Morning all,


What a lovely week on the weather front. Great for getting out there and watch spring springing. Despite the forecast not being as good for the weekend it has been fine here, lots of sun and warm again. I have packed away my fleece lined trousers for the summer and look forward to taking my hat off soon. The fleece lined trousers were a revelation in the coldest weather of the winter, replacing my rather scary ‘two trouser’ fashion of earlier times. They came via a catalogue company called Chums which had loads of very useful bits of kit specially selected for those no longer in the first flush of youth. Slightly frightening was the pamphlets for mobility scooters and special pants that came in the parcel, but hey, the trousers did the job and I’m now old enough not to care!

Anyway talking of safety pants, I attended an open day run by the HSE at a local farm this week. It was mainly agriculturally based but did have quite a few good reminders of some of the most common safety issues associated with smaller outdoor enterprises too. Ladder safety, manual handling, safe handling of chemicals and vehicle use were all there with some sensible advice and a few scare stories to accompany it. It’s really a bit dull and negative to focus on this sort of stuff but it is something we all have to bear in mind every day. Keep it safe, check stuff regularly, and watch out when you get tired, irritable or lazy. It’s all ok until an accident happens, then it’s too late. Luckily we don’t have quite the risks associated with farms, there were some truly horrendous tales of accidents over recent years which certainly makes you focus on things, but we all face risk, so be careful out there.

Availability list - Spring is here so if for some reason you lose your list you can now download it from the www.kirtonfarm.co.uk website.

Star of the week the week is Fritillaria meleagris in flower, we have a few, but they won’t be there long.

Eco news
An engineer from the National Grid came in this week to check out the site for the installation of a new pole mounted substation for the wind turbines. Everything was fine and he reckoned it should be done in 8 weeks if all goes well, although I was quite surprised that he knew nothing about why the installation was needed. I suppose as long as the right kit goes in it doesn’t matter what it is for. Once the dates are set for that then we should be able to work all the trenching, cabling and foundation installation in over that 8 weeks, ready for construction once the power is in place. I still can’t really believe after all this time that something is going to actually happen.

With Richard off at the end of the week we are losing our nursery egg supply so we are currently looking into a small production facility to compensate. We have a good local source of second-hand free range chickens to stock it but are still trying to tie down the accommodation. Chicken housing isn’t cheep! The current favourite option is to adapt a redundant cat pen although I’m not sure myself how well they would cope with the cat flap. The other decision is how many to eat, or will that just be too traumatic? I love a hot bird on a Sunday but can we get through the pre-roasting stage without a fuss, I suspect not. I bet it won’t take long before they all have names and all hope of breast and stuffing evaporate. Visions of ‘Chicken Run’ and the decision of which one for the pie come flooding back. How much easier it is to pick up a plastic wrapped bird at the supermarket, with none of the associated angst. But at least it would be real, it would have had a good run and we know where it’s come from.

Nature ramblings

Tiny tadpoles are swimming about already, it doesn’t take long in this warm weather.

Ordered our wildflower seed mix for sowing our patch of ground down by the new hedge as per planning conditions. We do have a bit of unused ground next to the hedge strip, so I ordered a bit extra to do that too. It’s a mix of annuals and perennials so hopefully will be effective from the first season and mature over the years.

Saw our first Red Kite of the year this week, soaring in the sun with a couple of Buzzards. Hopefully they will continue their spread as they make such a dramatic addition to the skies. On the subject of birds of prey I keep an eye on the bird sitings in and around St Ives, just to see what I’m missing, and all this week they have been reporting a Golden Eagle over several sites. Now that is a spot.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

I can’t believe it’s October already, that’s the end of another financial year, so lots of stock taking to do this week and hopefully the figures will come out ok. There are nearly always surprises when they are sorted out, but not usually nice ones!
This year is looking ok so far which is a relief as it has been such a struggle over the past few years to make sense of it all. Things are looking much more together now as we get our ranges and priorities sorted out and the current combination of great staff, customers and stock, as well as continuing positive business developments are making 2011 look even more exciting. Luckily we all get more out of this than major financial gain but with some cash return things are certainly easier.

A touch autumnal last week and next week looks the same, at least the reservoirs around the country will get a good topping up. I had a bit of a water related week with a trip to Lowaters Nursery to an irrigation orientated open day. They have installed a rainfall harvesting system to reduce their reliance on the increasingly expensive mains water supply and ensure future supplies as demand increases. It was very impressive with a range of collection ditches and ponds supplying a new large reservoir. The reservoir water was filtered through a series of iris beds to remove contaminants before going through a fine particle filter and returning to the new main nursery irrigation tank. They had researched the system very well (with some funding help) and have constructed a very sustainable and cost effective solution for their situation. Water has been cheap and freely available in most areas for a long time but as prices rise and continuous uninterrupted supplies possibly coming under threat in the future, it is something that many nurseries like us who currently rely on mains supply will need to address. The exciting bit was that the payback period was 4 years even without grant funding, which not only makes it sustainable but a great investment. Unfortunately it is yet another ‘jam tomorrow’ project, but does show the importance of finding enough funds to invest in the future and how this does help keep future costs down. Unfortunately there were probably only a dozen nurseries represented there and many of those were the inspiration behind a lot of the systems incorporated in the Lowaters project. Buffet lunch was great too!

Got the propagation tunnel finished on Friday after getting the double sheet attached the week before. It needs to be well sealed so that we can inflate it for the winter heating period. We don’t heat much until late Winter, but any heat we can conserve helps and running a weeny fan to inflate the double cover works brilliantly. Although it costs more for two skins they effectively protect each other so last quite a bit longer and the running costs of the fan are minimal.

Eco news

Spent most evenings this week raking the loose insulation in the loft. I’ll be back up there this afternoon to finish it off, it has recovered from 3 or 4 cm in depth to a nice fluffy 7 or 8 cm, so I will just need to top it up slightly to the rafter tops and we are there. Next is having a go at fitting some insulation under our suspended wooden floors. When the wind blows hard the carpet has been seen to rise off the floor which is not just inefficient heat retention but does bring on a feeling of motion sickness and that isn’t something you expect while watching telly!

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September.

Water consumption down 15.6%.

Nature notes

Last of the summer sights this week with a large flock (100+) of house martins feeding over the nursery. Red Kite spotted over the nursery last week.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries