Busy, busy as we approach the last of the Spring bank holidays. Looks like the weather is going to break with some more very welcome rain. Let's hope it is encouraging rain with enough dry breaks for plenty of visits to the plant sales areas!
We don't have a despatch team in on Monday but we will be preparing the paperwork etc for orders as usual over the over the
weekend and on Monday. We will still need to book any longer deliveries onto Bleach by noon on
Monday so please do
order in plenty of time if you are a long way from Winchester.
I was only thinking a couple of days ago I have had very few van troubles over the last couple of months and perhaps everything had settled down to behave nicely. Bad thought. The newest one through its toys out of the pram this week with both a low oil level and low brake level warning. The brake level is easy to check, you just look at the little reservoir under the bonnet it was fine, but the oil level, as I have mentioned before, is a little more tricky. In their wisdom Fiat opted for a sensor to show the oil level with no dipstick, well not in the engine anyway. It showed 2 bars out of 8, so we topped it up, no change. topped it up a bit more still no change. I didn't want to overfill so we left it at that. Two days later engine warning comes on, oil below minimum. The driver was miles away so we suggested buying a litre of oil and tipping it in. Now we get oil over full warning. After some garage advice we plodded on and got home ok, but had to send it in to be checked over. Fiat have altered the software somewhere and it turns out that our garage can no longer run diagnostics on the newer Fiats so it has to go back to a main dealer and there is a two week wait for a slot. Can't use it before then. Hey ho. Looking forward to getting the electric one, not a Fiat!
Solar setting up progressed a bit this week with a visit from the tech man who sorts out the data collected from the various parts of our electric system, the solar, battery, wind and overall consumption. He spent a long time measuring things to come to the conclusion that they won't play nicely together on their existing software. They have parameters set and if the data doesn't do what is expected it produces lots of error alerts. The main hiccup is the turbines which behave very differently from solar arrays. Turbines will use power to initially start up after a stoppage and also to run the control computer when there is no wind. Their system can't cope with a generating system that uses power, even if it only a tiny bit. Anyway he made a few adjustments, but a proper separate 'on the wall' meter for the solar output will be the first addition.
Availability list.
The increasingly popular less hardy Salvia varieties are showing great promise. Love and Wishes is well into bud, it just can't wait to flower! The Salvito Scarlet and Mauve, plus the Lip's series are also showing the first buds of the endless supply to come.
The Garden Pinks are peaking in their bud production, no colour yet but loads of potential. We just have the one crop this
spring so get them while you can. The Dianthus Scent First series smell delicious, compact and bushy they make a lovely set. Then we have our two scented old school varieties, Doris and Gran's Favourite, both a little taller and more typical of
traditional cottage garden types.
Oxalis are looking great with the first flowers just opening. Two very different varieties, the purple leaved triangularis with its pale pink flowers and the two tone leaved Iron Cross with the deep pink blooms.
Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list again, the second of several batches we have coming along. I obviously didn't
make
the first batch big enough as it only lasted a week. I'll try harder next year.
Summer is well on the way with Bidens Effrans Gold showing particularly well with a strong splash of gold flower.
Rhodanthemums are in bud, and several Coreopsis are ready to do their thing.
Strong bushy Osteospermum Tresco Purple are now budding up nicely. More to come so no need to overdo it straight away.
We
have a few small batches of fresh Erysimums now
in bud again, with glimpses of colour, but they will be gone in a flash. Liatris spicata are a little way off colour but the flower stems are extending and buds just about showing.
The Erigeron Sea Breeze Pink are desperate to start their long flower displays but we keep selling them just as they hint at budding up! Great garden plants.
A small number of the ever popular Digitalis purpurea are back for a couple of weeks, just a few trays I put through the new seeder machine. Digitalis Arctic Fox Rose is different but looking smart and just beginning to elongate
in the stem ready to
produce its first flower stem. Not really in bud yet but well on the way.
Our massive Hosta range is looking great with leaves now unfurled and showing off nicely. Big range of leaf colours and
sizes all in good looking condition with no slugs yet and no late frosts to mess up the early leaves.
A nice range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are just about ready and although I haven't marked them as being in
bud, there are a few showing.
Take care, from all
at Kirton Farm Nurseries.