Muddy and Hairy

Morning all,

Time this week to catch up on some more jobs, with sales depressed by the unenthusiastic weather. Spring seems to have abandoned us with snow, wet and wind in varying amounts. Thankfully the snowfall here was slushy and short- lived, but it did disrupt a few delivery trips, so apologies if we said we would be with you one day and turned up on the next. I'm not too anxious on the sales front just yet, despite falling rather dramatically behind over the last couple of weeks, we should get time to make it up later assuming things improve. I have had a look at the forecast for the next 10 days and sadly it doesn't look very promising, but you never know, they have been wrong before and we do in theory need the rain!

It's been a bit of a double whammy for us. Having waited well over a year for someone to start work on the ground - works for our water recycling project and having just ended the driest February for ages, they started on Tuesday in the rain, with the full team on Wednesday in the snow. A digger, dumper truck and numerous visiting delivery trucks all recreating the battlefield of the Somme. With a longer term damp forecast, I think this is going to be a mucky one, but at least it is getting done. They actually made great progress in the time they were here, some very long trenches have been dug, pipes laid and back filling begun already. They reckon the sump foundations where we will collect, settle and filter the water, should be ready to be poured on Tuesday along with the base of the new storage tank, so fingers crossed it will be finished before the rain stops completely so we can make a start on collecting it.

We had a student visitation from Sparsholt College yesterday which went on a little longer than planned, due mainly to an enthusiastic audience and a presenter who doesn't know when to stop. Despite marking it in the diary the minibus arrival took me completely by surprise as the brain malfunctioned and all memory deserted me. I don't think anyone noticed and the nursery looked pretty tidy, so trousers were not caught too low.

Paid the first electric bill of the year last week, ouch. First month of new contract and it was a big one even with a £700 government discount, it was still more than double. Hope the wind blows a bit more over the next few months especially after the end of March when that cap goes. Thank goodness we have the turbines and started investing in power saving kit back in 2009. Our potential bill could have been massive.

Hoping for a celebratory cup of tea this afternoon in honour of starting yet another year, the excitement never ends. In theory next year is a big one, but any thoughts of setting my trug to one side seem to have evaporated after the recent wild levels of investment on the site. Oops.

Availability list highlights

Cooler weather is still holding some crops back so not a lot of colour around, and those showing colour are selling through fast. Polemonium Heaven Scent is a stunner and looking great just at the moment. Finely cut bronzed green foliage is really smart and the pale blue flowers are now budding up. Grown in our own micro-prop lab it's not one you see everywhere.

Also from our lab are some very smart Brunnera varigata with nicely marked new leaves. Flowers will follow very soon. Dicentra spectabilis are just pushing through and instantly showing early bud, The white form are fractionally behind the pink but also straight into bud. Muscari Blue Magic now in bud.

Anemone blanda Blue Shades is already showing colour and flying out. The White Splendour is a couple of weeks behind but now showing. Very popular Fritillaria meleagris (Snakes Head Lily) are now pushing though, the flower buds follow only days later.

Very popular Allium's and Camassia are both showing well now. Both of these are best sold and planted in leaf or very early bud rather than in flower. They are almost unmanageable for transporting at the later stages and most alliums have rather tired foliage by the time they fully flower. Camassia Sacajawea has smart variegated foliage so looks good even without the flower.

There is a bit more colour beginning to show on the Aubretia varieties, plenty of bud coming too. We have some fab chunky overwintered Lupin's ready to plant out. This early crop is muti-shooting and will produce lots of flower later on but it won't be around for long. They get too big too quickly when it eventually warms up, so we limit the numbers grown to keep them growing within the pots!

Phlox paniculata has started to shoot strongly. Again another overwintered crop in a range of colours This looks like one of our best Phlox crops ever, we beat the pigeons last summer and got them to a really strong size by the autumn.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.