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.