Hairy optimism

 

Hi

Steamy day today, I'm blaming it on why I'm feeling a bit weary today, although burning the candle at both ends probably doesn't help. With a bit of luck we might all see some rain over the next week which could suppress the drought fears a bit. We missed out on this week's downpours which passed us by untouched, but at least it was a bit cooler.

No news on the dead van other than it made it back to the garage 3 days after it was picked up. I suspect they're waiting for a big enough time slot, among their other work, to drop the gearbox out and assess the damage. Although only just a year old, this one isn't a warranty job as the clutch is considered wear and tear, so I'm bracing myself for a hefty bill. At least it happened outside peak delivery time.

Had an exciting few hours out today visiting the Ball Colgrave site to look at the new varieties on offer for next year and take a few pictures of some of the plants we already grow. They had been hit in some areas by the intense heat over the past few weeks but overall it was a great show. The majority of stock on show was their bedding range which was spectacular and very tempting, but not within my remit and sadly still no sign of peat-free modules being promoted. There were a few lines that where obviously thriving in the hot weather, the Echinacea Lakota range, Gaillardia Gaupa series, Gaura and summer flowering Allium's. I will definitely look into trying to find some more economically viable Allium, there were a couple there looking very tempting, which would go very nicely with our A. Millennium which I love,

The next batch of irrigation sprinkler components arrived while I was out today, so that is this weekend sorted for fun times. Hopefully I'll get a good run at it tomorrow if it isn't too hot. More plants arrived this week to pot up ready for next year, I'm not quite sure what possessed be to buy so much, those long nights reading the catalogues and picturing how sales are going to blossom in the coming year somehow puts me in a more positive position than I find myself when the clearance work and production actually needs to be done! We'll get there I'm sure, just need a few extra days in the week.

Talking of long winter evenings, one job I attempt each year is to more accurately calculate our carbon footprint so we can track our progress towards net zero. I have used a variety of 'toolkits' to work it out, all of which have produced wildly inaccurate results due mainly to the generic figures used to calculate some of our horticultural inputs in the area of the calculation known as 'Scope 3'. I enquired about taking part in the early testing of the ADAS carbon calculator which was being developed specifically for our sector but it has all gone disappointingly quiet on that front. So I was excited to sign up for the Grow Save workshop on Carbon Reporting being held up in Warwickshire next week, only to be told yesterday that it had been postponed and they hope to rearrange it for another day. Can they see me coming? I am wondering if retirement will eventually win over getting this thing mastered.

Some fun 'candle burning' this week included a couple of late nights sealing the skirting board to the floor in the conservatory and two very warm jive dance nights. Luckily one was in an air conditioned hall and there were ice creams at half time. There are rumours of a 'Punks and Princesses' themed Ball at some stage. It might be time for the return of the peroxide bottle! 

Availability list.

Herb range still looking yummy, with plenty of fresh batches still coming through.

The summer flowering Allium Millenium is looking great. This very worthwhile allium is much tidier in habit and longer lasting than the spring flowering types, a proper impressive border plant. Loads of flower with a mixed colour pallet in the Lewisia batches. They will go on and on.

We have a lovely range of very popular summer Gaura at the moment, in bud and showing some colour, with the final variety of the year making a show now. Rosy Gem is a pretty bicoloured variety but I just have the one batch this summer. It should stick around a little while as I splashed out on quite a big batch!

Hot high summer flowering Crocosmia are showing tight bud on all varieties this week. 

The first of the Aster Alpha series are now showing tight bud, surely summer can't be drawing in just yet! No, they are early. Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are here, masses of bud on the first batch already with a hint of colour too. A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing.

Lythrum are in colour, looking very insect friendly with their flashes of pinky purple flowers. Big flowering but compact, strong and stocky Gaillardia Guapa series, looking at their best with colour on show. Nemesia Wisley Vanilla are doing their thing with its pretty creamy white flowers and heady vanilla scent. Summer is well under way with all the Bidens range showing particularly well, with a strong splashes flower. Rhodanthemums are in bud and flower ready to bloom their socks off for the rest of the summer.

Strong bushy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are now budding up nicely. Liatris spicata are showing good colour with strong flower stems extending and buds on show. We have a late batch of Geum Lemon Drops with some flower appearing, not many pots so don't be shy on ordering. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and hot

Hi

Hot, hot, hot. Not the best weather to be working on a nursery, especially when having to work undercover. The farm are, of course not wanting it to rain now, it is too late now to bulk up the crops, they just want a dry run to get the harvest in without the extra costs involved with drying when it goes into store. The early crops are apparently quite good yields as they were sown last autumn and got plenty of water over the winter. It is the later spring sown crops that are a bit of a worry and with world prices low it doesn't look very exciting. They like a bit of diversification on their crop range and this year has been the perfect year to try out a spectacular sunflower crop which currently looks stunning.

We meanwhile have been making the most of the cooler periods when we can, to get most of the manual internal tunnel jobs out of the way and seeking the shade when the heat gets too much. It does nothing for production rates with lots of extra plant handling and movement together with the very important high liquid intake and the resulting trips to the facilities!

It's been a challenging week on the transport front with our first major breakdown of the year. I had been thinking it had been a quiet one so far but this made up for it with a clutch failure three hours away from base with a van load of stock. It was a long trip so we sent the newest Fiat assuming it would be the most reliable, but hey-ho such is life, or should that be 'such are Fiats'. A sudden collapse of the clutch pedal as he approached a major roundabout in Essex alerted Danny that all was lost, but he did save an appearance on the traffic news by using his last bit of momentum to mount the grass verge and get out of the way. Another driver and van were rerouted to meet up, to help bring back driver and plants which worked out ok eventually. They were missing for the entire day not getting back until late, but at least they got back. The van meanwhile started it's trip back to the garage via a relay of recovery trucks and is currently sat in Cobham services on the M25 awaiting the final leg to be completed. Apparently it is a gearbox out job so even when it's back in the garage it could be a while before we see it again. Thankfully we are no longer in peak season so the timing is at least workable.

I had planned an early evening but we have just had a 2 hour power cut which rather scuppered preparing the availability list info which I was halfway through. It has just come back on, so it was a quick whizz round to check the irrigation program had come back on and fire up the computers and get this completed. Now I have to hang about until the second irrigation cycle starts at 9.30 just to make sure the delay to the first cycle completing, doesn't stop the second from starting. I'm suddenly very aware of how dependent we are on the power supply to keep things going. A loss of irrigation in this sort of weather is best not thought about too much.

I keep an eye on the national electric generating situation each week through the NFU energy updates (I don't get out much) and I saw something which surprised me. Currently the French nuclear output is being reduced because the current warming river temperatures mean that the cooling of the reactors is far less effective. That's one feature of global warming I hadn't thought about.

Availability list.

Herb range still looking yummy, with plenty of fresh batches still coming through.

The summer flowering Allium Millenium is looking great. This very worthwhile allium is much tidier in habit and longer lasting than the spring flowering types, a proper impressive border plant. Loads of flower with a mixed colour pallet in the Lewisia batches. They will go on and on.

We have a lovely range of very popular summer Gaura at the moment, in bud and showing some colour, with the final variety of the year making a show now. Rosy Gem is a pretty bicoloured variety but I just have the one batch this summer. It should stick around a little while as I splashed out on quite a big batch!

Hot high summer flowering Crocosmia are showing tight bud on all varieties this week. The first of the Aster Alpha series are now showing tight bud, surely summer can't be drawing in just yet! No, they are early. Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are here, masses of bud on the first batch already with a hint of colour too.

A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. Lythrum are in colour, looking very insect friendly with their flashes of pinky purple flowers. Big flowering but compact, strong and stocky Gaillardia Guapa series, looking at their best with colour on show.

Oxalis Iron Cross are looking great with its two tone leaves with the deep pink blooms. Nemesia Wisley Vanilla are doing their thing with its pretty creamy white flowers and heady vanilla scent. Summer is well under way with all the Bidens range showing particularly well, with a strong splashes flower. Rhodanthemums are in bud and flower ready to bloom their socks off for the rest of the summer.

Strong bushy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are now budding up nicely. Liatris spicata are showing their first hint of colour with strong flower stems extending and buds on show. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy energy

Hi

It's still all go, with plenty of lovely stock covered in lots of bud and flower disappearing off the nursery. It has slowed up a little bit but there are still plenty of late comer varieties still appearing for their summer show, and the herbs are still looking delicious.

The early hot weather slowed us up again this week, but a slight cooling later on has allowed a bit more work to get underway out in the tunnels. Tunnel clearing, shuffling about of odd batches of stock, a bit of pruning bed scraping and mulch applications to the bed edges are all needed before space becomes available for potting all the stock for next year. Unfortunately the module and home-grown stock coming on line is, as usual, winning the race, so the pressure and numbers are building to get stock into pots asap. What fun this nursery life is, as sales pressure lessens something else takes over!. One hugely positive thing is, at least we are potting into tunnels with the upgraded irrigation spray-lines and the improved growing results are obvious within a couple of weeks. It has been especially effective during the hot spells we have been having through June, which does increase confidence going into high summer. It will probably rain the rest of the summer now, but at least we are prepared for all eventualities.

Our solar project has been up and running for a couple of months now, although the last few tail-end jobs are still being dealt with. The solar generation meter was fitted this week so we can now officially register the site with OFGEM and start collecting our REGO certificates, which the energy purchasing companies need to prove the energy they are buying from us is renewable. Now we are waiting for SSE, our network operator, to give the go ahead for us to export more energy into the grid. At the moment we are restricting output to the wind turbine maximum output, which means we miss out on a little export income on sunny and breezy days, it's not a lot but it all helps.

The overall results have been very pleasing so far, the combination of wind, solar and a bit of battery storage has slashed our previous monthly energy imports from an average of 2,500 units to well under 150 which is a reduction of about 94%. So with a total consumption of about 5,500 a month we are over 97% self sufficient in our energy use and are also exporting loads back into the grid. To be fair we don't actually get very much income from the exported energy, but the savings on the imported are good. If we could just get our standing charges down from their monstrously high level we would be very happy. A word of caution for anyone thinking of installing battery storage, it isn't quite a efficient as you may be led to believe. The idea is that any spare power charges your battery packs rather than going into the grid, and the battery power is then used to run things when demand exceeds your solar supply (at night for example). It does do this, but if you have a 10kw battery pack it will discharge close to 10kw, but it will take 12.5kw to recharge it back to 10kw. So you use 25% more power to charge than they discharge. It is something to do with inefficiencies converting DC to AC and back again. The power is cheap, in that you have generated it yourself, but it isn't free if you could have sold it back to the grid, so the savings are knocked back a bit. This certainly caught me out, mind you it doesn't take much to do that.

Availability list.

Herb range still looking yummy, with plenty of fresh batches still coming through.

The summer flowering Allium Millenium is looking great. This very worthwhile allium is much tidier in habit and longer lasting than the spring flowering types, a proper impressive border plant.

We have a lovely range of very popular summer Gaura at the moment, in bud and showing some colour, with the final variety of the year making a show now. Rosy Gem is a pretty bicoloured variety but I just have the one batch this summer. It should stick around a little while as I splashed out on quite a big batch!

Hot high summer flowering Crocosmia are showing tight bud on a couple of varieties this week.

The first of the Aster Alpha series are now showing tight bud, surely summer can't be drawing in just yet! No, they are early. Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are here, masses of bud on the first batch already with a hint of colour too.

A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. Fresh batches of the compact Achillea Milly Rock series are on line, both red and pink colours available. Big flowering but compact, strong and stocky Gaillardia Guapa series, looking at their best with colour on show.

Oxalis Iron Cross are looking great with its two tone leaves with the deep pink blooms. Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list again, with its pretty creamy white flowers and heady vanilla scent. Summer is well under way with all the Bidens range showing particularly well, with a strong splashes flower. Rhodanthemums are in bud and flower ready to bloom their socks off for the rest of the summer.

Strong bushy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are now budding up nicely. Liatris spicata are showing their first hint of colour with strong flower stems extending and buds on show. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.