Hairy economy

Morning all,

The stunning funeral on Monday started off a strange week. Those events in London already seem like a month ago, partly to do with so much happening on the nursery over the week and partly because the earlier events were so other worldly and unique. I'm not much of a royalist but it was superbly done, I just hope the family do get some time to take it all in and recover a bit before things get too hectic again.

Meanwhile back at base someone has been making a few investments to improve things on site even further. Late summer is the time when the overdraft doesn't look as scary as it can do in the depths of winter, the purse strings get a little looser and I find a few ways in which we could make life better. It usually involves a lot of internet shopping for shiny new tools and a few risky purchases on something that seemed like a good idea at the time. Someone has to keep the economy going!

We have topped up the snips and garden scissor stocks ready for the big winter cut back with a bargain bulk shop, bought in a new cover for the big irrigation tank and took delivery of yet another very expensive container of coir pots ready for 2023 potting. A large roll of thick woollen capillary matting came in for experimenting with in the bottom of our boxes, together with a special slightly scary electric fabric cutter to slice it up with.

Our pest control expert told us of a great vermin control device which we instantly ordered, if it works we are hoping do away with using other less palatable methods. They are already in position so we will know very soon how effective they are. Being in arable country we have in the past struggled to keep vermin under control, although we have been more successful in recent years, they can still do a lot of damage especially overwinter when other food sources are in short supply. I'm sure it will be better than the pigeon scarer I bought years ago which endlessly played the calls of various predators, the pigeons were immune to it but it drove the rest of us nuts. Luckily it eventually shorted out never to be heard again. In the summer we witnessed the novelty of a very clean van when it returned from the mending man, which has prompted the purchase of a bright yellow pressure washer to see if we can repeat the experience occasionally,

Time flies and all that, but sometimes we do get untimely reminders that we need to make the most of what we have and how quickly things can change. The Queens passing was one of those moments, but things moved a bit closer to home this week with the news that our most experienced member of the team had had a fall at home and broken her thigh bone. She has been plated up by the good old NHS and is staying with them while she recovers her mobility again, which hopefully won't be too long. We are all missing her and hoping she makes a great recovery and that we will see her again soon.

Take care out there.

Wooden box returns

We are collecting up lots of our wooden boxes at the moment, so if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or three to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

We have our dwarf garden Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem. Erigeron Stallone is still in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour.

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. No flower yet but full of winter promise. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great.

Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Best wishes,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy refresher

 Morning all,

A bank holiday weekend coming up like no other I suspect.

We still have so much to get done before the autumn sets in for good, it's difficult to know what to do next. As sales slow up I am always hopeful that the jobs will fly by and we will tick off loads of stuff really quickly, but with cooler weather and talk of ground frosts not far away from us time is slipping by. It's dark when I wake up and dusky when I come in, which seems to have sneaked up on me really fast.

We had an educational week with three of us taking our refresher forklift training on Thursday. An all day session with practical and theory tests in the afternoon, the time flew by. I can't say I enjoy being tested anymore (if ever) especially as I now have the memory span of a gnat, and there were a few quite challenging questions which weren't common sense, they were straight memory recall. Anyway we all passing with (low) flying colours and are refreshed with a flush of righteousness in our updated fork-lifting techniques.

We are still waiting to hear at what level our nursery electric charges are going to be capped, we know it's coming but no idea at what rate. Hopefully it will be at a similar level to the domestic cap, which would still more than double our bill, but not quadruple it, which was on the cards a fortnight ago. Perhaps the caps will calm things down a bit on the inflation front and we can look forward with a bit more positivity, especially as we move into a new era.

We are rapidly approaching the end of the month and the end of our financial year, so stock sheets are being prepared for the big count. I'm pretty sure stock levels are up on last year, due to some earlier late summer potting and several early and large stock purchases chasing the best price deals. Plant sales usually do pretty well in troubled economic times, as people forgo big money purchases but still treat themselves to a little something for the garden or windowsill. Fingers crossed those plant sales are there in the coming spring as we have a lot of stock to get through.

It's been a good week for local wildlife spotting with hedgehogs up and about, Red Kites cruising over the nursery multiple times a day, Pied and Grey wagtails feeding in the tunnels, bats hunting along the hedges and big numbers of frogs, toads and newts being spotted in the tunnels despite the hot summer. But the highlight of the week was a massive flock of feeding house martins and swallows diving about over the house and nursery. There must have been way over 100 birds but impossible to count as they moved so fast, chaotically and over quite a big area. They hung about for an hour or two then headed off south. Hopefully one day they will return and breed here again. We used to get loads of house martin nests on the house and the odd swallow nest in the shed and barn but have had nether for two or three years now and we really miss them.

Wooden box returns

We are collecting up lots of our wooden boxes at the moment, so if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or three to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Time flies and we have our dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Erigeron Stallone is back in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Cyclamen hederifolium are nearly gone already after bumper sales. An autumn flowering type just a few white ones left, Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour.

We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. No flower yet but full of winter promise. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great.

Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages. Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Take care out thrre,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy life

Morning all,

We are all in a slight state of shock after the sudden and sad news of the passing of the Queen, so I'm holding back on any flippant reporting of life on the nursery this week while everyone gets their heads round the resulting upheaval this is all going to cause. Hopefully we will be able to quickly focus on all the joyful and positive stuff that resulted from such a long and fulfilled life, rather than be too sad for too long. We are going to have to muster up some positive drive pretty quickly to see us through the next year or two, so perhaps a bit of rejoicing of a life well lived and looking forward with hope to a new era will help in the end.

Normal service should be resumed next week.

Wooden box returns

We are collecting up lots of our wooden boxes at the moment, so if you have some ready for collection, just drop me a line and I will add you to the list for a visit. It may take a week or three to get round to you as we will be trying to tie them in with deliveries at the same time, to keep those transport costs in check. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Time flies and we have our dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud, showing flashes of colour. Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Erigeron Stallone is back in flower. For us it is often still showing colour at Christmas!

Cyclamen hederifolium are nearly gone already after bumper sales. An autumn flowering type both colours are looking good, Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud and colour. We have a range of Helleborus in stock to stretch those Autumn sales. No flower yet but full of winter promise.

Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages.Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Take care out there,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy positivity

Morning,

Thankfully the grass is greening up again with a little bit of steady rain. No floods yet, but we are still desperate for more to get out of this drought situation. We have been trying to find some positive stuff to focus on to help alleviate all the rubbish in the news, so we have had another man in to take a look at our rain collection installation and the possibility of installing a few solar panels which would move us in a positive cost direction. We are doing some fresh sourcing of timber to try and keep our wooden box costs in check after huge rises over the past couple of years and I have signed up again with our pot makers with a schedule for next year's deliveries, which should give them the confidence to keep up their good work in these challenging times. We have our fingers crossed that container costs continue to fall over the next 12 months which should happen if world trade falters as expected (every cloud and all that). 

We are approaching the winter with a lot of lovely things tucked under our belts. We have good numbers of plants potted and growing away nicely after slightly earlier potting, we have nearly enough pots in stock already to cover all of next year's output (mission critical, they have very long lead times which can lead to nervous waits for any delayed deliveries), There's two years supply of bamboo skewers in the barn (bought in bulk to keep price from going too high) and good stock levels of wooden marketing trays ready for next year's sales. It does all dent the cash-flow a bit but it should all generate cash again in the coming season. We have employed a few more summer staff this year so not only did we start potting earlier but we have also been pot topping earlier, to reduce the amount of liverwort establishing on the compost surface before the winter. This should save us loads of time later and make for tidier plants at despatch in the spring, so improving overall productivity which is going to be so important over the next year.

I used the bank holiday weekend for a little distractive activity, taking on a potential clearout in the house garage. I've not been in there for a long time and now I wish I had left it alone! Our old Standard Pennant (1959) is in there, all covered up and un-started for probably 5 or 6 years, and now covered in a telltale line of sawdust. We have a bad case of woodworm in all the roof supports and window frames which if untreated could have been big trouble for the roof structure. Luckily the walls and floor are concrete and part of the roof support is steel so the wooden components are not a major structural feature. However action was needed so I have cleaned out one half (the side without the car) and treated all the wood I can get a brush onto, Today I volunteered a gang from the nursery to help move the car from one side of the garage to the other. It took 6 of us to move it, pushing it out was easy, but pushing it back up a gravel slope and up over a concrete lip while the tires were soft and the brakes binding was a sweaty and grunty performance. As the responsible and managerial element of the team I took my rightful place at the steering wheel to guide her successfully home. This weekend will now be spent clearing out the other side and treating the timber, what fun. I think we'll leave the car in its new position!

We are starting to collect up quite a lot of our hairy pot wooden boxes now, so if anyone has a batch ready to return please do drop me a reminder. I have a list of a few of you already and we will get round to you over the next few weeks. Next week might be a bit quiet as we seem to have lost nearly everyone to holidays, something to do with the schools going back and prices dropping back to more sensible rates. Roll on November when St Ives rates drop to my kind of level!

Availability list highlights

Japanese Anemones are flushing nicely with the occasional flower stem already. Potted an early batch of Cyclamen hederifolium which have surprised me by starting to flower already, An autumn flowering type they are both looking good,

Time flies and we have our first dwarf Chrysanthemums in bud. Lots more to come. Autumns flowerers are on the march with more and more fresh Asters coming into bud. Tiarella with it's pretty and short 'foam flowers' are looking great. Just a few of the purple/pink Erodium Bishops Form left. Neat, tidy and in flower. Goes on for ages.

Gaura looking fab with lots of buds. Blue flowered and compact Platycodon are ready to roll. Not got many left now. Summer favourite the hardy Osteospermum Tresco Purple looks strong and bushy. Verbena Lollipop in flower again on nice compact plants. Lovely coloured foliage on Ajuga's and Heuchera.

Have fun, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries