Hairy Radio

Morning all,

Another hectic week on the sales front despite the weather not being quite so appealing. We have been turning away potential customers in order to try and keep some control of the exodus of stock, but we are desperately short of herbs now and will be for a few weeks until the fresh stock comes on line and the rabbit harvested crops recover. Not only have we never seen demand like this, but also never had so much rabbit damage, it couldn't have happened at a worse moment and it's mostly the herbs they have a fancy for. We have had the ferreters in and they are back tomorrow, and we have started covering crops with netting in an effort to put them off but they turn to the next tasty crop to try that out instead, the little tykes. The short pause in herb supply might actually work out quite well for us, other than the obvious and frustrating loss of income. We will be introducing new labels for all the herbs in a few short weeks, as soon as Floramedia can get them printed. They are all approved and at their print-shop so it could be any moment, I don't suppose they will have much to do at this time of year! They will be printed on their card B500 material, waterproofed with vegetable starch and threaded onto our bamboo skewers just like our perennials. This will be the first year we will be able to print our own colour labels on the B500 and cut them out on our new press and die cutter, which means that at last all our pot labels will be non-plastic.

It will be a shame to say goodbye to the wooden tongue depressor, home printed, herb labels, which have served us so well. Unfortunately the wooden label printer has got very old and is breaking down far too often. Slow production speeds and unable to cope with increasing demands, messy and prone to mistakes, this printer is in need of retirement. It was the printers 62nd birthday this week and as the only printer operative left, I am definitely getting past my 'best before' date.

There will also soon be a new header board for the boxes, for those of you who use them. Again made from B500, they will be thinner than the old brown card version, but still last well in our tests. Best of all they take out the sticky back plastic label element and the plastic coating on the old brown card version. Just hoping the production of these boards runs smoothly, we won't know until we get into full swing, but I am hopeful of a better header board, lower costs and no plastic ingredients. Feeling good this week after my jab last Friday. Had a good selection of minor side effects for a few days after, but nothing a paracetamol couldn't shift. I was quite pleased to feel stuff was happening in there after the deed was done. Caroline is on for next week (a lot younger than me!) so that will be another covered, hurrah.

I'm lined up for a short interview on Radio Solent on Sunday afternoon (and you can listen here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p098grx7) as a follow up to the one they did nearly a year ago when we first had the idea of giving away all our waste stock to local communities in Lockdown1. Things looked pretty bleak at that point and after finding out about how well we rebounded over the last few months, they wanted to get the good news out there. It is live, so anything could happen. I remember the last one, which luckily was recorded, when I got the National Trust and National Front confused!

Box return appeal

Please do send back any empty wooden trays you may have accumulated, we are going to be pretty desperate for them fairly soon, otherwise we won't have anything to send the plants out in. I have another batch on order to bulk things up a bit, but at close to £10 a box this year, by the time we have printed and constructed them ourselves, it is not a cheap option to simply increase stock levels. I know they are an investment and over many years of multiple use they are still great value, but they only earn their keep if they are in proper repetitive use. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Sadly our herb range is going to be very light for a few weeks until the fresh stocks have made enough size. Massive demand has caught us out to a degree and the rabbits haven't helped either. Our overwintered range is always a bit limited, just because of the nature of many of the herbs, which may not respond well to being grown overwinter without heat. Fresh crops are on the way we will just have to wait a bit. We have big numbers coming through, we just need the plants to grow quicker. Many of our short Narcissus varieties are now in bud and some showing colour, short and stocky and full of spring promise. Glimpses of the strong blues of Scilla sibirica are beginning to show, spring is on the way. Anemone blanda Blue Shades and White Splendour have appeared now, popping up all over the pot and immediately showing bud.

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, as well as their very smart dappled foliage. 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