Hairy Storm

Hello all you lovely people out there.

Sorry for the break in reports. It has been a bit of a roller coaster over the past few weeks and we have struggled to cope sometimes. However here we are again, making life up as we go along in these crazy and difficult times.

Number one, how are you all doing? I hope you are coping ok with whatever this situation has conjured up for you. Under 'normal conditions we would be flying on the sales front, the weather is fab and the crops are even better!  But here we are trying something different.

I just want to outline the position of us, and most other growers, supplying retail outlets, so that anyone reading this can see the bigger picture. Most of you in the trade will be well aware of the consequences of the retail closures for yourselves and your suppliers but perhaps not all.

In a nutshell this is that 'Perfect Storm' for the ornamental growers (if you are not selling on line). Over the past 6/9 months we have been growing and building up our crops ready for the peak season sales which should start now and go on for 8/10 weeks or so. So we all have very high stock levels and are bubbling under our overdraft limits. Now we have no outlet for the plants and no income in prospect once the previous months sales are paid for (if they get paid). We have a nursery full of perishable, saleable, stock which should move off site to allow for spacing of the next crop and potting of the following. With the prospect of no income we were forced to furlough several staff, in fact for a couple of scary days we just had Greg in.

So last week we started up a new project to clear the stock that obviously was going to have no home. We were hoping minimise our losses by finding some income, while cheaply clearing the tunnels of entire crops. The project is called Plants for People and runs just in our immediate locality. Basically we contacted local community groups and offered them a drop off of free mixed plant collections (6 pots) for them to safely distribute to each household in their village or street. Each collection had a little note from us briefly explaining why we were doing this and giving our website address where they could make a contribution for the plants if they so wished and could afford. We did one small village last Friday which went brilliantly and followed up with 4 more small ones on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was our first big one, 600 homes in Broughton village and the response was amazing. Financially it is not the same as 'normal,' but it will make a huge difference and keep us going for a while until we see how the dust settles from the whole affair. Once Wednesday was over the cat was out of the bag when social media got going. Not something we have ever taken part in really, we just want to be left to do our thing and keep our lovely retailers happy. But the whole thing has now gone nuts and we are stunned at how many local volunteers have jumped at the chance of taking part, which has been heart warming. We have had to put a halt to taking on any more coordinators for the moment. We have managed to keep extra costs really low by keeping it so local and the positive responses have been fabulous.

Completely shell shocked at the moment with all the events, no idea what the future holds, which could be scary, but so bolstered by being able to find a short term positive angle and so many wonderful people wanting to help us.

Thanks to everyone, you can't possibly know how much it means to us.

Meanwhile if anyone knows of other growers looking for some glimmer of hope out there, please do pass on our idea and info. I' m happy for anyone to lift the content of the Plants for People project from the website www.kirtonfarm.co.uk. It has been fantastic for us and I'm sure it could work for others. You are not going to make any sensible money but it clears the crops, generates some income and makes you pretty popular!

I did an interview this afternoon (Sunday) on Radio Solent highlighting the plight of the ornamental growers. I daren't listen but it is on the bbc sounds website for Radio Solent (you can listen here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p087sy87). The programme is The Kitchen Garden and it is 3.07 through it. About 20 mins so brace yourself! Luckily they edited out the bit where I accidentally said that our biggest customer was the National Front!

Please take care out there, there will be some tough times ahead, but hopefully a huge amount of good things will come out of it in the end.

Availability list highlights

I have not put a list together as we have no customers to take them at the moment and time is very short. If anyone desperately needs a list let me know and I will put something together or give us some guidance as to what you would like from the previous list and we will put a nice lot together. Under the current rules we are not comfortable sending out any stock that may be placed in a position that will attract browsing or handling by the public. Now is not the time to encourage that type of sale, Phone us to discuss options if you are doing mail order type deliveries and we can chat and take a view.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.