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