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.