Hairy Spring (finally)

Morning all, 

Spring arrived today, sun came out, the wind turned warm and the temperature became bearable without a coat on!

Looks like this might be it, not really a heat wave but I'm sure there will be a growth spurt for the plants and a big rise in retail activity which in theory should be good news. Any signs of a slowdown in sales due to the cost of living crisis seem to be evaporating as we struggle to keep up with supplies, even with the rubbish weather. Hindsight is a lovely thing and if only we had known we could have potted a few more plants in anticipation, on the other hand we might have lost more plants through a challenging winter.

The very warm late Autumn followed quickly by a prolonged very cold spell really hit some plants hard, even those we would consider pretty hardy down here. We lost a good dollop of several lines where entire batches were wiped out, yet some lines we would usually consider a bit tender actually coped better. What fun growing plants for a living is. Two vans in the garage again this week but all back on the road again now and going well, touch wood.

No time this week so this will be brief, it is already late and there was some muttering about anniversaries so I suspect we may have to splash out on a late night takeaway in celebration. A phone call from Caroline's mum this morning reminded us and another from my mum rubbed it in, so we can't spend all day ignoring it. Unfortunately it just too busy at this time of year to think of much else than organising and juggling plant deliveries and production, we should have got hitched in the Autumn, but too late now. It's a big one next year (40) (I was a child groom), so might need to finish an hour earlier to make the most of it, but the likelihood of riotous celebrations is non existent, we will have to delay until later in the year.

Saw my first swallow of the year today, wheeling over the nursery and flying in and out of the barn. Just great to hear their summer chirping again. Song thrushes, skylarks, robins and blackbirds are all singing away as I sit here, who needs a party with all that going on outside the window. Double birding excitement today with my first sighting of a whitethroat. I know they aren't rare but I hadn't seen one before, or at least hadn't recognised one. I caught sight of him in the hedge outside the kitchen window, not a stunner so it was more of an initial realisation that it looked a bit different to our usual fare. It posed nicely while I reached for binoculars for a better look. It had a pale throat so I Googled 'whitethroat' and sure enough there was a perfect matching image. Big tick for me.

Shorter working week for the next two weeks (for most) so not quite sure how things will pan out on the deliveries front, we will fly by the seat of our pants as usual, it usually works out ok.

Availability list highlights.

Not much to report on the 'highlight front' other than we do have a reasonable amount of stock of perennials, it just isn't in flower. Anything with a hint of a flower has sold out over the last few weeks. Frustratingly cool weather and low light levels is slowing growth of the fresh stock but things are coming on line again gradually. Lots more to come over the next few months. Herbs are frustratingly a bit short after high demand, some winter losses/damage on some lines and a lack of growth on the fresh stock. There will be lots to come but not for a week or two.

Phlox paniculata are shooting strongly. A great overwintered crop in a good range of colours. Lots of Echinacea in a good range. A late one to appear but then goes nuts. Currently nicely within the pot! Some lovely Asters, very strong overwintered stock, but quite a while from flowering. A batch of super strong Sedum Autumn Joy, a great one for the pollinators later in the summer. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy jiving

Morning all,

At some point Spring will make a proper appearance and catch us all out. Another disappointing week weather -wise with even cooler conditions forecast for next week after a fairly dreary weekend. It is rapidly approaching the end of April but it still feels like March, so my nursery body-clock is all out of kilter. Forcing myself to start on the first Basil sowing this weekend in expectation of only the odd cold night from now on, as they really curl their toes up if it gets too chilly. I can keep them in a bit of heat for a couple of weeks or so and I have to assume that something spring -like appears by the time they are ready to pot. It has to happen sometime. A few of the staff have been scaring the sun away by getting their shorts out, but the have been a few knees knocking as a result!

Despite everything sales have continued to bowl along here at a pretty good rate, with batches of plants selling through well and indeed selling out. It's a tricky and stressful balance to keep, getting the stock levels and availability lists right. The perfect result is to sell out of a batch at the end of the week, so we can take it off the list and not worry about it, but it rarely happens like that. I can have a  plant on the list for weeks ticking along and then during it's last week everyone orders it and we run out too early, very frustrating although it does in theory create some level of profitability. The plant production industry tends to work on very slim margins which means that we have to sell 80-90% of a batch of plants to cover costs, and it is only the last few pots that end up being the profit margin, so we have to get ourselves into the position of selling every last pot of a batch whenever we can to generate that profit margin. 

Tricky week 'van juggling', with one in the garage for brake renewal and the other off the road until Friday after last week's suspension failure. We put a few extra orders onto Bleach of Lavant to ease the pressure and did multiple trips some days to get by. Worked out ok in the end, although next week could see similar issues with another brake renewal and another suspension part still to be fitted. It was an interesting lesson in commercial vehicle parts supply, getting the parts for the air suspension repair this week. The garage shopped around starting with the Peugeot parts people, a fair price (about £250 each and we needed a pair to be sensible) but they had none in stock for a couple of weeks. So went to Fiat who use identical parts for their system, they had one in stock and wanted over £600! There a frank exchange of views and the excuse was that they had to buy it from Peugeot. The garage managed to get the price down to £400, and it was ordered and came the same day, so the van is already back on the road, avoiding any van hire costs a delay might have caused. The second part for the other side of the van (which still works ok but is the same age and likely to fail at some point) was put on back order with Peugeot at the cheaper price but long wait and arrived the following day! Ace!

The highlight of the week by a mile was the return to the Winchester Guildhall of our jive group run by Danny (the youngest of our van drivers). It has been over 3 years since the last event which stopped at the outbreak of Covid. Other delays came after that, including changes in council booking policies etc, but we managed to renegotiate terms and we are partly returned. This was the first night back, a sell-out with 180 very excited dancers, many queuing outside before the doors even opened. Apparently there were a few 'welling up' with the emotion of it all, many hadn't been dancing for those 3 years and couldn't quite believe they had returned. The atmosphere was so happy, positive and energetic the entire evening, it was a joy and privilege to be there. Early on I danced with 'Vee' a young lady who I'm sure celebrated her 75th before the covid outbreak, who couldn't stop laughing and smiling (could well have been at my two left feet). I danced with her again towards the end and asked if she had enjoyed her evening and she said she was ' euphoric', barely containing her glee. I think she had even more energy than me. There won't be many evenings as good as that for jiving and we all now have a renewed appreciation of what a privilege it is to dance at such a fantastic venue. Still smiling about it days later, especially now the aches have subsided.  Roll on the next one. 

Availability list highlights.

Not much to report on the 'highlight front' other than we do have a fair amount of stock, it just isn't in flower. Anything with a hint of a flower has sold out over the last few weeks. Frustratingly cool weather and low light levels is slowing growth of the fresh stock but things are coming on line again gradually. Lots more to come over the next few months.

Phlox paniculata are shooting strongly. A great overwintered crop in a good range of colours. Nice Hosta range with many now starting to unfurl their leaves. Lots of Echinacea in a good range. A late one to appear but then goes nuts. Currently nicely within the pot! Some lovely Asters, very strong overwintered stock, but quite a while from flowering. A batch of super strong Sedum Autumn Joy, a great one for the pollinators later in the summer. 

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hectic and Hairy

Morning all,

That was a week to remember or possibly forget if I want to get some sleep. Manically busy over the shortened week after Spring made a brief appearance for a couple of days and the gardeners of the UK woke up and apparently went plant buying. Great news in theory, but crazy difficult to organise replenishment to everyone wanting it, especially when the previous weekend resulted in a shortage of bodies on the ground. To be fair we had a good turnout on Good Friday for some nursery repair and production, and another on the Bank Holiday Monday to try and get ahead on the order preparations. 

We were just about going to squeeze everyone in by the end of Friday when one of the vans packed up, just 45 minutes from base, on its way off on a fairly long trip. The air suspension had failed, which is a new one on us, but basically meant our low loader box was nearly dragging on the floor. Luckily for everyone it happened just before a service station and the driver was able to pull in safely there and summon assistance. Having broken down at about 9.00am it took a couple of hours for the breakdown man to assess it and several more hours for the recovery truck to arrive. The hydraulic system on the recovery truck then failed, with a blown seal, and he had to wait for repair before we could eventually get loaded! All back home and unloaded by 6.30pm. To cap it all when everyone had gone, I moved the van and pressed the button which can manually raise the suspension, it rose! I'm sure will be something wrong somewhere in the system as all the warning lights had been flashing and the suspension had gone, but at least it doesn't seem to be the compressor itself, or the bags that hold the air. Hopefully it will be a control hiccup and easily sorted. Those deliveries are now on a second van and left site for delivery tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Weather has been atrocious here again for most of the week. Very windy indeed for a while, hail storms, lots of rain and not very warm. We even lit the wood burner in despatch for the breaks so we could all warm up a bit and dry off. Look like an improvement over the next few days so we will soon forget this week.

The chaps were back repairing our tracks to some sort of useful condition again after all their trench digging and filling. They didn't quite have enough track surface material to finish it all, but we will do that ourselves next winter when we can tidy up properly, we just need the nursery back to ourselves for a bit!

There are rumours that the idea of mounting our potential solar panels onto an adapted glasshouse vent system is taking shape. I'm hoping they keep it simple, effective and relatively cheap, so that it pays back quickly through the extra energy generated.

It's easy to get lost in your own worries sometimes, I know I get thoroughly drowned in them at times of mayhem.

However we do feel for our new neighbours, who have been going through their peak lambing time over the last few weeks and the weather has been so against them. Sadly they have lost quite a few youngsters in the wet and cold, their quad bike and trailer relentlessly going in and out on rescue missions during all hours. I just heard him go past again as the rain batters the office roof. I doubt somehow they will be counting sheep to get themselves to sleep, if they manage to get any, a bit too close to home.

I need to go, it's getting late and I need a lie down. Potting team in tomorrow and I am promised some sunshine, so hoping to find my happy face again. Must find it before Tuesday as it's time for dancing at the Winchester Guildhall again with 150+ other modern jiver's. Back after more than 3 years, after the council changed the booking rules post covid, it should be a great night for dancing away the blues and all that.

Availability list highlights.

Not much to report on the 'highlight front' other than we do have a fair amount of stock, it just isn't in flower. Anything with a hint of a flower has sold out over the last two weeks. Phlox paniculata are shooting strongly. A great overwintered crop in a good range of colours. Nice Hosta range with many now starting to unfurl their leaves.

Lots of Echinacea in a good range. A late one to appear but then goes nuts. Currently nicely within the pot! Some lovely Asters, very strong overwintered stock, but quite a while from flowering. A batch of super strong Sedum Autumn Joy, a great one for the pollinators later in the summer. Great low groundcover with flowers not too far away are the Sanguisorba Tanna, very popular among the garden designers and landscapers.

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Easter

 Morning all,

That was a very hectic week. Not only the biggest of the year so far , but fewer days to get it all done by. We spent today trying to get some order back onto the nursery, a spot of tunnel clearing, pot spacing the larger plants and full bore potting. We have just enough peat-free compost left for the Saturday morning potting team and then we await the next delivery which will hopefully be early next week. Not quite sure how we will fit potting into next week as I'm predicting another crazy 4 day week after what looks like a run of more than one dry day on the trot, combined with the4 day holiday weekend, getting everyone in the gardening mood. Back in the old days when all centres opened on Easter Sunday I can remember panicky calls on a Sunday afternoon asking if we could get some stock out to them early on the Bank Holiday Monday! At least with most closed on the Sunday it does buffer demand which will hopefully make it more manageable for all.

I had planned to get this list out earlier but we had such a full day on Thursday and big  team in today, so until they all went home I didn't get a moments peace. It didn't help that the water recycling building team had to stay on later than expected in an effort to rescue our track-ways. Not only did they stay until Thursday but they are coming back again one day next week after they were unable to get enough track stone delivered at the end of last week. My dreams of having a rainfall recycling system up and running by now have been dashed due to the electrician not being available to wire it all together for another couple of weeks. Patience is a virtue and all that.

We are having discussions with a solar panel installer at the moment about designing our next project. We could get it all done and dusted quite quickly if I was happy to have a bog standard installation, but you know me I like to make life a little more challenging. We don't have any suitable building to cover, so ours would be a ground mounted system on some old outdoor production beds we can no longer use. They orientate them to the sunniest aspect and mount them at the optimal angle to catch as much light as possible. But being static, the angle set is only perfect at one moment in the day and one time of year so it is quite a compromise. You can get very clever post mounted panels which follow the sun, but the cost far outweighs the improved output. What I would like is a simpler system that just tilts a long row of panels to a more productive angle. Something a bit like the vent systems you get in commercial greenhouses. A whole row could be tilted with one motor and a long driveshaft/rod. The energy used would be minimal although the control system might take some programming, to get the best out of it, as you would want the angle changing during the day and adjusted for the time of year and angle of the suns travel. The company looking at it are into glasshouse erecting so are going to have a discussion with the glasshouse makers, to see if they have any ideas. Their main concerns are that it is secure, isn't damaged in high winds and that it isn't a tried and tested solution. They are worried that it may be difficult to guarantee the solution they come up with, but given a sensibly priced project we might like to take a punt and give it a go at our own risk. We are no strangers to taking an alternative route, it keeps life interesting! 

Took a moment last night on my walk home to have a look at one of our ponds to check out the tadpole progress. We usually have loads but this year we had a late spawning and it has all been a bit slow. We had problems in the drought last summer when the very overgrown vegetation ran it dry and we lost a lot of the plants. It gave us a good opportunity to have a big clear-out of the over rampant culprits, but it is taking a long time for things to recover. Now it has warmed up a bit there is more green growth happening, but now we have more open water which is better for seeing what's going on in there. There were plenty of tadpoles and masses of adult newts which was great to see. We know there are plenty about as we regularly turn them up under the trays and pots. They do their 'playing dead' act and for a moment you thing you've finished them off , but leave them alone for a short while and suddenly they have disappeared. They never seem to move when you are watching, only when you glance away.

Availability list highlights

Post-Easter week will be very busy, being nice weather and a four day week, so please bear in mind that we may deliver into Saturday morning if it goes nuts..

The compact Bergenia Diamond Drops are showing nice form and strong buds. Camassia caerulea is showing bud this week but I don't have many left so be quick. Achillea are beginning to show bud now. A little way off colour but it's on the way. Polemonium Heaven Scent are nearly all gone, still in bud but won't be here next time. Spring flowering Symphytum are in bud now, don't hang about there aren't many left. Phlox paniculata has started to shoot strongly. A strong overwintered crop in a good range of colours. 

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy mud

Morning all,

Very damp here, we had one lovely spring day this week and then the heavens opened again. The new sumps have been running to the soak-away as we are not quite ready to start pumping into the storage tank. I'm sure it will stop raining just as soon as we get it all up and running, but at least then a bit of dry weather might pump up the sales. Having said that we have had a hectic week on the sales front as everyone bulks up the stock levels for the Easter rush. I'm sure it won't be in vain there has to be some nice weather coming up soon. The forecast certainly looks more promising, not quite wall to wall sunshine but an improvement.

One or two slight issues this week to throw into the mix, the main one being the cable trench through the middle of the yard. It may well have got resurfaced with concrete on Monday but no-one has yet been allow to drive directly on it since. We have heavyweight road plates laid over the top for the last couple of days which have allowed careful access but it's not the same. Good job it has happened at such a quiet time of year. Having worked all over the weekend to get the trenches refilled and most of the main heavy works completed, the chaps left on Wednesday to hopefully return next week and finish things off. With a bit of luck we should have a functioning rainfall recycling system on the go by this time next week. How long it takes the track-ways and yard to recover from the turmoil we will have to see. It has certainly added to the workload for the picking up team who are having to carry around several kilos of mud on their boots while walking huge distances over the day. They usually wear fairly lightweight footwear to help cope with the distances travelled but in this weather on top of the muck everywhere it is pretty wearing.

There seems to be plenty of traffic out there slowing up deliveries which is a pain, although we did manage to do our bit and add to everyone else's problems on the roads by having a flat tyre on the M11 this week. We always carry a proper spare so once the breakdown people arrive it's a quick fix, but the two hour wait was a bit frustrating. However we are very grateful there is a system out there to rescue us in these tricky situations.

Lovely first birthday party last weekend, jelly all round and a good time had by all. Another one this weekend but this time for the granny of last week's celebrant. Likely to be a bit more riotous so looking forward to that. Also looking forward to the arrival of our electric car although all signs of it actually being built seem to have evaporated. It was due in the factory during week 9 but apparently it hasn't made it, yet as we approach week 14.

The first big delivery of predators for the nursery arrived yesterday, including three 'beetle breeding buckets' already seeded with batches of 500 of the predatory beetles which are great at seeking out and munching through those little black flies you typically get attacking the roots in propagation areas (scarid flies, shore flies, mushroom flies etc). We have found them very effective, although there is always that niggle at the back of your mind of not being able to see them doing their job, you just have to trust it is working in seeing the resulting lack of flies. There was also a big bag of lacewing larvae which are voracious predators even giving the staff a nip if they stand still too long. We use them to spot treat aphid outbreaks and we are currently trialling them as a leaf hopper control. We use red sticky traps for the hopper with reasonable results, but would like to hit them a bit harder early on to reduce early adult numbers. 

Availability list highlights

Pre-Easter week will be very busy, so please bear in mind that we are likely to deliver into Good Friday and possibly later. 

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 beginning to colour up. Grown in our own micro-prop lab it's not one you see everywhere. Nice batches of Pulsatilla in red and purple forms, emerging quickly and in bud. Not a huge number, they won't hang around. The compact Bergenia Diamond Drops are showing nice form and strong buds.

Not many left but the delightful pale blue flowered Veronica gentanoides is now in bud, get in quick before it gets too tall. Brunnera macrophylla now bursting through and instantly showing buds. Dicentra spectabilis are just pushing through and also showing early bud, Muscari latifolium now in bud and looking good, as are the last few Ipheion's

I don't have many in stock but the purple foliaged Viola labridorica is looking tidy with flower showing. Very popular Fritillaria meleagris (Snakes Head Lily) are now pushing though and flower buds appearing. Camassia Sacajawea has smart variegated foliage so looks good even without the flower. Spring flowering Symphytum are in bud now, don't hang about there aren't many left. Phlox paniculata has started to shoot strongly. Again another overwintered crop in a range of colours. 

Best wishes  from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.