Hairy winter planning

Morning all,

It already seems like weeks ago that we were away, I'm ready for another break already! Got back into the swing of things fairly quickly and started planning some winter projects which is usually quite exciting if not a bit expensive. We are so busy for 9 months of the year producing and despatching plants that we don't get much time to look at investing to improve things and then we get this short little window to cram in all the planning, spending and installing of anything new. This period is punctuated by holidays, Christmas, winter weather and lower staffing levels, so it does have its additional hurdles to get it all done. Last year we fitted in a luxurious new loo block (by horticultural standards) and heating and lighting systems in despatch and potting to make the cold weather work a bit more bearable and hopefully productive. There was a new 3.5t van to cope with all the extra demand, masses of trench digging, drain making, slab laying, remodelling despatch and updating the despatch work benches, it was all go. A government covid bounce back loan did help a lot with all that work and I was hoping that this winter would be a lot quieter, but things already seem to be hotting up to another active winter. We are printing and constructing over 2,500 new wooden trays so that we have enough stock for the spring rush, the old 7.5t van has to be replaced so we are nice and clean on our emissions and our first electric car should be here in the New Year. I have just ordered a replacement potting machine as our old one has been held together with plywood, screws and cable ties for too long and has been moments away from becoming scrap on several occasions over the last year or two. It has been refurbished a couple of times but there is little on it solid enough to hold a repair now so the time has come.

Then on top of all this there is another couple of sustainable hurdles we wanted to jump. One is to increase the amount of water we collect and put into our irrigation system. We have been building quite a bit of the infrastructure over the last 3 or 4 years by hand digging french drains along the edges of all the production tunnels but we have yet to join everything together to actually collect a significant amount of water. The drains have done a great job in reducing the amount of tunnel flooding we get if there is a torrential downpour, but the investment in time, effort and money to join it all up and build a reservoir/sump, install filters, pumps and pipe-work has just been a step too far. There was funding announced this week for farms and nurseries to help fund this sort of investment but as usual it looks like we will miss out. We would have to spend a minimum of just under £90,000 to et a £35,000 grant which is quite a bit more than I had imagined spending and there would be a lot of rings to jump through to get it, if we were lucky enough to get selected. The grant scheme for smaller investments doesn't fit what we want either, so not much help there. The problem is that the amount of money we would save is minimal for the investment made, but the environmental benefit would be great. We might be better off looking at replacing the oil boilers in the prop tunnels and replacing with air source heat pumps, still expensive but a much better financial and carbon return. Decisions, decisions.

Autumn wooden box collections are now just about done

Most of our wooden trays have now been collected up, but if you have a collection of trays ready to go, please do drop us an email and we will call in a pick them up as soon as we are in your area. At a replacement cost now in excess of £10 a box now, we can't afford to lose too many. Just been informed of another timber price rise, so definitely need them back!

Availability list highlights

Things are getting really quiet now and most plants are looking for their winter rest. There are still a few stars shining out there, but fewer each week. The mild weather is keeping things ticking over at the moment but the coming cold snap might slow things up.

The long flowering Cyclamen coum varieties are coming along with flowers opening already. This coum series we are growing, flowers continuously from September to April given reasonable winter conditions, it is really hardy although the number of flowers open at any one time is more subtle and modest than some of the very showy modern and less hardy pot cyclamen. A favourite of ours,

Some of the Helleborus niger are in bud and flower already, Christmas has come early. Helleborus orientalis are looking strong with the occasional bud showing. A slightly enlarged range from us this year with the introduction of the Pretty Ellen range of a red, white and a pink.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries