Hairy procrastinating is productive

Hi

It's definitely autumnal now with temperatures very close to freezing this morning and still very damp underfoot. The start of the week was wet and nasty but it did improve significantly and resulted in the last two tunnels getting their new covers installed today. The cooler temperatures meant the skin was not quite as stretchy as we would have liked but there wasn't a breath of wind all day, so it was a relatively relaxed performance this time and the covers look tight enough.

It was another week for getting stuff done with our excellent tree/hedge surgeons back again early in the week, to have a go at some unruly hedges that had got away from us and to lift the crowns of the beach trees that overshadow the office. They did a brilliant job, the crown lifting was so well done you could hardly tell they had been here at all, and the hedges were done in double quick time. They make quite a din with their shredder munching through the off cuts, the donkeys were pretty jumpy while they cut one of their bordering hedges but settled down again once all the excitement had passed. They quite like a change of visitor and some different activity, it gives them an excuse to lark about bit more.

We collected a substantial new roof for the electric metering shed which currently leaks a bit. With more control kit and battery storage going in there we felt keeping the water out might be sensible. Now I just have to find a specialist to safely remove and dispose of the old roof which is likely to have low grade asbestos in it and we will be a bit closer to being ready for that solar installation.

I have started my biggest annual brain exercise with the main young plant ordering, which is always a bit of a wet finger in the air moment. I have all the figures in front of me to aid in my guesswork, an up to date stock-take with all the potting and sales more or less completed, a list of all the total sales over 2024 for each of the 550 varieties and lists of plants bought last year from each of 8 or so suppliers over multiple deliveries throughout the season. It's a massive juggle of what, how many and when, with a healthy dollop of wondering, how many customers we will have next year? what will the weather be like? and will the gardening hoards be in the mood for letting those purse string loose? I find it quite daunting to get stuck into this chore and it's astonishing how many important things pop up to distract me. I spent a couple of afternoons with a mattock chopping out brambles on the solar site, emptied part of the barn where some logs had got parked so we could fit in some more of our returning wooden trays and helping out the heating engineer to fix our central heating. I have managed to do some planning, honest, but not enough. Holiday time is rushing up and it needs to be done before then so I can then also order the colour labels to go with the plants. Still not enough days in the week and we aren't even busy!

Very exciting events in the house with the central heating back in full operation after probably at least 18 months with only the bathroom and loo radiators working together with the hot water. We had been manually moving a valve controller to get the main radiators on for several years prior to that, so when the valve was eventually 'fixed' last year we were expecting great things, only to be disappointed with failure and unable to get the engineer back. Well he made it this week and on investigation found that not only had the valve been faulty but the main pump had seized. All the heat we had in the hot water system was created by convection currents not the circulation pump. With the whole system drained and new pump and isolation valves purchased the next challenge was getting the old kit off. Naturally nothing would budge, but in the end gas torches and mega spanners plus the two of us heaving and cussing, it all came apart and miraculously went back together. Instant and gratifying success with heat radiating from all over the place. It feels really decadent to have the potential of heat from radiators, I'm quite excited at the thought of some cold enough weather arriving, and turning them on. Feeling slightly worried that these thoughts are getting close to the highlight of my autumn.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected a lot of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area.

Availability list.

Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved) and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush!

Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower. Last few left. The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Wind

Hi

We have had a really exciting and productive week with the combination of fewer orders to prepare and a lack of potting to get on with, because the bulbs haven't pitched up yet. We were able get on with starting on the monster task of applying the overwintering mulch on the pot tops to slow up the liverwort and mosses, and hit a load of chores that have been building up over the season.

The irrigation tank lining crew were back again to fit the tank cover, which was very much missed. Blanket weed had started to grow in the open tank, which in turn clogged up nearly all the fine filters in each irrigation line. Draining the tank in preparation for their visit concentrated the weed which was then easily cleaned up from inside the tank itself, but unfortunately also introduced a good dollop into the pipes. Two afternoons of pipe flushing and filter cleaning followed but I think we are now over the worst, and we do now have a lovely new tank cover professionally fitted with not too much distraction from other work for our crew.

The threat of imminent solar panel installation is now hovering over us, so we have started to fight back the poplar runners and bramble invasion that was threatening to take over the previously cleared site. It was cleared long ago, assuming planning wouldn't take nearly a year to get organised and passed, and now a whole growing season has gone by and the bramble growth has gone ballistic. We had tried to get an outside company to come in and knock it back for us but having visited and seen the undulating terraced site, we never heard from them again. Probably just as well because we can be really thorough about the clear up, if we do it ourselves and I suspect we would still have had to clear up after the brush cutters anyway. It is going to take a while to win back the site but we made a really good start this week and at least now we can see the terraces again.

Today was not a day I had been looking forward to, with one longstanding challenge overcome and just one day to get it done. Recovering the propagation tunnel has been on the list since February when the outer sheet of this twin skinned tunnel split, but we could only do the job when there weren't too many sensitive plants weaning in there and temperatures extremes were not too harsh. The twin skins enable us to create a double glazed effect by blowing the sheets apart with a small fan and it works a treat as far as heat saving is concerned, but it's a bugger to reclad. At the best of times recovering a tunnel is fraught with anxiety and tension as you need warm still conditions together with enough time to get off the old cover, repair any tunnel parts that may have rotted away and get it recovered again. The wind inevitably gets up as soon as you unroll the huge replacement sheet, it happens every time. Doing a twin-skin way outdoes a normal tunnel, as we have to drag over two covers, one pulled over the other, while both remain unattached. Adding wind into the equation at this point gets a bit too exciting for my sanity, and sure enough that's how it went today. Delays in pulling the new sheets over the frame meant we were already tight for getting things secure in time for lunch break, but a combination of sheets snagging creating holes and slipping sheets, put us even more behind. Having tacked down the two covers we very nearly got away for our break when the wind really blew up raising one entire side of the sheet to probably 15ft in the air. We realised lunch was going on hold, as we rushed round fitting the sides into place and an hour later it was pretty much nailed down, although not as prettily as we would have liked. An afternoon of securing the remaining loose edges and trimming off the excess plastic put us into overtime for a heroic few, but at least it's on. Fingers crossed we won't have to do that again for another 8 or 9 years.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected a lot of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Only a few of the white variety left,. Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush! Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower.

The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential. The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies. New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy planning success

Hi

At long last we have planning permission for putting in our solar panels. It turned into a really long slog to get it through, despite there being no apparent objections and the installation only being 120 panels. Big thanks to Anna, the planning advisor for the Cornish Rocker company who are putting in our tilting frames, she just kept pushing and prodding, way longer than we would have kept it up and it paid off in the end. I'm hoping the rest of the installation will bowl along, although I'm not holding my breath, I suspect SSE, who are our local network distribution company, will have a few spanners to throw into the mix when the installer has to negotiate the solar and battery connection. As we shouldn't actually need any upgrades to our existing substation connection, it should be fairly straight forward, but previous experience has shown that their records aren't always quite as accurate as you would think. Earlier in the development plans they denied that we had permission to export from the wind turbines which had been going since 2011, we only had permission for a domestic solar installation according to the computer. We had to dig out the connection agreement to find the relevant info to prove we did have it all sorted correctly. It turned out that our installation was made before the current computer software was installed.

The main module potting season came to an end today with most of the tunnels now full to bursting point with stock being readied for the spring. We cleared one last tunnel today so that we have some space to pot the last crop which will be the spring bulbs, as soon as they arrive. The potting machine was run to the point where every last bit of potting compost was used up, so that we can refill it with the nutrient reduced peat-free bulb compost mix. 

Compared with the normal potting team of 3 on the machine, the bulb planting is more of a team game with lots of people counting bulbs into the drilled holes. It can get a bit tense at times and is scarily slow to get through it all. A few pots are singular bulbs which is easy, but we go up to 12 in a single pot and that can be a real challenge when the pot is moving past you. We adopt a few different methods to stop people losing the plot, sometimes each person puts one or two in before it moves along and sometimes we have to remove the pot from the moving belt to achieve a satisfactory result. The key things are not to press the compost down too hard under the bulb as it can lead to over wetting or compaction and rotting, or the roots simply push the bulb back out of the compost, and try to get them the right way up! Then we have to decide which ones are the tastiest for the various critters that might want to snack on them. There are one or two varieties that we definitely can't put straight onto the tunnel floor as they get dug up almost instantly. We have a couple of main culprits, the squirrels can make a mess, but worst is the mice. In the early years we had entire crops of Fritillaria meleagris completely stripped out. We eventually found stores of the partly eaten bulbs all over the place, but not quickly enough to salvage the crops. Now we pot and water them, and stack them on shelved trolleys for a couple of months, until they start actually rooting and growing. This gives them a bit more resistance to removal when they get put onto the beds and must reduce the taste levels I think, as we tend not to lose too many by this point. We do have a small arsenal of traps which we set out under little covers to catch those still willing to have a go and that gets the crop to their budding stage most of the time. We trolley up about half of all the bulb pots, just to be on the safe side, which takes up 40 or 50 trolleys. It's a good test to see if we have retained enough usable trolleys and shelves through the season! 

That reminds me, it looks like CC trolleys are going to issue another new trolley tag this winter, to try and make sure everyone within the system has the correctly marked kit and the right quantities, and to make life more difficult for those who don't pay their dues to use and swap trolleys when receiving plants. It could be a good time to sign up if you haven't already. 

End of season Wooden Box returns

We have already collected a lot of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Only the white variety left,. Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush! Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower. The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display. Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies. New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and holistic

Hi

The warmer sunnier weather produced another little flurry of orders this week and a few planting schemes have obviously got underway, so quite pleased on the sales front. Production is catching up a bit as September rushes by, but we are still suffering from holiday and illness absences which meant we move forward quite as dramatically as I had hoped. However the plants are loving the weather and growth is looking very healthy so hopefully even though we are a bit later than planned on the potting front, we may get away with it in the end.

My week was very broken up, which made it feel pretty short, in that I got even less done than usual. I had the whole of Wednesday away from the nursery with a trip to Hyde Hall in Essex for a peat-free propagation workshop and nursery visit. A total of 7 hrs on the road was a slog, road works and accidents added that fun level of stress as to whether you are going to get there in time, or get home at all afterwards.

I always feel very inadequate at these technical events, there are a lot of very clever people delivering all this information about how best to manage your propagation, potting and crops, as well as irrigation and feeding regimes. They talked about all the data we should be collecting and testing we are bound to be doing on compost conditions, salt levels, water quality etc, expecting us all to be actually doing it. I could tell there were a few in the audience that were, but I know one for sure who wasn't. At times I was thinking it's astonishing that anything we grow actually lives, let alone makes it to a saleable plant, we must have had an awful lot of luck over the years!

Anyway, if I put my dented confidence to one side, I did pick up on a few good pointers on where we might make some improvements with our module management, increasing the speed of establishment in the pot after potting, improving uniformity and reducing losses. It was all to do with a combination of a sensible feed regime and 'priming' modules for potting.  Using a high phosphate liquid fertiliser shortly before potting to boost the root activity and applying bio-stimulants as well, to toughen up the plants is all part of the priming process. Getting the moisture levels in the plug and potting compost equal and even, over the batch, will apparently help too. So a few fun things to sort out for next season.

It was very much a technical session rather than political, so there wasn't much discussion about the RHS and National Trust setting a 2026 deadline for being 100% peat-free, including the module. One speaker did outline the RHS plans and said that they were prepared for a possible supply shortages for a few seasons, until the commercial propagators caught up with producing in peat-free composts. This may be fine for the RHS and National Trust to say, but if some of your biggest customers are going to refuse to take stock for several years while we (the producer) wait for the propagators to catch up, we are going to potentially lose a lot of sales. So do we downsize production while we wait, or do we find new customers elsewhere? We are doing more propagation ourselves to fill some gaps, but we can't do it all over such a short timeframe. One module supplier is already peat-free, but substantially more expensive, so do we increase prices to cover this and how would other customers feel about this extra price pressure? All this hassle is to remove the last 0.8% of peat from our final product and completely ignores all our other innovative sustainability efforts to remove all plastic from our plant deliveries (labels, pots and marketing trays), capture rainwater, install wind turbines and cuddle trees. They may find other suppliers and remove that 0.8% but the use of plastics and carbon production will then go up as a result. The bigger picture has been completely ignored in the crusade to get to that 100% result too quickly. Now I need a beer.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already started collecting a lot of our wooden boxes back from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Not many of the pink variety left, we may sell out this coming week, but still a few more white. Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved), we have a few extra in stock to make up for part of the total shortfall and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush! Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower.

The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential. The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies, New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy leaks

Hi

Really cold this morning, must have been very close to a frost, it was registering 2C at 7 this morning. Luckily it looks like we are coming into a run of high pressure and more settled conditions with sunshine and light winds which should stave off the autumnal feel for a bit. Potting has gone really well this week, we are close to catching up with the schedule, just another few tunnels to go before the October bulb potting spree and then we can relax. Space in the tunnels is getting harder to create as we cut a few things back and shuffle it all about. It looks like we are going to be overwintering a bit more than I had originally planned, but that should be fine, I will just reduce my spring module ordering a bit to make up for it and hope the winter isn't too wet or cold so all that stock flies out early in the Spring.

After emptying the irrigation tank over the weekend the tank relining team pitched up on Monday as planned, but after several setbacks and a late night finish we were left with a functioning but uncovered tank. Our small leak had developed into an 18 inch split, so it was a good job we rushed the team in for the repair, but a surprising number of parts had rusted away including the outlet pipe and flange, and the cover centre post base support. Unfortunately none of these things are visible until the tank is emptied and it all comes apart. More parts have been ordered but at least we now have a non leaking and functioning water store. Because of the late finish there was no water in the tank to test the pumps, so an added surprise the following day was that they still error messaged that there was no water, despite all my pump bleeding and priming efforts. Had to call the pump man for advice and he suggested checking that the float switches were doing their thing after being reintroduced into the newly lined tank. One had sunk when it should have been floating (weight had got stuck in the wrong place) but this still didn't clear the issue. Thankfully I was able to get Ian the pump man to do an emergency visit and he found they had pulled out one of the float switch wires in the terminal box while reinstalling the switches. Not my fault for a change, and such a relief as we had been without water for 3 days.

The last compost delivery is coming in on Tuesday, half is our peat-free bulb compost and half our general overwintering potting mix, We emptied the bin today so it's perfect timing and I'm hoping I've worked out the quantities just right so none of it goes to waste. The last main predator release happened this week, just in time for the cold snap last night. They should be ok, as they are delivered slightly chilled, but they appreciate some warmth over the next few days to get properly active. The next couple of week of warm sunshine should be perfect timing to knock back any pest build up that could happen before winter sets in. We still get the odd aphid outbreak now and then but not a lot. Red-spider mite, vine weevil, whitefly and all those compost flies all seem to be absent so we assume the bugs are doing the trick. We did have one scare a few weeks ago when a customer noticed potential scale insects on several plants on an order, and the images sent did get me worried, although it isn't a pest we have ever seen before. I sent the pictures to our expert man who quickly reassured me that these were commonly misidentified at this time of year and that they were in fact small spider egg cases. Once we knew, we were spotting them all over the place especially on the underside of propagation and carrying trays as well as on some leaves. Apparently it indicates a healthy population of spiders are about with more likely to be running all over the place very soon. Caroline wasn't too keen on that bit.

Next week I'm off to Hyde Hall to hear about all the latest progress on peat-free propagation, so hoping to pick up a few tips so we can make the most of the new tray filler and seeding machines that should be arriving soon. We also get a tour of a local bedding nursery to see their prop unit so looking to cherry pick some good ideas and practices there too. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already started collecting a lot of our wooden boxes back from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower. Lovely foliage plants on show with Ajuga and Euphorbia displaying nicely.

The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies, New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud.

Armeria Dreameria series of long season flowering Armerias are still showing plenty of colour with still more to come. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Autumn planning

Hi

No Indian summer here as I stare out the window. I know a few of you will have seen some quite high temperatures over the last couple of days, but here it currently feels like we are about to dissolve. Light levels have crashed and I walked home in virtual darkness last night.

Sales have curtailed slightly this week and I expect more of the same over the next few weeks, as everyone battens down for the long haul to the spring. I know quite a few will be looking to get Christmas underway in the next couple of weeks, which for some can be the busiest time of the year, but this is definitely coming up to our quiet time. Just need a bit more warm weather to allow us to get the last few weeks of potting completed and then it's heads down on cutting back the older stock and dressing the pots with mulch to hold back the winter liverwort growth. Don't forget our spring starts in January, weather permitting, with a few evergreens and the spring bulbs all leaping into action so we won't be away for long.

The damp and cooler weather has timed itself quite nicely for the end of this week as we have arranged for a team to come and install a replacement liner in our main irrigation tank. We sprang a small leak a few weeks ago and hoped to limp through until the end of September, but this week it suddenly worsened and we had to ask the team to come in fairly urgently. It should only take a day to whip the old one out, replace it and fit a new cover at the same time, but we will need to have the tank empty at the appropriate moment.

The swallows are gathering now for their long haul migration to warmer parts. We had a small flock parked up on the overhead cable this morning looking very sorry for themselves. It was cold and very wet, certainly not a good day for feeding and building up their reserves for the trip ahead. Over the past week when the weather was a bit kinder, we had a couple of really big flocks swooping over the nursery which is exciting to see but also a bit sad that we will have to wait many months before their return and their delightful summer chattering.

We are starting to line up a series of winter projects, setting ourselves up for an even more efficient 2025 season. I'm am ever hopeful that the solar panels will be in before too long, although I suspect a few more hiccups before they actually get sorted. I can't quite believe how long it is taking to complete the planning process and then we have to clear the connection with SSE, tidy the site again, install the tilting frames, fix and wire up the panels and invertors, battery storage and control equipment, all of which is bound to go smoothly. At least it is long term positive progress on the carbon front.

We have a new module tray filler and seed sowing machine on the way, in order to increase our in-house peat-free propagation, which might save a few pennies, but more urgently will increase the number of varieties we can say are 100% peat free. Currently the average peat content in our pots (caused by some of our propagator suppliers not being totally peat- free) is 99.25% but apparently this isn't enough for everyone, so we are spending about £40,000 to improve the position. It's a good job we are so young and still stand a chance to get a return on that investment!

We have the tree surgeons booked in again to regain control of some more of our rampant hedging. It worked a treat last winter with lots more light getting into some of our previously over shadowed tunnels. We also have some work to do installing the new pressurised sand filter by the rainwater sump, tidying up the rainwater collection drains and installing more channels so that we maximise the amount of rainfall reaching our sumps. There are some buildings where the gutters empty to waste rather than being diverted into the collection drains, so a bit of thought and engineering needed there. All fun and positive improvements, just hoping the autumn/winter lull in sales is long enough to get it all done. It isn't usually.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already started collecting a lot of our wooden boxes back from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower.

Fresh batches of the summer and autumn flowering mini garden Chrysanthemums are coming into bud and colour. Lovely foliage plants on show with Ajuga and Euphorbia displaying nicely. The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies.New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud.

Armeria Dreameria series of long season flowering Armerias are still showing plenty of colour with still more to come. The Balloon Flower Platycodon Twinkle Blue and Twinkle White are now well into bud with the odd flash of colour.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy 4 day week?

Hi

Looks like a bit of an Indian summer coming with a pleasant start to September on the cards. Fingers crossed that all the old folk with no kids are out and about over the next few weeks, credit cards open for a pounding, as we hit the cheaper holiday breaks with the schools all back to work. We are not too bad for staffing next week but probably half the gang are off during week after as they make the most off the end of summer bargains. Hoping we can juggle everything to cope, should be ok as I think that although van driver availability is low it, is well spread out. The potting rush I was hoping to ride on might well stutter, but Caroline tells me it will all work out fine!

Although it feels like it's been a long week we did have the bank holiday break at the start which hopefully refreshed everyone. In theory we should have made up for the hours shortfall by being more rested and productive over the other four days. That is one of the theories behind the move to promoting the four day working week. I'm not entirely sure how true that is myself, as soon as everyone gets used to 4 days being the full time norm, then any extra vim and vigour found during the initial period is likely to wane without some serious focus and commitment. As someone who, in theory, is supposed to be running a small nursery, the thought of working a five day week is already a huge novelty and is something reserved for the winter period only. With a following wind we might get down to 6 days for some of the summer, but for 5 or 6 months it's 7. I feel I'm not really selling the idyll of working the land, in my apron, wellies and with trug in hand, but it's what it takes us to get it all working right and keep costs in check.

A good week for getting stuff mended with a new control panel put in the emergency generator to overcome last week's breakdown and a new capacitor/switch on one of the wind turbines which burnt out last Sunday. We have a brilliant small maintenance company to look after our turbines (Natural Energy) and a simple Whatsapp photo of the charred part and broken wire, with a short message, was all that was needed for an instant response and action on the next working day. Every hour saved to get the turbine up and running again helps cover the bill, and there's nothing quite like watching the blades turning in the breeze and generating cash to make you feel it's not all a slog.

An early start on Thursday to get all my chores sorted and the plants all ready for the potting team before departing for Beaulieu, for a welcome pub lunch and our first NBIS meeting for a very long time. We were a bit thin on the ground with a couple of absentees and even more retirements, but there was a big push from the HTA contingent that they really want to get the group re-launched and thriving again. There were some tough questions for us to deal with and it looks like we are going to have to take a slightly more professional approach to how we approach these meetings, including a fairly hefty potential bill that will follow once the group is running properly again. There was a sticky moment part way through the meeting when it became apparent that non HTA members are unlikely to be invited to be in the group, which potentially knocks out two or three of the existing members including ourselves. The HTA was sure that they could convince the doubters that they are missing out on lots of things that the HTA are now doing for their grower members, although I remain to be convinced. There was talk of show discounts and access to more press coverage for unique products like ours, but compared to membership of the NFU it is an expensive option. The other problem for us is that more exposure means having to promote ourselves and we prefer our lower profile approach where you just have to be 'in the know' and on the 'H list'! 

Availability list.

Lovely compact and well branched batch of Verbena Lollipop now available.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower.

Fresh batches of the summer and autumn flowering mini garden Chrysanthemums are coming into bud and colour. Lovely foliage plants on show with Ajuga and Euphorbia displaying nicely.

The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display. Anemone japonica back on the list as summer slips by.

Some Bergenia varieties have a late flower flush as is the case with Fire and Ice with its white flowers and red stems. Summer colour is still there with the Gaura Rosy Jane with its bicolour flowers and the lovely delicate white of Whirling Butterfies, .

New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud. Armeria Dreameria series of long season flowering Armerias are still showing plenty of colour with loads more to come. No white this year but a series of three pretty different pinks making a delightful show.

The Balloon Flower Platycodon Twinkle Blue and Twinkle White are now well into bud with the odd flash of colour.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm