Hairy electrics

Hi

Looks like summer is on its way back again after a brief dip in temperatures and a nice drop of rain. It looks like we missed out on a lot of it here, it has freshened the gardens up but the ground is still a bit to dry for my liking.

Usual spring madness here with not enough hours in the day and all sorts of challenges to mess up all my best laid plans to get everything done. I'm hoping the next couple of days sees a good number of plants potted, we certainly have the space to pot into now which does make life easier. A couple of teams have been moving things around this afternoon to make nice big clear runs of space for the potters to work into, and with sales bowling along, the gaps are appearing quite quickly. Fingers crossed this means we are minimising the prep work and improving on production efficiencies again, which we desperately need to do to cover some of the recent labour increases. We won't know for sure until the end of the season but it feels ok at the moment.

We had the benefit of extra people around today with all the lab staff unable to work inside because we were without mains power (again) while Southern Electric were having a tidy up of tree branches in the locality. We had plenty of warning which is great, but our ancient generator doesn't exactly fill us with confidence that it will get through an entire day without incident, so we tend to reduce consumption to a minimum and shut the lab down. Last time it overheated and cut out, but this time we did a bit more work getting ready and located a leak in the radiator. Slight panic but a heavy dose of RadWeld and a few start and stop cycles very nearly sealed the drips by the time we went to bed. By the time we got to coffee break on the day of the power outage, the dripping had stopped completely and we limped through the day without major incident. I just have the wind turbines to restart on my way back to the house tonight, they won't actually go round as there is no wind, but I need to set them up to be freewheeling again for when it does blow. Although they will turn off automatically when the power goes off to safeguard anyone working on the cables, we are more comfortable turning them off ourselves in a controlled manor rather than leaving it to chance, which might result in a blade tip deploying and Caroline having to put on the climbing harness again to reset it.

Next week might see a solution to future power cuts as our solar and battery storage systems are due to be connected up. This has been dragging on for so long I'm not holding my breath that it will actually happen, but the battery pack could cover a working day if we cut back on usage a bit, I just don't quite understand yet, how we isolate it from the mains, as there could be the same potential issue of power still being put down the cables while someone is mending them, unless a physical break is made. I'm sure it will become clearer next week, assuming something actually happens! 

Availability list.

We have hit our 'very hungry patch' with the herbs. The overwintered range has been hit very hard and we have run out of quite a few lines. Demand has been very high and there were a few losses, some we are waiting to freshen up after the wet cold winter, and some of the newer stock is waiting to get big enough to sell. Please bear with us through what is a frustrating period. It's a price we pay for not overprotecting our stock overwinter, those that survive are nice and tough but, depending on the winter, survival, growth and demand can be very variable.

All the Allium varieties are all showing well with bud now on show. The first tight buds are appearing on most of the Salvia nemerosa types and many of the Scabious. Plenty of the Leucanthemum varieties are showing their first tight flower buds. Colour will be a little way off yet but plenty of spring promise.

Camassia's are all hitting their prime with buds swelling and shooting up fast. The excellent blue Maybelle with its multiple flower stems is more prolific than most but they are all stunners in the right space and will spread beautifully over time. There are limited numbers so don't hang about.

We have a second flush of Polemonium Heaven Scent. We cut a few back hard a few weeks ago and they have rewarded us with a really tight strong surge of re-growth and fresh buds. Stunning deep crimson red bud and flower of Primula japonica Millers Crimson looking at their best, fresh and fab.

Summer time, great selling, Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is ready, Gentle flower colour with a knockout scent. You don't need to bend close to smell it, it will hit you from yards away. The repeat flowering and reliable Hemerocalis Stella D'Oro has its first of many flower stems on display. No colour yet but it won't be long. The Sea Breeze and Wayne Roderick Erigerons are desperate to start their long flower displays but we keep selling them just as they hint at budding up! Great garden plants.

Take care,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Easter

Hi 

Another busy week but thankfully not as hectic as the previous week. In fact we managed to get everything delivered before Good Friday and we ended up delivering it all ourselves. It was a tight and nervous management call early on Monday not to book in any trolleys with our carrier company and sort it all out ourselves. We had all received an slightly alarming email warning us that unless we got the orders in very early on Monday we would not get the stock delivered that week, and during this busy time, even if we were in time, they might still run out of lorry space and have to refuse orders after they had been sent in. It's not an ideal basis for organising deliveries, we might get some delivered but others we would have to then make our own arrangements, so we decided it would be easier this week to squeeze it all on our own vans and send Phil out overnight for some of the longer distance ones. Luckily demand this week was lower than last week in the end, so all worked out ok. We will see how the next few weeks pan out, I know we are going to have a challenging week in early May with two of our main drivers away, but I'm sure it will all come together in the end, it usually does.

Having had a good run on plumbing in the solar panels, we are now on a two week break before the return of the master electrician to wire in the battery storage and make it all work together. A bit frustrating with all the recent sunshine but such is the way with all the big jobs I get involved with! They see me coming.

We are having a skeleton crew in this Friday, Saturday and Monday morning, just to make the most of our busy time. It has been full speed potting today, so another day and a half should see us catch up with most of the stock ready to move on and then it's a quick thrash in despatch on Monday morning, preparing orders to get deliveries started quickly on Tuesday. Another 4 day week always makes me nervous, but the weather forecast isn't great and many sites are closed on Sunday so maybe it won't be too hectic. Who knows? It will be what it will be and we will just have to cope, so no need to get too tense! I'm hoping to squeeze in a load of label printing around the potting so we don't get distracted by label shortages, so that should take some pressure off. If it does go nuts next week we may stretch a few deliveries into Saturday although this is usually a rare event and we will do our best to avoid it.

Sunday looks set for another session with the tray filler and seed sowing machine, so we can get more batches of herbs going and do some more trial perennial sowings. The machinery is really quick, but it is taking a while to get the settings right for each variety, it is all too easy to sow too deeply, forget to check if you have run out of seed or get a blockage in your tubes. It comes to us all in the end! Having a machine to do the repetitive boring bit is great, while I rush about writing the labels putting the trays down, loading more trays on the belt, topping up the module covering hopper and the seed tray and checking those tubes, it's all go. It runs on a combination of small electric motors and compressed air and there is something quite therapeutic about the regular clunking and hissing of valves and rams doing their thing, sowing the seed, applying the topping, watering and then stacking the trays. If anyone went to the Eden Project in the early days, they had a pneumatically operated life size model of a puppet family in a room showing what might happen if all plant life died. Basically everything in the room gradually disappears, removed with loud hisses and clunks, food, furniture, clothes and eventually the people all succumb. Not rocket science,but my machine makes the same noise and takes me straight back to standing in front of that impressive wooden puppet set.

Look after those plants out there.

Availability list.

We have hit our 'very hungry patch' with the herbs. The overwintered range has been hit very hard and we have run out of quite a few lines. Demand has been very high and there were a few losses, some we are waiting to freshen up after the wet cold winter, and some of the newer stock is waiting to get big enough to sell. Please bear with us through what is a frustrating period. It's a price we pay for not overprotecting our stock overwinter, those that survive are nice and tough but, depending on the winter, survival, growth and demand can be very variable.

A surprise bonus and slightly out of the usual flowering schedule. The stunning little bright yellow petticoat narcissus (Narcissus bulbocodium Conspicuus) has suddenly produced a mass of buds with flowers now opening. We must have had a specially prepared batch as they usually flower much earlier than this, but I'm not complaining they are a stunner. Get them while they last I don't have very many left in stock.

All the Bergenia varieties have come into bud and flower. Strong bushy plants in colour. Alliums. Purple Sensation, Ostara and our new one, karataviense are all showing well with bud now on show. The first tight buds are appearing on some of the Salvia nemerosa types and many of the Scabious. There are still a few Wild Primrose (P. vulgaris) looking and smelling great, in bud and flower with still more to follow. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.