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries