Hairy Increase

Hi,

Well that's the holiday for the year all done and dusted. Did you miss me?! I thought not.

Cornwall was wild and windy almost every day for the whole two weeks, but it made for some fantastic seascapes and rainbows, huge waves and great colours. A vast amount of fantastic food was eaten so I'm now on a starvation diet to try and recover before Christmas. Rather worryingly I never shifted all of last year's holiday gains so a concerted effort is going to be needed or I am in danger of being no longer able to reach the keyboard at my desk. After a week back the post holiday blues are subsiding as we get back into the swing of things, and it seems like a distant memory already, but at least we are now feeling recharged.

Talking of which, any pre holiday apprehensions about charging the car were all blown away too. We charged off-site for the first time on several super quick fast chargers, no queues, no malfunctions, and little time wasted. We managed to combine all the stops with a coffee break or shopping trip, and charging was completed by the time we returned. Payments were all pretty cheap and contactless, wave your card, plug in, it tells you a time it will finish, unplug and just drive off. The only concern we did have was the etiquette of charging, what do you do if another car has finished charging but the driver isn't present and you want to charge at that charger? Are you allowed to disconnect them? I suspect not, although it must be very tempting. Luckily that issue never arose for us and for 90 % of the year we will always charge back here from the turbines anyway, which is even cheaper.

The Autumn budget statement was a bit of a surprise with the living wage increasing to £11.44/hr after pre-budget rumours whispering £11.00. Perhaps they muttered too quietly and I misheard. Although we do generally pay a little more than the minimum, we will be putting up our wages by the same amount to keep rates reasonably attractive and because at that level of pay it can be a real struggle to make ends meet. For high labour input industries like ours, hospitality, social and childcare it is going to be a challenge finding the extra cash needed without prices or social budgets having to increase again and I haven't yet heard how that challenge is going to be met. It will be interesting to see how things develop over the rest of the year. It has slightly upset my cost price evaluation for 2024 but I've already committed to just the 10p rise so we will have to redouble efficiency efforts and sell a few more plants which I was hoping to do anyway.

The extension of the tax relief on businesses for money spent on internal investment is going to be useful, especially as I have real trouble resisting buying new kit for the nursery to keep improving things. After all the spending on rain water harvesting over the last two years, it will be the turn of solar panels this coming year if we can get the installers and electric companies to play with each other nicely. We have been stalled for months because the DNO (Distribution Network Operator) doesn't seem to be able to find out the maximum amount of electricity we can feed back into the grid, At the moment they say that according to their records we have don't have any wind turbines and only have capacity for our 3Kw of solar panels (which we don't have). Despite having the right MPAN numbers (they are the supply/meter identification numbers) they seem unable to sort it out. We spent a fortune with the DNO putting in a separate supply and substation for the turbines when we put them in during 2011, I can't believe they can't find the records and information needed to progess. 

Prices for 2024

The last couple of years have seen some explosive cost increases in the after affects of the pandemic, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and now Gaza. We were forced over that time to increase our prices by more than ever before, but still below the inflation rate and definitely well below the rate at which our own costs have risen. However, improved efficiencies, reduced waste and increased output do appear to have made up some of the difference and kept margins workable. Labour remains by far our biggest cost and wage rates rose significantly this year and will be rising by even more in 2024, but we are hoping other costs are beginning to settle down and are not rising quite as quickly.

There will be a price rise at the end of the year, but we are keeping it to 4%, at 10p per pot.

Availability list.

Cyclamen coum pink and white forms are already on the list and showing the flower and bud. These will usually flower from

October through until well into Spring, with a tasteful sprinkling of flowers rather than being drowned in them. There are already a few flowers on the Helleborus niger varieties so Santa can't be far away!

New varieties of H. orientalis for us are Halcyon Early Dark Red and Halcyon White Spotted which have both surprised us by showing a few buds already, especially now the white one. Both are intended to be quicker flowering varieties, whereas some of the others can be a bit shy until their second season.

A few of the spring bulbs are starting to poke through now and Erysimum's are already looking perky with bud showing on some. A can't believe I'm thinking Spring is on its way.

Take care out there,  

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.