Hairy labels

 Morning all,

That's January done and dusted already, the spring rush gets ever closer and the list of jobs to get done before that time seems to get longer every week. Even the things that are meant to be quick and easy are taking days to sort out, I'm wondering if it's just me or if nothing new ever works as you expect it to, I have a strong feeling they can see me coming! I won't list all the jobs we have had to do to get the new loo block up to speed, it's just too long and frustrating, despite going to a specialist supplier, and there are still things outstanding to finally finish. Mind you it is still the best looking loo block I've ever seen on a nursery! This week saw the arrival of my new 12 tonne press, needless to say after two days playing about and adjusting we can only just get it to do the job intended, so that is going to take a lot more work to get it economically useful, we may have to upgrade, we'll see. The nice simple instructions were helpful up to a point but the fact that the illustrations and description were for a different machine did cause some confusion. Luckily this time, the supplier has been more than helpful and I sure we'll sort it out in the end. Our new mini label printer took nearly two months to print its first run of labels after the failure of 'plug and play' and a software issue where when you enter the label size (as measured and as printed on the packaging) it refused to print more than a couple before throwing up an error message. Eventually the supplier sent us a formatted template for the labels (that should have come with the delivery) where the label height in the template is set 2mm less than the actual label size, and if you don't have that exact size it won't work. Useful info to have!

We are currently working our way through our massive cleaned and dried wooden box collection and retreating the wood to hopefully make them last longer and repel excess water a bit better. I'm hoping it's a bit of a one off job as it is costing a bomb to do, but with demand likely to be big this year and several lovely new customers lined up we are going to need a quick box turnaround between deliveries and a big enough basic box stock to start with. With this in mind I've been trying to get some new box stock made to top up the numbers, but our original supplier is no more, and after much research, the contact we still have has only been able to come up with a constructed version that is twice the price of the old stock. Ouch. Wood prices have apparently rocketed in the last couple of years, the printing of the wooden side panels become extremely costly and the fabrication difficult to source. So we are now looking to just take delivery of the wood components, already cut and treated, and then print them ourselves before pinning them together. Even the cut bits are more expensive than the old box was, but hey-ho, we can't do what we do without them and we do have the kit here to do the job.

On a more positive note we took delivery of our main perennial label delivery this week. We were so organised we even had all our plywood storage trays set up on the shelves with all the new varieties labelled up in their correct alphabetical order, so it was a relatively easy job to get the labels into their right home. Mind you with over 400,000 labels it still took a little while, but a good job done.

The polishing up of the despatch area continues with a upgraded individual workstations for everyone. New larger & flatter work tops, new label container/dispensers, new hooks, shelves, tool sets and 'below bench' storage facilities (buckets!). With 15 stations to do, plus 3 emergency spares, it is again a bigger job than I first envisaged, but the number of little time saving opportunities it gives us through the busiest times should easily pay back the effort. We were lucky that the way we had our despatch area set up was very easy to upgrade for everyone's personal Covid safety. Because each operator works on their own bench, centred around the order on its trolleys, we just had to move the benches a bit further apart. Luckily we had room to double the despatch area with a bit of reorganisation, but I think in the end we will have created a more efficient and pleasant workspace, which has to be good.

Availability list highlights

A nice range of Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on the list. The niger are budding up now. We have the longer flowering little Cyclamen coum available now as well. They will flower all winter and well into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range and only in limited numbers. A few of the early bulbs are up but a bit too early for buds just yet, but a definite sign of the approaching spring. Having said that we do have a few snowdrops with some colour showing. Sadly a rogue rabbit or two have trimmed back a couple of crops including the Crocus which had been showing so much promise. Not sure quite the level of damage yet, we have moved them and are hoping we got there in time, although I have my doubts. Fingers crossed. We have a good range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, although I'm not sure they will actually colour up until warmer conditions prevail. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy prep

Morning all,

Sun came out today and it looks like we might dry out a bit for a few days. It almost felt like spring for a few hours,

We did manage to tick off a couple of the winter jobs, some came back again and I've added some more for good measure. Label store is re-labelled and cleaned ready for the new seasons label stock which I thought was due in today, but didn't. There are a few old labels left to over-stick with the new plant passport details but not the monster numbers of last year. The plumber had a good go at the 32 leaks in the new loos and then came back for a few that didn't quite seal. Still 3 or 4 that are misbehaving so another visit next week should see us water tight. I must say the block itself in palatial in comparison to anything we have offered before, warm and light, spacious, easy clean, well fitted out (although still got a couple of fans to fit) with paper towels, mirrors, coat hooks, shelves for the spare rolls and air freshener, somewhere to park your gloves, hot water, soap and sanitiser, it's becoming a struggle to get people out of them! Having 8 independent units is a vast improvement in privacy and throughput of people, as well as being more covid secure, so everyone seems very pleased. Just a few hiccups initially with people thinking they were locked in and calling for help on the walkie talkies, the handles are a bit stiff and need a bit of positive input to open, so we are getting better at it now.

We had our first Brexit import cancellation this week. A tiny order for two UV lights for my printing plate etching kit was delayed a couple of weeks then cancelled because the company could no longer get the package from Holland to the UK. A frustrating delay which meant new plate production has been stopped for three weeks. Reordered elsewhere now, fingers crossed for better luck this time. We have a big module order for the lab pricking out and my herb seedlings coming over very soon, there are emails flying all over the place to try and make sure all is ready, but we are still in the dark as to whether we have done enough. The duty deferment account application we started in September to pay the tax due on imported materials is still ongoing and apparently in the final stages of approval, let's hope it all falls into place in time.

My new 12 tonne die-cutter press didn't get here, so chasing that up, the December delivery of the lab store looks like being early February and the last of the drain digging got delayed in the wet conditions. Patience, it will happen eventually. Good job it's a quiet time of year, plenty of R and R before the spring rush!

I attended, online, the BPOA spring conference on Wednesday which was a first for me. It was well worth the time, I learnt a bit which is always good, but best of all it helped me recognise how much we are just a tiny part of a generally wonderful industry. Hearing the experiences of different growers during that first lockdown, how they coped and what they learnt was very touching and they certainly earned my respect for their hard work and creativeness, seeding their hopes for survival. The stories of staff, family and friends volunteering to muck in and help out brought back so many memories for me of that mad time. Scary but inspiring, we learnt a lot about ourselves, our friends and our communities and I do hope we can all hang onto some of that positive glow when this is all over. I think it was the involvement and support of the local communities that was the most surprising and cause for rejoicing. So often the things close to home are the things worth truly treasuring.

Prices and catalogue for 2021

I have managed to cobble together a skeleton catalogue with all the latest hairy pot updates and full lists of the varieties being grow in 2021. The prices will rise by about 2.5% (5p) which I am hoping will cover some of the cost increases we have seen. With a bit of luck a smoother sales season and increasing sales volumes will cover the rest. The previous Flipbook version is no longer working since the demise in December of Adobe Flash Player, but if I can master the software we will try a different approach at some point. I know it's not the most professional presentation in the world, but I hope it gets the main message across. Work pressures, an ageing marketing department (me) and all the other excitement going on at the moment has put this project on the back burner. There is too much going on in the world to worry unduly about it, we are still standing, ready to move forward, and that is enough for the moment.

Availability list highlights

A nice range of Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on the list. The niger are budding up now.

We have the longer flowering little Cyclamen coum available now as well. Only a 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 only in limited numbers.

A few of the early bulbs are up but a bit too early for buds just yet, but a definite sign of the approaching spring. Having said that we do have a few snowdrops with some colour showing.

We have a good range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock.

I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, although I'm not sure they will actually colour up until warmer conditions prevail. 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy organised chaos!

Happy New Year to you all,

The build up continues as spring rushes ever closer. Mild panic at times, which is not a great sign so early in the year, but we are investing time and cash in so many things this winter that it all look fractionally chaotic just at the moment. Not everything we have a go at works perfectly but you can be sure we either gain something or learn a lot! Just at the moment there are a load of projects well under way but not quite finished and I'm sure at each one gets ticked off everything else will fall into place.

Just one and a bit more tunnel drains to go out of 40 so that will be one big one out of the way. Plumber in on Tuesday to finally fix the 32 minor leaks in the new loo block, Still awaiting the December lab store delivery and the follow up shelving installation, electrician's still to come to finish the odd bits and bobs from the various winter works. Despatch is stacked up with drying boxes and POS boards, and we have all the individual workbenches to refit to an improved design to make life a little easier and hopefully more productive. I have some pre-cut FSC plywood coming this week for the benches and to print up some more POS boards. There is a new 3.5t box van on the way, due in at the end of next month and a bonkers amount of colour labels arriving very soon. The entire label store is being cleaned, relabelled and rearranged ready for the arrival of the labels, so they stack away neatly and in the correct order.

I have a new bit of kit coming this week, a 12 tonne hydraulic clicker press so that we can print and punch out our own non- plastic labels. It is one of the last pieces of our non-plastic marketing jigsaw to slot into place and, assuming it works, it might even save a penny or two on the current plastic option. Previously we could only get pre-perforated labels, to colour print ourselves, made out of plastic and despite hopeful predictions of changes to come over the last couple of years, none materialised, so we have taken it upon ourselves to find a way of reaching our goal. Floramedia produce the bulk of our label stock in the same non-plastic material and have kindly agreed to supply us with A4 sheets so we can produce the odds and ends ourselves. I have had the die-cutter forme already made and just need the heavy duty press to complete the job. One of this winters learning moments was that buying a hand/lever operated press producing over 1 tonne of pressure isn't enough to cut up a card sheet into 12 labels. That's a couple of hundred pounds I'm not going to see much return from!

Plant cutting back and tidying continues at pace on the nursery for all those not tied into the various projects and the lab is hectic. We are even running a bit of overtime in the lab to try and make up for all the current absences. International transport delays and quarantines means even later New Year returns to work than we had hoped which is all a bit frustrating when demand is so strong. Still, there isn't much that worrying about it will achieve, we have done what we can and at least we still have an operating business in these mad times.

The vaccines seem to be progressing well which is a great positive message and the current lockdown seems to be slowing up rates in many areas, but we are still quite anxious about the next few months. The next few weeks are obviously going to be very difficult for the whole NHS and support services and our first thoughts are for them, but looking further forward, things could still get difficult for many small businesses if infections affected us directly. It is going to be a little while before even ancient folk like me get our vaccinations and that could leave us vulnerable, but fingers crossed it all comes together and that bumper season we all think is out there, actually materialises.

Prices and catalogue for 2021

Very sorry, but the 2021 catalogue is still not quite ready yet. The perennial range is expanding a bit but otherwise much will be the same as last year's issue. The prices will rise by about 2.5% (5p) which I am hoping will cover some of the cost increases we have seen. With a bit of luck a smoother sales season and increasing sales volumes will cover the rest.

Availability list highlights

A nice range of Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on the list. The niger are budding up now.

We have the longer flowering little Cyclamen coum available now as well. Only a 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 only in limited numbers.

A few of the early bulbs are up but a bit too early for buds just yet but a definite sign of the approaching spring. We have a good range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, although I'm not sure they will actually colour up until much warmer conditions prevail.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all,

What a very mixed start to the year. Increasing light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine roll out, which is just brilliant, but it's going to be a rough ride for so many before things are back under control. I must admit to struggling quite a bit at the moment when it comes to drumming up positivity and excitement, despite the remarkably good position we find ourselves in. After the disastrous start to last season we find ourselves now with lots of lovely customers, loads of great stock on the way, an expanding consumer demand for plants, and lots of winter progress on preparing our starting position for the new season. Unfortunately the now 'in-built anxiety' is just hanging there, dulling those sparks of hope. Fingers crossed for everyone, that things brighten up really soon.

Looks like being a bit warmer but dry, for us next week, which should be perfect for progressing with those winter jobs in a bit more comfort. Luckily I got the new loo block plumbed in and running over the break so we can now all relax in comfort, up to 8 at the same time and all in covid safety. The next couple of weeks should see us complete the 'between tunnel' drainage work, which has been going on now for 4 winters. It has broken a couple of staff who retired to less demanding work on the nursery, leaving just a couple of super fit pick axe wielders to get the job finished. A heroic effort and very well worth it, with so much less flooding now on the production beds when we are under those torrential downpours we seem to be getting. Next year we will seek to join up all the drains in an effort to collect more runoff water for the irrigation system, but that's another winter. In this cold weather the new despatch heaters are really useful for social distanced coffee breaks but it's not quite as cosy as it used to be when we used to cram into our old warm and stuffy coffee shack, so our hardy outside staff are definitely having to give a bit more for the cause this winter which I am very grateful for. The heaters are brilliant for when you are standing, moving a bit and working under them, so they do what we wanted by improving those cold day working conditions, but sitting still under them just isn't quite as toasty as the old shack.

The December delivery of the new lab store looks imminent, although not nailed down, and I am looking forward to getting it in place and kitted out. Our microprop lab is suffering at the moment with a shortage of clean storage space as well as a lack of technicians. Only half the team have made it back after the break so far, due to a combination of illness (non-covid) and covid travel restrictions with returning Polish staff, some won't be back for more than another week, so not a very productive start. I suspect the knock on effect of covid disruptions will plague the whole industry for much of the season and into the next, with shortages in some areas but at least we are trading to a buoyant market at the moment so no worries really.

Onto the most exciting news; New 'UK Plant Passport' labelling rules came into force from January 1st, which is a bit of a pain on top of all the other excitement, but luckily we have been given 6-9 months to use up older label stock printed with last year's EU plant passport format. All our paperwork will use the new UK format, so the records you keep will be correct from day one, but the individual plant labels will be a mix of old and new formats for much of this season. We are thankful for the leeway we have all been given, because over-sticking all our old label stock would repeat last year's huge labour outlay for not a lot of gain. The new format looses the EU flag, changes the wording from 'Plant Passport' to 'UK Plant Passport' and drops the 'GB' initials from the front of our grower registration number. All our new perennial labels, to be delivered here later this month, will have the new format and the herbs will have them too, as soon as the plates can be updated and the old stock used up. What fun.

Prices and catalogue for 2021

Very sorry, but the 2021 catalogue is not quite ready yet. The perennial range is expanding a bit but otherwise much will be the same as last year's issue. The prices will rise by about 2.5% (5p) which I am hoping will cover some of the cost increases we have seen. With a bit of luck a smoother sales season and increasing sales volumes will cover the rest.

Availability list highlights

A nice range of Helleborous are now on the list, ready to plant out now for a flower show this winter. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on the list. The niger are budding up now. We have the longer flowering little Cyclamen coum available now as well. Only a 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 only in limited numbers.

A few of the early bulbs are up but a bit too early for buds just yet but a definite sign of the approaching spring. We have a good range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, although I'm not sure they will actually colour up until much warmer conditions prevail.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries