Hairy Spring

Hi. 

Usual high season stuff here, lots of orders and plenty of potting after a fresh delivery of an artic full of our peat-free potting compost. Vans continue to bring joy to the world, with another one taken off the road after it was discovered that the garage didn’t change the cam belt on the last service and now it was well overdue and grounded until replaced (should be completed tomorrow). Meanwhile one van managed to delaminate the tread from a rear wheel at speed on the motorway, although luckily it didn’t actually burst. I suspect the driver behind might have needed a change of underwear as rubber bits rained down from the skies, but all ended well with the wheel replaced on a slip road rather than on the hard shoulder. The garage said what an unusual tyre failure it was when they saw it, which is sort of reassuring in one way, or possibly, why does this happen to us? 

This week we lowered the solar panels to their 30 degree from horizontal position, to make the most of the higher sun sweep as we head for summer. Just one more tilt to go in a months time, down to 17 degrees for the rest of the summer. It almost seems like they are horizontal when they get this low, but it seems to produce the goods when the sun shines. It’s only 15 minutes work to move 15 banks of panels (120 in total), I’m surprised more people aren’t using this system as it produces more output especially in the winter when it is most useful and valuable. I must admit it hardly felt worth it this time, with the panels still off-line due to the cable issue we had last week, but it’s another job ticked off the list. We were expecting our electrician to come with a specially hired bit of kit that should be able to pinpoint where in the underground cable the break is, but the previous customer hadn’t returned it to the store, so we are delayed. Fingers crossed it makes an appearance tomorrow and we can get digging to find the fault and repair it. 

We have had some stunning sunrises and sunsets here over the week and the blossom on the trees is just beautiful. No hard frosts, hail or strong winds to damage it, you can almost see why spring is such a magical time for non-nursery folk! Hopefully today’s wind won’t have messed things up too much, we had a couple of small whirlwinds here today and one tunnel cover made a bid for freedom, but otherwise it is a classic cool and bright spring day. Secretly I’m hoping this will release the purse strings in the plant areas around the land, but at the same time we will still find time to lift out heads and marvel at Mother Nature. We have quite an exciting visitor at the moment with a Greater Whitethroat in a little scrubby corner of our garden. To be fair most of the garden is scrubby or ‘put down to natural habitats’. Caroline first heard and identified it using the ‘Merlin’ app, which is great at picking out bird calls. It was calling from the field hedge just downhill from the turbines and flying up to feed. A couple of days later and it is now a bit closer, let’s hope it finds a mate and we have some youngsters later in the season. For some reason an oddity in the garden seems more exciting than the regulars, which is most unfair. On return from holiday someone was telling me how pretty a certain seabird was while they watched it through binoculars in the Southern Atlantic. While trying to sound impressed I was thinking you could be just as impressed if you took the time to watch a sparrow or a flock of long tailed tits on the bird feeder with binoculars. The feather patterns of many birds are just amazing when examined close up, just give yourself time sometimes, to stop and really look. Says the man with his nose permanently stuck to a nursery grindstone! 

Social media on trend! Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The cold nights are holding things back slightly, plenty of stock just not a huge amount in bud at the moment.  Camassia are all now active, showing strong chunky buds. The blue Maybelle is the best, usually multi-stemmed and slightly more compact than others. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of several varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Herb sales seem to be booming this spring, it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now, although it will still be 2 or 3 weeks before the more tender herbs like Basil make their springtime appearance. We only have a tiny amount of heated production space, so we are limited on production timings of these more tender subjects. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy and electric

Hi. 

Just how much fun can we fit into one week?

After the terminal diagnosis on our oldest van last week, this week started positively with an order placed and deposit paid, for a new Renault electric delivery van from Maxi-Mover. A low loader box van with a loading ramp, very much like our existing 3.5T van fleet, but with a GVW of 4 tonnes rather than 3.5. New rules mean that we can still drive it on a standard drivers license and later this year we won’t need to use the tachograph either. There will still be a speed limiter involved, but that should help with energy efficiency and reduce potential speeding tickets, even if it may frustrate some drivers! With a workable 200 mile range per full charge, we should be able to deliver over a decent area while keeping costs in check. With all the excess power we are generating here, the first 200 miles each day will be very cheap, although any extra mileage on top of that will not be. I suspect there will be a bit of range and charging anxiety among the drivers initially, but we will get them to test plenty of fast charging points around our normal delivery routes, so they get used to where is easiest to charge up. They only need to stop for a few minutes to test them out and we will only need enough fast charging to get back to base each day, so we can maximise the use of our cheaper power. Hopefully they will quickly pick up confidence in its use. The way diesel costs are now it might not be too long before we need another. Delivery before the end of May with luck. 

So, having bought an electric van on Monday what is bound to happen on Tuesday? The nursery electric system throws its toys out of the pram. 3.30pm a lorry arrives and turns in the yard, at the same time our 20T hydraulic press we use for punching out labels starts to smell and then smoke. It wasn’t running, but I unplugged it anyway, assuming the motor had just burnt out. Bit cross about that but started the process of contacting the supplier for help. Next morning we noticed that parts of the nursery were without power. Checked the meter shed for tripped circuits etc, all ok, but did spot that one of the phase lights on the main incoming power SSE fuse box was out. Phoned our electrician, yes, this is a big problem, turn everything off and call SSE to report a grid fault. Barely had we put the phone down when the first of four repair vans turn up to help us out. They quickly identified that a fuse had blown on our transformer on the other side of the field, so they popped over there to put in a fresh one. On returning to the nursery we were asked to turn all our circuits back on, all went well until the solar went on and that instantly blew the fuse again Ooops. After several more tests, with the power going on and off and more fuses replaced, over most of the morning, it was confirmed that the solar was faulty. Naturally I assumed there was something wrong with the solar control gear, but was advised to call in our local electrician to do a few more tests before calling in the solar installers. Good job we did as he found that the fault was in our massive 200m underground cable that runs from the panels to the shed. Somehow it has been damaged, but we have no idea where. Suspecting the lorry turning in the yard may have done something we got in the farm JCB to dig up the cable in the yard to see if there was any obvious damage. Not a mark on it, so now the electrician is hiring a bit of very expensive kit that should be able to tell the distance down the cable where the problem is, so we can dig in the right spot and hopefully repair the cable. So, no solar output now and no battery back up either, until all is resolved. One bit of good news was the hydraulic press was checked over and was fine again once all 3 phases were working at the correct voltage. 

First swallows spotted on the nursery last weekend and another sighting today, now that is a real reason for joy and hope. 

Social media on trend! Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

Summer is on the way with our first batch of one of our best sellers Nemesia Wisley Vanilla now listed.  We also have a few early Salvia Embers Wish and Kisses and Wishes (Love & Wishes too follow soon), but do beware that they are not fully hardy and can be damaged by frost. A few hardy Geraniums are starting some flower activity. Sabini Blue is a superb blue, and the dark purple flowered phaeum Samabor are shooting flower stems nicely above it’s dark blotched leaves. We have some lovely bushy Geranium nodosum with bud too, it’s pretty if not a showstopper, but it makes fabulous groundcover especially in shady positions. Camassia are all now active, showing strong chunky buds. The blue Maybelle is the best, usually multi-stemmed and slightly more compact than others. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just opening. Not many left. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are showing strong bud and colour. Not huge numbers left, but the follow-on batches of other varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. D

Hairy confusion

Hi. 

I just can’t work out what day it is. No one seems to be at work when we need something, and all the days seem to have rolled into one very long weekend for lots of folk. Fingers crossed some of them will have been buying plants out there in consumer-land. I hope your Easter was eggciting enough and met all expectations. The best combination of just enough chocolate and just enough relatives! Our Easter was the usual nursery fayre with a gang in on Friday to catch up on the potting and another in on Monday to start the weeks order preparation. 

In between times, Saturday was rewardingly spent making a module extractor to fit our new reusable module trays we bought and used last year. The tray manufacturer missed a trick in that they were unable to supply a made to measure extractor and last summer we had to push them out one at a time when it came to potting time. Naturally none of our existing ones fitted the new tray and the precision needed to make one ourselves was a bit off putting. There was one existing tray however which very nearly fitted the pattern of holes required, and I correctly assessed that by cutting it in half and remounting it, to effectively make it fractionally longer, I could make it functionable. It kind of worked, all the pegs matched up to the tray holes as planned, but on testing I discovered that the pegs were fatter at the bottom which meant they then wedged the extractor into the tray when pushed down so it wouldn’t come out again. My half hour job turned into an allday affair, as I hacksawed and filed each of 128 plastic pegs into a narrower profile, it just had to be done. I have to say, the results are fantastic with the modules popping out so quickly and easily now, so it really was worth the effort.  Having not learnt my lesson, I was encouraged enough to make another to fit our 288-cell tray. This had to be done from scratch, so it was a matter of marking out a board with very precise positions for 288 holes and then testing hole sizes and different pegs to see what would work. Every hole must be just right, vertical and in exactly the right spot, one hole out of line and you have to start again!   Did a load of testing, selected my drill size to get a tight peg fit and off we go. First mistake was that my drill test was in a piece of relatively soft wood and the board is harder plywood. having drilled a third of the holes with a 6mm drill I tried to fit a peg and found it had to be 7mm. So, what is one of the least common drill sizes to come in mixed drill selections, you’ve guessed it. Of the hundreds of drills on the nursery, in the office toolkit and the house I found just one.   Two thirds of the way through the 288 holes I moved the board and barely touched the drill bit, but it still snapped. All play ceased, and I went home to eat some chocolate. It was Easter after all. 

Sunday was super productive with a massive seed sowing session, a load of fresh herbs for later this season and a pile of perennials for next year. I’m really getting the hang of the seed sowing machinery we installed last year, and I was also able to sow it in the newly delivered ‘ace-conker’ seed sowing compost. The mice seemed to have left them alone so far, traps are set in readiness, but they have been doing a lot of destructive nibbling already this spring which has been very frustrating. Hoping to see a sea of green seedlings in 2 or 3 weeks, rather than last years patchy results in the various peat-free sowing composts trialled. Live and learn, although it does sometimes feel I may run out of time to learn enough. 

Social media on trend! I am hearing that our rekindled Instagram account is now reassuringly active. There are new images and the odd video being posted each week showing some of the current gems out there on the nursery. Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

We don’t have many, as it was a bit of a trial, but Catananche Alba are beginning to produce flower shoots. Most of the Alliums are showing early bud, but you will need to be quick while the foliage still looks ok. It’s fab in the border but can be a bit of a menace in a pot! Summer is on the way with a few of the hardy Geraniums starting some flower activity. Sabini Blue is a superb blue, and the two dark purple flowered phaeum types, Raven and Samabor are shooting flower stems nicely with Samabor showing it’s dark blotched leaves well.  Camassia are all now beginning to bud showing strong chunky buds. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just opening. Just a few of the Polemonium Bressingham Purple left, with even darker foliage and now the odd bud too. Erysimum varieties are showing strong bud and colour. Not huge numbers left in the first batches but more to follow later. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The candelabra primula Primula japonica Millers Crimson are showing the first signs of bud, tucked into the chunky foliage. The first thing the Pulsatilla does is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come, Only the red form left now. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy Easter

Hi. 

Oh, the joys of Spring! Bit of a dip in the weather, although it is lovely out there at the moment. The birds are singing, the lambs bleating, trollies are filled and the vans are dying. Just what we needed in a hectic four day week, one van garaged for three days rather than one, while waiting for parts, and our oldest one biting the dust on the motorway on the way to do the days deliveries.  On the plus side we negotiated the annual insurance package for the business and all the vehicles just two weeks ago, and already we have redesigned the front bumper of a parked car in London, oops and had a motorway recovery truck out to rescue us and get us home. The motorway recovery was impressively quick, which did help us reschedule things reasonably efficiently on the day, so we were able to get a couple of local trips completed in the afternoon. News on the recovered van isn’t promising, with an initial diagnosis of probable terminal damage to the engine. Something to do with the timing chain and camshaft. They are sending us some options once they have costed a few things out, which I don’t like the sound of.  

We are lucky in some ways in that our Easter mayhem has now more or less passed, while yours is yet to happen. I hope it all goes well and the weather is kind to you all. I’m glad I’m not in Scotland this weekend, it looks a bit wild up there over Saturday and Sunday. With luck we will be ok further south, a nice breeze to get the turbines rotating and some sunshine to wake up the solar arrays each morning.  

We have a small crew in on Good Friday to catch up on the potting which has somehow gone from being well under control to not. With luck that will all be fairly relaxed, with hopefully not too many interruptions, and I believe there is to be a chocolate egg and hot cross bun delivery to smooth the way.

 We won’t be delivering any plants on Bank Holiday Monday but we will be here getting stock ready for Tuesday deliveries and hopefully we will then be able to get through all remaining deliveries by the end of play on Friday. I have an extra hire van in next week to cover the current shortage of wheels, but if things do go crazy we may have to do the odd delivery early on Saturday. Fingers crossed all goes ok. 

My Easter has come very nicely together today with a delivery of fresh seed of about 100 varieties, some of which we are trying for the first time, and to complete the weekend, the 6 pallets of super-duper peat-free seed sowing compost I ordered just a few days ago also arrived, despite an original delivery estimate of at least 4 weeks. This mix worked so well compared with all the other mixes I tried last year, I am looking forward to a couple of days of intense sowing with the confidence that if we can keep the mice at bay, we will get some great results. 

More high-tech stuff installed this week with all nursery vehicles now fitted with a combined tracker and camera. The images are sent straight to the cloud so are always available should we need to recover footage in the event of a dispute and we can even live stream video so we can see the road ahead of the vehicle. We have had standard trackers for a couple of years now and find them very useful. It is reassuring to be able to pinpoint where all the vans are what the traffic is like ahead of them on their route and warn them if there are jams coming up. We have been able to redirect drivers if they have got lost or just can’t quite find the customer site and we can tell when they will get back to base and then adapt our plans appropriately without having to interrupt their driving. All visible from our desktop displays or mobile phones, it is so handy. 

Social media on trend! I am hearing that our rekindled Instagram account is now reassuringly active. There are new images and the odd video being posted each week showing some of the current gems out there on the nursery. Take a look and see what is going down with the kids! To find it, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The very popular Anemone blanda have sprung into action but only White Splendour is still currently available. Most of the Alliums are showing early bud, but you will need to be quick while the foliage still looks ok. It’s fab in the border but can be a bit of a menace in a pot! Camassia are all now beginning to bud showing strong chunky buds. A herald of springtime is Brunnera, the lovely blue perennial Forget me Not. Just the green leaved form left now, and they have early flower bud hovering among the freshly emerging foliage. Polemonium Heaven Scent are looking great, bushy bronzed bushy foliage with tight bud just appearing. All of the Ipheion varieties now have buds and a bit of colour. Ground hugging foliage and short flower stems.  Pulmonaria varieties are in bud and showing colour with more on the way. Erysimum varieties are showing strong bud and colour. Not huge numbers left in the first batches but more to follow later. Cowslip (P.veris) think it’s springtime with expanding foliage, bud and a touch of colour. The first thing the Pulsatilla does is throw up their first flower buds, even before the leaves come, Only the red form left now. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.