99.13% Peat Free

Hi,

What a change in the temperatures this week. The house took a few days to warm up again but all is toasty after the cold seemed to build up in the fabric of the house. It didn't help that we were without the central heating which packed up in the Autumn, I did try to get it mended but only the failed electric valve control was replaced when in fact the valve itself was also knackered. The plumber wasn't keen to drain the entire system to replace the valve in the winter just in case something else went wrong and we couldn't get any of it working. To be fair we had hot water and a radiator in the bathroom so it wasn't disastrous. Definitely feeling less tense now the warmth has returned.

I managed to finish all the screen printing for the year. All the new box parts and the wooden POS boards are all printed up so just the construction of them to finish, and we are well underway with that. When you receive your first delivery of the year you will see we have revamped the wooden general information POS boards. They look similar to the old ones but the wording now highlights a few extra bits we were very modest about with the previous versions. Over the last few years we have gradually whittled away at the plastic content of our marketing package and we have now reached the stage that the majority of customers have a zero plastic content in their deliveries and we felt this needed mentioning as it is quite a rare thing in our trade.

Then of course there are the peat-free composts we have been potting into since 2013, which we have been fairly quiet about. We are of course trying to get to 100% peat-free but we do still have a tiny bit of peat coming in with some of the young plant modules. The ones we propagate ourselves are peat-free and increasing numbers of incoming stock is also peat-free, with the remaining ones using reduced peat mixes but not yet confident in producing the quality of plants in a peat- free mix. I did a bit of work this week to work out how much peat was still in the total volume of compost we send out, just to reassure myself that it was small and diminishing. With over 600 varieties to add up it was a big sum but a decent spreadsheet helped enormously. I was able to work out the volume of compost in each plug for each variety as they vary quite a lot, then added in the percentage of peat content for each, and added in the volumes of each sold. It came out at an average peat content in each pot of 0.87%, so we are 99.13% peat fee which I was quite pleased with. Obviously we would like to be completely peat-free and I know that as each month goes by that percentage will fall a little bit further until it eventually disappears. The module producers are under pressure to deliver and most will get there, they just need a couple more seasons to get it right.

The rest of the nursery continues to tick along like clockwork, with hardly a hare out of place, although the rabbits are having a field day. Ok so we found 1 fairly major underground water leak and 4 other pipe splits after the thaw, two vans had flat batteries, one is back in the garage under warrantee to sort out some engine issue and another returned today with a 'check engine' message. So no worries.

Prices for 2024

The last couple of years have seen some explosive cost increases. Labour remains by far our biggest cost and wage rates rose significantly in 2023 and will rise another 10% in 2024, but we are hopeful that other costs are beginning to settle down and are not rising quite as quickly. However there will be a price rise for 2024, but we are keeping it to 4%, at 10p per pot. 

Availability list.

Sown from self collected seed from our wood on top of the hill the wild Primula vulgaris are showing their first flowers. Cyclamen coum are already on the list and showing 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 flowers on most of the Helleborus niger varieties, although H. praecox tends to be slightly later than the others. 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 the white one.

A few of the spring bulbs are starting to poke through now with both forms of the petticoat daffodil (Narsicus bulbocodium) already showing well including a few low down fat flower buds. Allium Purple Rain has made an appearance and looks full of promise. It emerges a few weeks before the ever popular Purple Sensation but is just as attractive.

We are not having much success with ordinary snowdrops, but the giant version (Leucojum) that sold out in a week last year are now shooting. We planted a lot more this year so should be plenty to go round. Ipheium foliage is also showing well although flowers will be a little way off yet. Erysimum's are already looking perky with bud showing on many. A can't believe I'm thinking Spring is on its way. Pulmonaria are putting on a little spurt of fresh growth and buds are coming into view. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.