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.