Triumph! Computer security upgrade successfully sorted last week but as is the way with all messing about with computers it’s never that simple. The instant I had finished we had a huge Windows 7 update which loaded the latest Internet Explorer 9. It took ages to download and completely messed up any internet browsing, within 30 seconds or so it would freeze and refresh. Naturally I assumed it was a cock-up on my part with the security update but after a bit of investigation it was the new IE9 upgrade. It automatically sets itself up for the very latest video software which of course we don’t have and can’t upgrade with a compatible driver despite the computers only being a couple of years old. Anyway by ticking the right box in ‘internet tools + advanced’ we sorted it. Another productive few hours!

Caroline came back down to earth last week, quite literally. She did her tandem skydive which she got as a birthday present from a load of ‘friends’ a few months ago. I wasn’t too worried as I had topped up the life insurance and I know she loves that sort of thing, about as much as I hate it. It hit the spot and the ‘money off your next jump’ voucher is now burning a hole in her pocket so I doubt it will be long before she has another go.

Sad news this week that the Woking Nursery Show is no more. We have been exhibiting there for a very long time and it was always a productive and lovely day out for us, but the competition from the new HTA National Plant Fair just a couple of weeks before was just too much to bear and perhaps it was time to move on. It will be interesting to see how the shows get on over the next few years, particularly the national ones especially when I think things are likely to turn more in favour of more local supply with increasing demand for local produce, transport costs and possible future plant movement restrictions. I’m not 100% sure of our future strategy on the show front, we have now lost both of the shows we attended this year but it looks at the moment that the favourite option may be to buy a pig and eat it! As a sideline we might invite a few folk to come and see what we are up to at the same time. We have done quite a few tours already with local interest groups, nursery visits and students and we seem to have built up quite a variety of different things to show, there is all the hairy stuff, production facilities micro-prop lab, sustainability stuff and the turbines and nearly all the people who come have managed to stay awake for most of the time. Perhaps one in early February and another in the summer, we’ll see. Mind you by the time we get too February we might be down to cabbage soup rather than suckling pig!

With perfect timing through our contacts in Plato Sustain we had a very entertaining & productive visit from a marketing strategist from URS Scott Wilson who has done us a quick review of all things hairy. I am always a bit sceptical about consultants especially when they are not horticulturaly orientated but she was brilliant, very sharp, practical and astute. We discussed all sorts of options from very short term ideas on a shoestring budget to longer term business strategies. It was certainly a great way of bringing some of our ideas into sharper focus and finding practical ways of bringing those ideas into reality. Watch this space!

Eco News

The local paper caught up with us this week with a call asking if the turbines were up yet. The reporter lives in Winchester but such is the uproar created by their erection that he hadn’t realized that they had been up for over three months. It won’t be in until next week (Hampshire Chronicle) but hopefully it will get a sensible reaction and not stir up too many negative thoughts. The photographer came in on Wednesday to take some pictures and I look great, so that’s ok.

I have been doing a bit of internet research on UK average monthly wind speeds this week to try and get a more accurate idea of how the turbines are fairing. It will still need a long term review for sensible analysis but it looks ok so far. I found a couple of graphs for UK winds over the last 21 and 34 years and they gave me the percentages to adjust the annual estimate we were given by the turbine installers. By the end of September we were 2.88% under estimate, although if I adjusted for the time one turbine was out of action with a set up problem it would have been 3% up. So far in October we are fractionally up but it is so tight that a day of light or heavy wind could swing it one way of the other.

The recent wooden tray returns have gone pretty well, we still are a few short, but looking back over the three seasons we have been using them we have achieved a return rate of 97.5% which is brilliant. Well done everyone, especially those who have achieved a 100% return of which there are many.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

We are in the headlines this week with lots of local press coverage of our successful wind turbine planning application. It started with a request for a montage turbine image and a few words for the head reporter which went fine. Then came the disappointment of the first spread in the Southampton Evening Echo on their eco pages, headlined with the caption ‘Green light for giant turbines at beauty spot’ with a picture of a dramatic Cornish multiple turbine scene, which was hardly the balanced view we were hoping for. Having sworn never to speak to another journalist ever again I was forced to rethink when The ‘Hampshire Chronicle’ came out on Thursday. Written by the same reporter, we were the lead on the front page with a more sensible ‘A wind of change on the horizon?’ followed by a longer article with a broadly positive report and including some of my input from the phone call. We were also the lead editorial comment, again sensible and positive, even congratulating us on leading the way. Can’t expect much more than that!

We had great two days sunny weather this week when we managed to re-sheet 5 tunnels. We have been waiting ages for just the right weather and Tuesday was perfect. We had our main heated prop tunnel to do which is a tricky one as it is clad with two sheets which inflate with a tiny fan to improve the heat retention. This one took all day and still needs a bit of finishing off. Wednesday was still sunny and started off still but got breezier as the day went on, this is the usual scenario when tunnel covering, everything is perfect until you unroll the sheets! Anyway, the windbreaks around the nursery did enough for us to get 4 covers on in a day which is a record for us and completed all the split tunnels on site, now we can relax.

We celebrated the end of summer with a trip to the local pub for lunch with everyone before some of our hardworking spring/summer crew finish for this year. Slightly tense incase we bumped into any hostile anti turbine locals but had a great meal with plenty of laughs.

Slowing brain function and over-excitement over a trip out, caused slight confusion yesterday. I am back into the weekly trip to the supermarket, but got slightly confused in the preamble when I met Caroline carrying the shopping boxes to the car after I had just loaded them myself. Turns out I had loaded the cat food! Did anyone see the BBC documentary/experiment on old folk a week or two ago (Young Ones)? it was fascinating. Anyone wanting to see how best to keep themselves or others from deteriorating with advancing years should see it. It’s still on the BBC iplayer and well worth a watch.

Eco news

Winter is coming, it’s getting a bit late but we are looking at major insulation installation in the house and where we can, on the nursery. From watching our daily electric consumption over the last 10 months it has become apparent that a vast amount of our use is related to heating. In the office, mess room and loos our total consumption falls by 80% when comparing winter with summer and when the oil consumption in the prop tunnels and house are added, in this accounts for over 70% of our direct carbon footprint. For too long now it has been too easy to avoid looking at these things but as environmental pressures and especially costs start to increase over the next few years it will become a focus point for everyone. Having spoken to a few people we are now recognising that we probably have many more options than we thought. The variety of insulation options have increased greatly in the past few years as have heating systems and fuel choices. We are looking at biomass boilers, probably wood pellets (now produced locally) which are carbon neutral and after the initial higher installation cost are much cheaper to run and a new hot-water heating system. The hot water is an interesting one, it uses a small air-source heat pump to take the heat directly from a warm room (eg the conservatory in summer) and use it to heat the hot water tank. This would be ideal for periods when the boiler is not on and reduces the boiler load when it is. Having now recognised the shockingly bad performance of our 1930’s house which looses heat from all over the place (suspended wooden floor complete with floorboards with wide gaps between them, un-insulated walls, lots of single glazed sash windows, holes in the wall for cat movement etc). At least the loft is not bad, although I have got to give it a good raking! (some of the insulation up there is recycled paper/card stuff that apparently settles over time and needs re-fluffing every now and then).

Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm