Hairy planning

Morning all,

A very welcome cooler week, even if again we seemed to have missed most of the rain. Today we were due showers most of the day but all we have had so far is a bit of drizzle, not even enough to dampen the surface. We did have one night with a few small puddles but not nearly enough. Fingers crossed for next week.

The farm are looking for the opposite type of weather as they approach an early start to harvest. They think they may start late next week as several fields are already looking very golden and drying out. Hopefully the earlier wet spring weather will have left enough moisture in the ground for the grain to swell and make it all worthwhile. Although our shallow chalk soil is free draining, it is surprising how much moisture is retained in the bedrock chalk just below the surface, well that's the theory.

With sales slowing up again a bit this week we took the opportunity to pop over with the van to the Isle of Wight to pick up a stack of trolleys, shelves and boxes from a couple of customers over there. It's an exciting day out for the driver, with a ferry trip and all day breakfast on the boat, but the combination of driver time and the now massive ferry cost does bring it home how lucky we are to have so many more local accessible customers to keep the trolleys and boxes on a regular return cycle. I know a few of you are slowing up or stopping sales now so if you do have any boxes ready for return please do let us know and we will pop in and pick them up when we are next passing and have the space to fit them in the van.

Tunnel clearing and potting have been pressing on this week with a frightening amount of compost and pots being consumed by the potting team. I have another 80 cubic meters of potting compost due in next week, just two weeks after the last one. It's great to feel we are getting more of the potting done at the right time this year, although it is early days yet. In many previous years we have struggled to keep up and some lines inevitably get potted a bit too late for perfect marketing timing and occasionally we miss sales opportunities because of this, which for me gets frustrating and quite stressful. We are having a play with some of our production methods for a few lines, to try and cut out a step or two in the whole process, which hopefully will help add some extra potential sales. One big issue with the whole juggling match is that there are so many sales periods coming up to think about, There are the ongoing summer sales, that late bank holiday period and the ongoing autumn tick-over, the winter specials, and the early spring bonanza when everything kicks off big time again and we need a whole lot ready to go, having overwintered as strong plants. They all need potting over the next 3 months, preferably a little less. Please let it not be too hot this summer! There was extra work on the admin side this week, with Caroline having to finally activate the financial deal for the new electric car, the chap organising it was quite excited on our behalf as he has been hanging on to this deal for a very long time and like us probably wondered if it would ever happen. Then there was the insurance to sort out with a massive questionnaire to fill in to get the final quote and the deal signed off. All done and dusted we are now the proud owners of a VW ID3. I say we are the owners, which is true, the only issue is that we don't actually have the car. We were told on Wednesday that it has been included in a factory recall to have the cooling pump replaced. The car is at our garage, so that is some degree of progress, but now waiting for the replacement pump to arrive and be fitted. Should hear on Monday how long that might take. Patience is a virtue so I'm told, I think it was the MD of VW who told me that.

Availability list.

Our perennial list is still on the short side again this week and we are still quite short on some lines so please don't be surprised if there are a few restricted volumes or subs caused by shortfalls in stock. Please don't be tempted to put in big orders for the most popular lines it won't make it any more likely that you will get what you ask for, we will do our best to fulfil where we can, but will be doing some sharing out to keep things as fair as we can all round.

There are now a few more buds showing up now and there are still more new lines growing nicely which will be appearing on the lists fairly soon. Our list constantly develops over the season so it's always worth just keeping an eye out for the new appearances.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.