Hairy Footprint

Morning all,

A busy week as usual, lots of rushing about, ordering bits and pieces to put the nursery back together again after a hectic year. Tunnel doors, our copper dosing system, trolleys, boxes, vans and the forklift all got attention this week, with a few plants being tickled up too. The mild weather is keeping many of the plants in a growing mood with a few getting a bit too ahead of themselves for my liking. Although it's easier to work in the warm, I do like to see a bit of more cold to put the stock through a decent dormant period, ready to freshen up again with an early spring burst. Many pests are still active and multiplying which is a pain, especially as it is too late now to add more predators into the unheated tunnels. Hopefully the few that are still there are active too so we don't carry to many pests through the winter.

We had a quick tidy up early in the week in preparation for the NBIS meeting we hosted on Thursday. Luckily it was already pretty tidy so it didn't take long, but it had the desired affect and our visitors seemed suitably impressed with both the state of the nursery and all the investment we have done since they were last here, just before Covid. We had a celebrity element to the event with Pippa Greenwood in attendance in her HTA support role. It was her first visit here so I'm hoping she enjoyed what she saw. She seemed fairly excited by the time we got round, but that might have been the thought of the upcoming pub lunch! Unfortunately the group is struggling a bit on member numbers with quite a few retiring or closing their nurseries, together with a lack of new nurseries signing up. It's a shame because I know I have got a huge amount from the quarterly meetings over the last 25 years, with benchmarking and discussion of the basic financial figures, cherry picking ideas from other nurseries, avoiding things that go wrong for others, as well as the therapeutic benefits of unloading all your business woes on a regular basis to a sympathetic audience. It is called a Business Improvement Scheme and it definitely does that for us, I only have to pick up one odd idea or piece of useful information every now and then, for it to make a major difference to our bottom line or mental wellbeing. Hopefully Pippa's and the HTA's enthusiasm will attract a few more members, because we will fail before long if we can't add the spark of excitement that fresh blood can bring.

Part of this week's meeting was an great opportunity to quiz the HTA Net Zero advisor, which was really useful for getting a realistic view on the current situation, which can get a bit bewildering when you get stuck into it. In a nutshell we have all been asked to start on our journey to Net Zero but no one (the Government) has yet set out a definitive route. As a consequence it is very difficult to plan your way to your goal, especially if you have already made a good start on it and completed most of the obvious on site changes needed. The main problem is how to sensibly calculate what your entire carbon situation is, because it is potentially a very complicated sum. Until everyone has an idea what their footprint is they can't let their customers know the footprint of the goods they supply to them. If the customer doesn't know the footprint of the goods, they can't work out their own footprint. It's a bit of a Catch 22 situation but I'm sure it can be overcome. As we all get better at working it out, the numbers will gradually become more accurate and we can all work out our true impact. One tricky part is that all the extra work involved in collecting the info and working it all out, isn't productive and simply adds to costs, which in the current climate isn't a great incentive, however there are gains to be made, if it helps us focus on reducing our inputs.

A nice example of this has been our focus on reducing our own CO2 output since 2009, when we joined our first sustainable business group. We reduced our direct CO2 emissions from 121 tonnes in 2008, to 81 tonnes in 2011, and now we are at 59 tonnes. Part of this change is the reduction of electricity used (that is 'used' not imported), on site from 120,000 kWhrs/year in 2008 to 60,000 over the last year, despite actually having a lot more electrical kit on site and nearly doubling our turnover. That is an a minimum saving of 420,000 units and at least £80,000. We already have in place most of the energy savings we could make, so the recent increases in energy costs are having a relatively small impact and our bill is likely to be at least half of what it might have been. If we add in the impact of installing the wind turbines in 2011 as well, the figures look even better. Suddenly the positive financial benefits of our push for sustainability all those years ago really make economic sense. I will leave you to imagine the smug look of the author! 

Wooden Box returns.

We have a barn full of dried, cleaned and stacked boxes which is very satisfying. If you have any more empties you would like us to pick up just drop us a line.

Availability list highlights

Winter and spring flowering Cyclamen coum are now available in small numbers with more coming on stream for later. Most are in bud with some colour showing, even the Silver Leaved have some bud, but not quite as many. We have a good range of Helleborus in stock, to stretch those Autumn sales. Not a lot of flower yet but full of winter promise.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries