Hairy shelves

Hi,

Close to a full crew this week so lots more work completed despite the cold weather impeding work rates in some areas.

Overwintering cutting back, tidying and mulching of all the stock is progressing really well. It's a huge job and quite challenging when temperatures have been as low as they have been, but it saves us so much time in despatch later in the spring it is well worth the effort. It also means we are able to keep on staff over the winter period and not risk losing them to other attractions. Then there are all the other jobs we don't have time to do during the busy seasons, like the POS wooden board printing and preparations, the wooden marketing box repairs and printing, plus construction of fresh box supplies to maintain and increase stock levels. We have had a good tidy up of the site after the windbreaks got their major haircut last month. Most of the off-cuts were chipped and some logged and stacked for seasoning and burning next year, but inevitably there was quite a bit of small scale debris strewn about the place and in need of a concerted effort to collect and burn just to finish it all off.

The farm popped up this week and very neatly trimmed our massive and very long hedges around the site, so we are looking very trim at the moment. This is the time of year when the farm are spreading all the different composts and green wastes they bring in to improve their soil condition and lower their artificial fertiliser inputs. They use green waste from local composters and a sewage sludge from up London way, which is spread by specialist contractors. Best not to go into details on the sludge but it does a great job and doesn't whiff too much as it is incorporated into the soil very quickly! Anyway we get the chance at this time to have the farm in again and take away our own compost heaps where we collect all our waste plants, cut back plant material and tunnel scrapings over the year. They mix it in with the other composted green waste and on the fields it goes. The nursery heap clearance was done this week so that gives us another nice clean start to build the piles back up again over the year. The compost handling isn't something we could cope with ourselves on the nursery, but luckily the size of the kit they have on the farm is just massive, especially when stood next to our little golf buggies or forklift, it is all dealt with very professionally and with great efficiency for which we are very grateful.

We have started the redistribution of the piles of chippings left by the windbreak maintenance, but this time using our own little bits of kit and a shovel. One of the new hedges we planted a couple of years ago has grown beautifully but was swamped by weed last year which had to be cut and sprayed to regain some control but with a really thick chipping layer now applied, we should have much better and more sustainable control. There are lots of other areas to mulch, just hoping we find enough time to get through it all.

CC Trolley Shelf repair quota deadline for this year.

For a little while now I have posted information on my weekly Mailchimp email distribution to, in theory, make it easy to transfer any of your unused CC trolley repair quota to us, so we can try and clear the large number of broken trolley shelves we have accumulated over the year. Please do check it out if you think you or your organisation might be able to help.

I now have a deadline for this year's exchange to be completed by the 30th of January, although even if you miss this date we can start collecting quota for next time.

I hope some of you may be able to help us out, any number, no matter how small, will be gratefully received. Thanks. 

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.

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 now 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. 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.

Sown from self collected seed from our wood on top of the hill the wild Primula vulgaris are showing their first flowers. We have given them a bit of a trim to tidy up the foliage but fresh leaves and buds are already springing forth.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.