Hairy Summer

Hi. 

I hope you coped ok last week especially if you got baked like us in the south.  With a bit of luck that is summer done and dusted. It was a crazy hot week for May and disrupted so much stuff, from irrigation nozzle blow-outs where the rubber flanges softened in the heat, to the air compressor not working after midday when it’s thermal cut-out clicked in. Productivity dropped through the floor as people struggled to cope as we had to find jobs they could do in the shade and by a fan. The now redundant lab buildings were restarted so we could get some air-con relief during break times, although there were a few who seem to revel in the high temperatures and they did allow us to get some things done as planned.  Sales were hit fairly hard which is understandable, but with cooler weather and some welcome rain due next week hopefully things will bounce back. 

One of our drivers commented on how exciting and attractive our stock was looking in several sites he visited this week. The larger stock supplied by others at much higher prices appeared to be less attractive having moved into a less impulsive price bracket and of course lacking the extra feel-good factor of a plastic-free hairy pot purchase! The trouble is that we are so used to handling our own hairy pots and wooden boxes, anything incorporating plastics seems a bit run-of-the-mill, unnatural and off-trend. 

Don’t forget we will be keeping a wide range of attractive perennials and herbs going in our 13cm pots right through until the Autumn, and all at take-me-home prices! Big day today for Caroline. Not allowed to say how old other than she hasn’t caught me up yet. We celebrated in the usual way, cake for all at coffee break and another late night on the nursery. Luckily with being slightly less busy than usual I was able to slip out for a couple of hours over the Bank Holiday and make some special purchases, mostly involving a small collection of terracotta planters to freshen up the back door area. It went down a lot better than the bag of organic spinach I produced one year! What a lucky girl. 

Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The heat this week has pushed a few more varieties into bud which is great for adding even more excitement on the sales benches. We even have a few Asters in bud this week, which are usually something we associate with late summer! Compact varieties of Achillea Milly Rock are looking great, chunky stock with plenty of flower shoots appearing. The pretty Foam Flower Tiarella wherrii are now in flower and bud All three Erigeron’s are nicely in bud and looking summery. Tight growth making neat compact plants. The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. There are some cracking Verbena’s ready to go. Don’t miss out on these very popular lines. I am sorry we ran out earlier, there popularity caught me out again. Coreopsis are now in bud in a nice range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on a couple of the Agapanthus varieties. 

Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa with their first buds, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) were coming ready with bud appearing fast, but the hares have had all but two varieties for dinner!  The ever-popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too.  More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Gaura, Bidens and the Salvia’s too are now showing plenty of bud and now a bit of colour too. A nice illustration of the contrast in weather patterns over the past few weeks, is that Oxalis triangularis is back on the list and in bud, after we took it off due to some frost damage on the leaf edges, just a couple of weeks ago. We cut them back to compost and there now back on show again, looking grand. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering. A couple of fresh batches of Fire and Sunset are back on the list, full of promise. Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll. Many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Phlox paniculata varieties are showing bud on super strong stems, get them quick before they go. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy and out of date

Hi. 

Here we are, the last of the Spring bank holidays is upon us, and the sun has come to welcome everyone into their gardens. Slightly frustrating that we move from vests and jackets to too much exposure over 24 hours, but a change from cold nights to a heatwave is where we are. Looks like it will calm down again in a week, but let’s hope the brief heatwave and holiday spirit will get everyone excited enough to loosen those purse strings over the next few days. We were hit this week with a combination of holidays and a lot of illness among the team, some more serious than others but all throwing a spanner in the works. Luckily the drivers all showed up so we still managed to get all the orders out before the end of the week which is always the main focus of a spring week. The biggest invalid was of course myself, hit with man-flu since last weekend, so everyone else suffers too. I’ve been dosing up on Lemsip and honey which has worked a treat in subduing the symptoms, I think the vintage state of the Lemsip added an extra kick as Caroline had me using up her parents old stock which had a use by date of 2020. Don’t care, it got me through. 

Electrician has been on-site all week again setting up a new distribution board and cabling for the replacement generator that is on order and tidying up the new charging station for the new EV van due in the next couple of weeks. The special automatic transfer switch which starts the generator in the event of a power cut was due to be ready for delivery in 2 or 3 days from ordering, it is now going to be 3 weeks. They saw me coming. Good news from the DVLA this week as they have announced that from June 1st 2026, you will no longer need to use a tachograph in an EV if the GVW is under 4.25 tonnes. Ours will be 4 tonnes, so that will save all the drivers having to get a ‘drivers card’ to put into the tacho recorder. Not quite sure how hauliers are expected to plan their investments in EV’s when these announcements are made at such short notice. There were very strong rumours that this was going to happen, but we weren’t sure quite when. We have been so lucky to order ours several weeks before the rush of orders that is likely to follow this change in the rules. There will still be a speed limiter, keeping the top speed to 57 mph, but that should reduce the temptation to go faster and keep efficiency up on the battery usage. 

We should have cleared most of the vital potting before the weekend, so that frees me up for another batch of seed sowing in the peace and quiet. Caroline should have been going to Wembley to watch Southampton on Saturday, but the embarrassing spy-gate scandal has put an end to all that. That is one PR exercise I’m glad I don’t have to deal with, the tarnish of cheating at such a high level  will be quite hard to remove.  Must go, I am under orders to get home 15 minutes ago so I can clean up before visiting relatives. What fun. 

Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. Coreopsis are now in bud in a nice range of colours. Summer must be here with bud on a couple of the Agapanthus varieties. Small and compact the Lewisia Elise have plenty of bud already and will flower all summer long. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. We have a few Scabiosa Butterfly Blue with their first buds, more to follow, another long flowering summer star. Garden Pinks (Dianthus) were coming ready with bud appearing fast, but the hares have had the lot for dinner!  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Bidens and the Salvia’s too are showing the odd bud although still a week or two away from colour I think. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering.  Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll. Many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy suprise

Hi.

I can’t believe another week has passed already and it’s halfway through May. Unfortunately, outside it still feels like March or early April at a push, we’ve had very cold winds, frosts, heavy showers of rain and more dramatically hail. Looks like it is going to warm up a bit over the next week and with a few showers to dampen the ground a bit more, we could be in for a good gardening session. Hopefully a boost in plant sales will benefit everyone, fingers crossed. Our drivers are still coming home which very positive responses from our delivery recipients, which is always great to hear. When the season isn’t quite as exciting as perhaps, we may have hoped, it is very easy to blame yourself for not doing a good enough job in growing and preparing the plants for sale, so some positive feedback is always nice to hear about.  

After last week’s panic about the phone system losing the plot, after another IT ‘upgrade’, everything has now settled down. It turned out to be a setup issue with the new network switch and not a problem with the phone box on the wall, so no phone system upgrade required just yet. Pete the electrician has been on-site most of the week setting up new 3 phase cabling and distribution boards for the van charging stations, A bigger job than I expected but what’s new there. Next week he is back to sort out the cabling and more gear for the new generator, which although I was told it might be delivered in a couple of weeks, won’t be here for at least another 5, possibly longer.  I’m really looking forward to getting all this electric stuff sorted and plugging in the new electric van. We are producing all this excess power at the moment, from the solar array and wind turbines, and we really need to be using it ourselves to get some decent value out of it. We only get 6p/kWhr for exporting it and if we used it ourselves, we would be saving 28p. What will be exciting, will be seeing some of our plants being delivered to our customers using our own generated energy, it feels like another big step in doing what we do as sustainably as we can. 

Had a surprise late on Sunday evening, with a call from the driver of the Dutch potting compost lorry. Could I let him know when we would be open in the morning and had I any idea where he could park up overnight?  Once he told me he was actually already outside the nursery gate, it was always going to be easier to deal with it straight away. Not the perfect Sunday evening, but it was good to get him in and unloaded while the place was quiet and he was very pleased to be on his way home 12 hrs earlier than he expected. It meant we could start the week with plenty of potting materials ready to go, as well as not having a big lorry messing about in the yard while we are trying to get started on picking and processing all the orders. 

We’ve had a good week on the production side of things, as there is plenty of tunnel space ready to fill, after a reasonable run of sales over the past few weeks. We set a potting team going on Tuesday for a bit and then full-on before Wednesday lunchtime while the rest of the team finished off all the orders. Running both teams at the same time is always a bit tense and very hand to mouth in its operation, but there is simply no substitute for running the potting machine for more hours to pot more stock. The later in the week you start the machine to less gets done.  Lovely fresh stock of wooden box parts arrived this week, only 7 months after ordering. It is just me, isn’t it?  Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our username @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The early summer flowering Allium Millenium is now producing bud. It’s a cracker, much tidier foliage and habit than the spring flowering Alliums, and it flowers for longer too. Not such spectacular flowerheads perhaps but a great garden plant. Quite a few Leucanthemum in bud now, the first of many flowers to come. Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast.  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! More summer stars are coming out now with bud appearing on the Osteospermum Bidens and Lewisia. The Salvia’s too are showing the odd bud although still a week or two away from colour I think. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of Superbowl Mauve are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. Summer cliff top walks always spring to my mind when I see Armeria coming into bud, and now’s your chance to take a stroll! The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now and even the more tender herbs like Basil are now making their springtime appearance.  

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy and hectic

Hi. 

Just a quick one as I’m struggling to keep up this week. The orders have been rolling in after a better bank holiday weekend than predicted, and everything else seems to be kicking off, some exciting, but most of it very expensive. Preparations for the electric van continue with a couple of 3 phase 22kw chargers on order and the electrician running up a quote to install a new distribution board, cabling and sockets for those chargers. As part of the electric re-jig we are having to replace our ancient and unreliable generator with something a bit quieter, cleaner and cleverer. It is going to be installed on an existing concrete pad next to the meter shed, which seemed like a cheap and easy option, but by the time new wiring, auto transfer switches and new distribution boards are installed the cost of the generator is likely to double. It’s like a roller coaster I can’t seem to get off, one positive advance turns into a waterfall of extra costs.  To add to the positive financial mood of the day, our new IT people who successfully helped us update onto the cloud, have today upgraded our Wi-Fi hubs, firewall and network switch gear so that we are ‘more secure’, plug and play, it’s all so simple. Now the telephone system won’t work correctly (so if you can’t get through please try emailing us at nurseries@kirtonfarm.co.uk) and they say this nothing to do with them, but if we changed from our reasonably new box on the wall to an on-line system, it would all be better. Also, the CCTV system which they said would work better once everything was upgraded, has also been written off because it doesn’t fit with the new levels of firewall security and we would need to replace it if we wanted to be secure on the whole network. So it looks like we have to replace a perfectly good phone system and cctv (it is Chinese!) to fit in with the new level of cyber security. Yet another rollercoaster I got stuck on. 

I had a very interesting visit from one of our Dutch compost makers this week. After some poor results using loose fill peatfree propagation composts last summer, when compared to the peat-free glue plugs we have used for many years, I developed a little theory that the problem was the fine particles in the loose mixes moving into the air spaces when watered over a period. This doesn’t tend to happen in peat-based mixes due to the different physical properties of peat. In conversation today he confirmed that the glue plugs hold the finer particles in a solid structure so the blocking of the air spaces doesn’t happen, but my idea to ask the manufacturers to try and remove some of these finer particles would fall on deaf ears because it is just too much trouble to go to, for the relatively small UK peat-free propagation market. The coir propagation mix we are using now is much better than others we have tried but still has too much dust to make a perfect mix, but they won’t take it out. I suspect we will have to adjust our sowing strategy and move the slower germinating, more difficult lines, into glue plugs which would mean new seeding bars, dibbers and delivery tubes to fit onto the sowing machine. Looks like another rollercoaster to ride. On the positive side the weather is lovely and the birds are singing.

The solar is generating nicely again now the cable has been repaired, and tomorrow is the day to tilt our panels to their full summer setting of 17 degrees. They will stay there until August when they start to stand up again. Hopefully in a few weeks we can really start to make good use of all that solar generation when the electric van arrives, and we can soak up a big dollop of energy each day. Something must go in the right direction soon. We had a fab holiday weekend here when I managed to talk Caroline into potting Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so we got lots done. I think she is hoping for a rest this time, and she might be lucky as we look like running out of compost by the end of Friday and the next load isn’t due until Tuesday. I’m sure I can still think of a few things we can do together, that repaired solar cable still needs re-burying! 

Social media on trend To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast.  The ever popular Nemesia Wisley Vanilla is back on the list and there are follow-on batches coming too, but possibly not quite enough to maintain a constant supply, but it will keep reappearing! Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of a couple of other varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. 

Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now, although it will still be week or two before the more tender herbs like Basil make their springtime appearance. We only have a tiny amount of heated production space, so we are limited on production timings of these more tender subjects. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy anniversary

Hi. 

That was a busy week leading up to the Bank Holiday weekend. Not the best week to be a van down and a driver too, but we made it through, assuming tomorrows trips all come together ok. Nasty combination of bright sun and a cold strong wind this week, it always seems to happen just as our beech trees and hedge come into fresh leaf and they get truly battered. At least our turbines have been having a good time, making up for the lack of solar output, ‘every cloud’ and all that. Managed to get the potting started again yesterday with another long session due tomorrow and I may be able to talk Caroline into another go on Saturday. With stock levels falling, we need to restock asap, but with labour costs now so high and margins so fine, weekend overtime is a luxury we can’t really afford anymore, so it’s down to us again to sneak a few more through the potting machine and get a bit extra on the ground growing away. 

Each week I think we are catching up with the waiting module stock in the prop tunnels, but then each week sees more deliveries and we are swamped again! It shouldn’t really be much of a surprise, it’s the same every year and after 42 years at it, you think I would learn.  That reminds me, thanks to mum and my sister-in-law for reminding us about the 42nd anniversary, nothing like a good prod to make yourself feel ancient! I celebrated by going dancing with lots of other ladies and Caroline went to see Southampton play Ipswich with her brother. A lovely night out for all. 

Big tick this week with our solar cable now repaired. It was a bigger job than expected, with the cable cutting, jointing and resealing taking most of two days and then the resin filled casing taking at least another couple of days to fully harden before we can rebury the repaired section. Thankfully, all tests were passed and the power switched on, so it is actually generating already, despite the open trenching. The next task was to get the SSE back in to replace the downgraded fuses in our mains supply box and upgrade the fuse size in the transformer on the other side of the field, so if it happens again we just blow the fuse here and not in the transformer. Phoned them up at about 3.30 today, they were here by 5.45 and all done within the hour. Power had to go off while they made the changes, but no major nursery disruption so that was a big bonus.  With the electrician on site, we managed to get him to help us set the mist propagation to work properly. He installed the controlling solenoid a while ago but the water supply needed sorting out before it would operate correctly and when we  completed that part, the computer wouldn’t talk to the solenoid. It was soon working perfectly, but we couldn’t have done it without him.  

Only 3 weeks until we take delivery of our first EV delivery van, so lots of planning to accommodate a very different type of vehicle. We are having to put in another charging point, in fact we will put in two as I suspect we will need another fairly soon. The grant available for charger installation has just increased to £500 per charger which will help cover some of the cost. We also must get all the drivers to apply for a DVLA drivers card so they can use the tachograph that comes in a 4 tonne van. We may only have to use it for a matter of weeks before the law changes and makes the tacho unnecessary, but no one seems to know for sure when the change will come, so best to be prepared. We will have to get an EV based fuel/charge card set up for off-site refuelling and the appropriate app installed for finding suitable charging stations. Then it will just be a matter of building the drivers confidence in using an all-electric van. A combination of coping with range anxiety and finding handy/quick charging stations will be the key to stress reduced deliveries, so watch out when you see it delivering to your site and be kind to the driver, who may be experiencing something new and not altogether enjoying it! 

To find our Instagram content, I am told you can try our user name @thehairypotplantcompany  or use the link below; https://www.instagram.com/thehairypotplantcompany?igsh=MXhhMGxhcjgzNGYydA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr 

Availability list. 

The cold nights are holding things back slightly, plenty of stock just not a huge amount in bud at the moment.  Camassia Maybelle is the best one, usually multi-stemmed and slightly more compact than others. Erysimum Bowles Mauve are still flowering and follow-on batches of a couple of other varieties are also ready to go, but with bud only just beginning to appear. Fresh batch of the pretty Leucanthemum Western Star Leo Yellow is ready with first buds showing on compact plants. The Phlox subulata varieties are nice and compact with colour showing, but not many left. And finally, many Hosta’s have put in an appearance. Always a precursor to Spring proper, they are up and away. Our Garden Pinks (Dianthus) are coming ready with bud appearing fast. The Scent First series are more compact and earlier to flower. Herb sales seem to be booming this spring; it must be all that healthy home cooking we are being encouraged to do. Lots of stock is coming through nicely now, although it will still be 2 or 3 weeks before the more tender herbs like Basil make their springtime appearance. We only have a tiny amount of heated production space, so we are limited on production timings of these more tender subjects. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.