Warm and hairy

Morning all, 

Much warmer this week and for next week too, but now very wet indeed down here. We are back to similar conditions to those before the mini Beast from the East arrived, the track-ways that are usually so firm are spongy underfoot where the water just can't get through the subsoil fast enough despite being on 'free-draining' chalk. Luckily we haven't had too much arrive as downpours, so no flooding events so far, touch wood. The winters trench/drain digging and installation is paying dividends at the moment, I haven't seen any beds flood yet which has always been a worry in previous winters.

Naturally, you cure one issue and another raises its ugly head, or in this case pretty head. Despite the nursery being rabbit fenced we seem to have enclosed our own thriving population and they are causing havoc with their grazing of our stock. They definitely have their favourites, it's been purple sage this week, it was Liriope the week before and green fennel before that. The cats used to keep on top of the situation, but I think we are going to have to introduce some new blood to get on top of this. As soon as it warms up a touch and everything comes into full growth, the stock will mostly grow back nicely, having had a tidy trim, and the rabbits will have too much choice elsewhere to be quite such a worry, but just at the moment everywhere we turn there is another patch stripped.

We've had the electricians in again for most of the week, sorting out stuff, installing some extra fans in the new loo block to avoid having to have the double glazed windows open all winter (let's have some joined up thinking please!) refitting trips and switches in the irrigation shed to stop the tripping of the system when both pumps come on, fitting individual isolator switches, with an indicator light, on each of the 16 new despatch heaters, so we can tell when they are on and isolate them to 'off' if unused for any long period. We also replaced a very old consumer unit, originally installed before we even started the nursery 37 years ago. Not a lot to show at the end of the day, but I'm feeling warm about it on the inside.

NBIS zoom meeting last week, which was brilliant. It's mainly a therapy session for stressed out nursery folk and it works a treat. We don't see many people at the best of times, but over the last year I've probably only been off-site a dozen times, I've still got most of the same small wad of notes in my pocket that I had last March, so to see a group of familiar faces for a catch up was really refreshing. There was a lot of scary stuff to share, the ongoing changes to plant passporting and Xylella controls, to the nightmare that is the importing and exporting fiasco going on over our borders. Tales of stock being held for many days awaiting clearance, with no indication as to how long it will be before it is released, due to the thousands of other containers waiting ahead in the queue. The tales of mammoth preparations being made before January that where of no use at all when it actually came down to getting the goods moved, and the ongoing challenges that were presenting themselves literally as each hour passes. Different inspectors are interpreting rules in different ways and authorities in different countries can't agree on what is required. It sounds like a nightmare. Things are so difficult to get into the UK now, that a lot of EU suppliers are just giving up on even trying to sort it out. I'm not sure these issues are going to get much better for a while yet and when you add in the covid complications to the mix, there could well be a fair amount of disruption to supply chains for us all. We have tried to be really organised and prepared, by placing orders for our stock many months in advance of when we need it, but we are still not sure if they will get here. There are shortages of containers to hire for shipping, along with the disruption to production of stuff due to the virus. It is going to be a very challenging year again, but at least the virus should be on the back foot and we might get back to some dancing later in the year!

Availability list highlights

Spring time is just round the corner and quite a few of the early spring bulbs are thrusting forth. We have lovely colour on some of the Scilla mit. and the Snowdrops (Galanthus) so don't miss out. Only a few left.

Our Fritillaria (snakes head lily) are looking green and chunky with more and more bud being produced already. Some of our short Narcissus varieties are now in bud, short and stocky and full of spring promise. We still have some great Helleborous niger and orientalis on the nursery.

The long flowering little Cyclamen coum are available now. They are showing great colour and will flower all winter and well into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range. We have a nice range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock all propagated in our microprop lab, I can see the centre buds swelling ready to produce flower stems, so it won't be long before they do their thing.

Pulmonaria's are budding up now with some colour showing on the Blue Ensign and lovely tight bold foliage on the other two. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, and in the mild temperatures last week there was even the odd opening flower. I suspect with the eastern blast will have dented that rash gesture, but it just shows how close we are to some serious flowering activity. This early in the year their blue colouring definitely has a rosy hue, but colour is colour! 

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Cold and Hairy

Morning all,

Blimey that was a cold one, and I think we got off lightly compared with some. Luckily it looks like a milder spell over the next week and that takes us another few days towards the end of official winter and closer to those madly busy spring weeks. PST (Pre Season Tension) is creeping in as we get closer to that great unknown, what will the spring be like and can last summers momentum be maintained? Fingers crossed everything is with us this time, I'm not sure how we could manage another rollercoaster year like 2020. The signs are positive for a buoyant market and I'm still not really sure whether to be excited or scared. Preparations here are still bowling along and we certainly have the potential for some little bonuses to be gained from nice little production tweaks here and there. Let's hope we can all benefit from a national gardening boom.

I got into mass silk screen printing mode last weekend, just before the really cold weather struck. We needed to restock our wooden POS board store so that everyone can have a new set of boards as they set up for the spring. It's not a job I particularly look forward to, if it goes well it is a nearly a joy and very productive, but if it doesn't, it gets very frustrating and very messy. You wouldn't believe how far you can spread black ink without even trying. The trick seems to be getting the ink at just the right thickness for a crisp finish and with just enough retardant in it to stop it drying too quickly and blocking the screen pores, but as the temperature fluctuates or wind changes direction it all goes pear shaped again.

My new header board cutter arrived this week and it looks like it is going to work nicely. I did a couple of test ones and just need to do a few more to refine my technique. There is one fold that isn't being pressed into the board quite positively enough but I'm hoping it might be ok on the bigger press. The cutting itself was perfect.

Spring is definitely close by, we took in our first compost delivery this week and three orders of young plants, although it was just too cold and windy to actually start potting, even with the new heaters in the potting area. Some plants came in from Holland, they arrived ok and on the day they were meant to, but we did get a knuckle-wrapping from APHA about the incorrect filling in of one of the Plant Phytosanitary Certificates. The shipment could have been stopped at the border but there is currently a grace period for the next week or two, while they sort out a few irregularities in the system. This is a form the Dutch authorities fill in and apparently there is a disagreement between the UK big wigs and the Dutch, on exactly what needs to be written on the certificates for some plants, so nothing the poor exporter could do about it. Sounds a bit like the lorry driver that couldn't be let through because he had a cheese and ham sandwich in the cab and no paperwork for importing dairy and meat products. What fun.

I've been making a real effort to keep my fluids up, as we all should, in this cold drying wind, but it does create its own frustrations in the bitter cold. There have been a number of instances of near-miss industrial accidents caused by the activities resulting from the extra consumption and laughing about it definitely makes it worse. It's been a two layer trouser week and thick long tailed shirts too, as I can't afford to find myself untucked, but that has led to some tense moments. A combination of forgetting I have two layers to fight through, extra shirt debris to negotiate around and a smaller target to find has been a challenge in itself, but when you then forget to restore the second layer to its correct position and find a gusset round your knees as you dismount the cubicle and down the step, it definitely gets more dangerous. Roll on the warmer weather before I embarrass myself any further.

Availability list highlights

Spring time is just round the corner and quite a few of the early spring bulbs are thrusting forth. We have colour on some of the Scilla and the Snowdrops (Galanthus) so don't miss out. Our Fritillaria (snakes head lily) are looking green and chunky with the odd flower stem and bud being produced already. The Crocus which took a rabbit haircut (or should that be hare-cut) last week, are recovering surprisingly well, so hopefully we recued them just in time and they may make a reappearance shortly.

We still have some great Helleborous niger and orientalis on the nursery. The long flowering little Cyclamen coum are available now. They are showing great colour and will flower all winter and well into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range. We have a nice range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock all propagated in our microprop lab, I can see the centre buds swelling ready to produce flower stems, so it won't be long before they do their thing. Pulmonaria's are budding up now with some colour showing on the Blue Ensign and lovely tight bold foliage on the other two with buds swelling.

I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, and in the mild temperatures last week there was even the odd opening flower. I suspect with the eastern blast will have dented that rash gesture, but it just shows how close we are to some serious flowering activity. This early in the year their blue colouring definitely has a rosy hue, but colour is colour!

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Sustainably hairy

Morning all,

We were spoiled this week with some really mild temperatures and even the odd flash of sunshine between the showers. I suspect we are going to pay for that luxury over the next few days, I'm hoping we don't get too hard hit by the easterly blast that's on its way. Although many outdoor jobs got put on hold, we managed to get stuck into plenty of our winter projects in relative comfort inside the tunnels and despatch areas. The refurbishment of all 18 despatch workstations is very close to completion and I'm looking forward to getting it all set out ready to roll when the spring gets going. It could almost look professional in the right light. It's one of those 'nearly' weeks.

My new 12 tonne press nearly made the grade this week as we fine tuned everything and managed to successfully stamp out some labels. But it takes two passes to complete the process which isn't ideal, so I have sent the cutter to the press supplier so they can have a play with some different machines in their workshop. Hopefully they can come up with a sensible solution and we can get going on our own plastic free label production. It won't replace the fabulous labels we get from Floramedia, but will allow us to produce near identical ones using the same plastic free materials. The next stage of this development is likely to be the replacement of our current header boards which at the moment are made of mostly card, which has just shot up in price, but they do have a ultra thin plastic coating plus sticky back plastic images attached to them. We have been trying to source sustainable alternatives to do the same job, but not everyone is as keen to 'find another way' while the current solutions 'are economic and popular'. Well I'm glad to say that, if it works, my idea to print directly onto the Floramedia B500 (plastic free but waterproofed) card and then punch out the boards on my new press, will not only eliminate the plastic content but save substantially on material costs. It might take a bit more time at this end to complete the job, but hopefully not too long. I have done a test run and outdoor trial over the last couple of months and the board stood up well, so I bit the bullet this week and ordered the die cutter for the job. Brilliant service, ordered and proofed on Thursday, made and despatched on Friday, should be here Monday. Can't wait to have a play. We will continue with the old style boards for the moment and change over once the stock runs out and new boards prove to be practical in production. I know it's not ideal to change over these things after the start of the season, but it's a fairly subtle change and we are really keen to get plastic out of the marketing package as soon as we can.

After 37 years on the nursery (started work just after primary school) I can't quite believe the amount of development going on at the moment. I must have been really bad at this game to be able find so many improvements in one winter. I know change can sometimes be quite hard to take on board, but I must admit to still finding it quite exciting trying to find solutions to problems others might not even recognise as a problem in the first place. I know we are going to have to be really on top of our game over the next few years as more and more producers take the sustainability journey and start looking at those things we have been worried about for ages. We will be aiming to continue to push the boundaries of sustainable crop production and keep ourselves ahead of the game, if for no other reason than it what gets me up in the morning. Sorry if it's too much, but I really can't help myself.

Availability list highlights

Spring time is just round the corner and quite a few of the early spring bulbs are thrusting forth. We have colour on some of the Scilla and the Snowdrops (Galanthus) so don't miss out. Our Fritillaria (snakes head lily) are looking green and chunky with the odd flower stem and bud being produced already.

The Crocus which took a rabbit haircut (or should that be hare-cut) last week, are recovering surprisingly well, so hopefully we rescued them just in time and they may make a reappearance shortly. We have nice range of Helleborous on the list. We have sold out of a couple of lines already but still have some great niger and orientalis on there.

The long flowering little Cyclamen coum are available now. They are showing great colour and will flower all winter and well into the spring. Only available this year in a mixed colour range. We have a nice range of the evergreen Bergenia's in stock all propagated in our microprop lab, I can see the centre buds swelling ready to produce flower stems, so it won't be long before they do their thing.

Pulmonaria's are budding up now with some colour showing on the Blue Ensign and lovely tight bold foliage on the other two with buds swelling. I have two Scabiosa in bud, looking strong, and in the mild temperatures this week there is even the odd opening flower. I suspect with the eastern blast coming this weekend they may regret that rash gesture, but it just shows how close we are to some serious flowering activity. This early in the year their blue colouring definitely has a rosy hue, but colour is colour!

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries