Hairy suprise

Hi.

I can’t believe another week has passed already and it’s halfway through May. Unfortunately, outside it still feels like March or early April at a push, we’ve had very cold winds, frosts, heavy showers of rain and more dramatically hail. Looks like it is going to warm up a bit over the next week and with a few showers to dampen the ground a bit more, we could be in for a good gardening session. Hopefully a boost in plant sales will benefit everyone, fingers crossed. Our drivers are still coming home which very positive responses from our delivery recipients, which is always great to hear. When the season isn’t quite as exciting as perhaps, we may have hoped, it is very easy to blame yourself for not doing a good enough job in growing and preparing the plants for sale, so some positive feedback is always nice to hear about.  

After last week’s panic about the phone system losing the plot, after another IT ‘upgrade’, everything has now settled down. It turned out to be a setup issue with the new network switch and not a problem with the phone box on the wall, so no phone system upgrade required just yet. Pete the electrician has been on-site most of the week setting up new 3 phase cabling and distribution boards for the van charging stations, A bigger job than I expected but what’s new there. Next week he is back to sort out the cabling and more gear for the new generator, which although I was told it might be delivered in a couple of weeks, won’t be here for at least another 5, possibly longer.  I’m really looking forward to getting all this electric stuff sorted and plugging in the new electric van. We are producing all this excess power at the moment, from the solar array and wind turbines, and we really need to be using it ourselves to get some decent value out of it. We only get 6p/kWhr for exporting it and if we used it ourselves, we would be saving 28p. What will be exciting, will be seeing some of our plants being delivered to our customers using our own generated energy, it feels like another big step in doing what we do as sustainably as we can. 

Had a surprise late on Sunday evening, with a call from the driver of the Dutch potting compost lorry. Could I let him know when we would be open in the morning and had I any idea where he could park up overnight?  Once he told me he was actually already outside the nursery gate, it was always going to be easier to deal with it straight away. Not the perfect Sunday evening, but it was good to get him in and unloaded while the place was quiet and he was very pleased to be on his way home 12 hrs earlier than he expected. It meant we could start the week with plenty of potting materials ready to go, as well as not having a big lorry messing about in the yard while we are trying to get started on picking and processing all the orders. 

We’ve had a good week on the production side of things, as there is plenty of tunnel space ready to fill, after a reasonable run of sales over the past few weeks. We set a potting team going on Tuesday for a bit and then full-on before Wednesday lunchtime while the rest of the team finished off all the orders. Running both teams at the same time is always a bit tense and very hand to mouth in its operation, but there is simply no substitute for running the potting machine for more hours to pot more stock. The later in the week you start the machine to less gets done.  Lovely fresh stock of wooden box parts arrived this week, only 7 months after ordering. It is just me, isn’t it?  Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast.  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Osteospermum Bidens and Lewisia. The Salvia’s too are showing the odd bud although still a week or two away from colour I think. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of Superbowl Mauve are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll! The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing. 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 and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance.  

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.