New and hairy

Hi,

Looks like a bit of a damp weekend, good for the garden but perhaps not so clever for visitor numbers and credit card use on outdoor plants. I know I would rather it was like this than the heat being endured in Southern Europe. Difficult to believe that this time last year we were being baked in temperatures in the very high 30's.

Sales are still ticking over nicely and we are beginning to collect in quite a few of our empty boxes on our travels. The stocks of cleaned dry boxes are already being stacked and stored away bit by bit, into the barn now that the sales peak has passed. Slightly scary that the income will also now start to slow up a bit, but hopeful there will still be some left to see us through the winter while not hassling the bank for too much extra capacity in the overdraft, especially as the rates have gone up a tad on a year ago.

Tunnel clearing is going well as is the potting for next season. We are not quite on top of it but are well ahead of the last few slightly more chaotic years. Just as I think we are catching up another delivery of plants comes in and puts the pressure back on. The sooner we pot it the better the crop does and fewer losses we get, so time and weather are key to getting crops in good condition for overwintering. The current weather pattern is great for most crops and much easier to manage than last summers extreme heat.

More progress on the rain recycling project this week with another new cable being buried across the site. A bit of disruption with trenches, soft trench refill and drying concrete, but the cable is in so just need the electricians to pitch up to replace a distribution board or two and wire it all in. Fingers crossed this time all will be up and running before the summer ends. Managed to squeeze in my trip to one of the Ball-Colgrave open days this week. Well worth the effort, the planted out beds looked fantastic with lots of photo opportunities and the potted demo areas gave me plenty of ideas for adding some new varieties to future lists. Looking even further forward they had a lot of their potential new perennial test varieties set out in pots on beds. There were plenty of definite no-no's for us, which is the norm with trials, but there were some absolute crackers amongst them. Steve Austin, their main perennial man (well worth the $6 million), took me round the plots which was great as I could quiz him on likely level of cost and ease of growing as well as indicating what would be the good ones for us in our relatively small pot and our select market!

Watch out in the next couple of years for a relatively compact purple/bronze leaved Verbena bonariensis with contrasting pink flowers, probably the star of the show for me. No name yet but I will try and get some to try out before it comes out on general release. Just hoping it isn't priced out of our range.

I was guilt free, other than not being on the nursery, as I was fully wind powered in both directions. There is a lot to be said for a high fibre vegetarian diet. The new car had its first proper journey and behaved perfectly. Most of the techy kit I haven't quite mastered yet, but the 'heads up' display of speed, local speed limit and sat-nav directions is a joy to use.

Availability list.

The available range is picking up again as sales slow a bit and extra potting volumes work their way through the system. Numbers available are still a bit limited on some lines as batch sizes tend to be smaller at this time of year but with reduced demand the pressure isn't quite so manic.

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.

Wooden box collections

Don't forget that all our wooden boxes are the property of Kirton Farm Nurseries so will need to be returned at some point. It will take us a while to get round everyone, but if you have any of our wooden boxes ready to return and aren't expecting to order anytime soon, then please do drop us an email and let us know. A rough idea of numbers might be handy but not essential. We will get to you as soon as we have a vehicle with space in your area. Thanks

Take care out there,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.