What a lovely spring day. I just walked past one of the nursery ponds and there was a lot of splashing about as all the frogs took cover, they are very active today in the warm sunshine. I’ve been active too in an exciting 0-0 draw early today in Petersfield. Feeling a bit weak now and very nearly fell asleep in front of the rugby but couldn’t afford the time. It’s a busy day today, lots to fit in with groceries, hockey, availability lists, irrigating, seed sowing and present opening, then later I’ve birthday visitors, turbine inspection and curry, ace! Caroline is looking after me on my big day by disappearing off to see Saints play in another important game still pushing for promotion. Had some lovely presents including the now regular nest-box (I think that’s about six in the last three years, this time it is a very smart sparrow terrace) chocs and beer, and best of all two packs of mixed grill from the fantastic local butchers in Stockbridge.

Had a great day out last Sunday on our over 50’s cup trip to Jersey. Exciting flight with high cross winds making for a lively approach and landing and warranting a round of applause from many on touchdown. I think we were still reliving the plane trip in the first few minutes when we went behind, but we pulled ourselves together and made a good game of it nearly getting it back on several occasions. However it would have been terribly rude of us to win as they had funded most of our trip and looked after us so well, so we were satisfied enough with a good game a nice beer and lunch at the pub. I managed to attract a strip search in airport security on the way out which was a novelty, not something we experience on our trips into Cornwall! I don’t think it was my shifty appearance particularly, just the old man’s back brace I was wearing to hold myself together. Things are building up on the nursery with sales picking up and the potting and pricking out well underway which gets us all in the spring mood.

For anyone visiting the nursery to pick up plants we can now quickly deal with card payments with our new card terminal which means that even I can cope with taking a payment by card. Thankfully I don’t have to remember any pin codes only you do, so I’m much more capable of taking your money than getting out any of my own!

Watch out for 5 planets in the sky over the next night or two, apparently it doesn’t happen often. Check out the Google sky app on a smart-phone to identify what you are seeing.

I’m off to polish up my iron-age cooking stones to impress Brian our visiting archaeologist. Not sure if he will be that excited really but it gives me a buzz when I’ve picked them out of a trench in our field.

Eco News

The wild flower strip we sowed last year as part of the ecological development to compensate for putting up the turbines is looking well established. We will be extending it this spring as it is keeping the willow-herb and bitter-cress weeds at bay and will attract a wider range of predator insects which we hope will help our pest control. We now have our plan set out of predator introductions for the coming season with the first batches going in towards the end of this month when the temperatures get high enough for them to be truly active. Until then we will spot spray any problem outbreaks so that the predators get off to a nice balanced start. This means we need a small pest population for the predators to get stuck into and establish themselves then they can spread successfully and keep on top of things.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Had a scary visit to Roundstone Nurseries this week for a Grow-save seminar on heating and ventilation. What a place, lovely smart warm offices and a spotless despatch, potting and production setup on a big scale. We had a brief walk round and saw crops of Poinsettia coming on for the Christmas market, all very closely monitored and managed to keep inputs to a minimum and quality high. Many of the guests were more greenhouse orientated than ourselves so their interest in heating costs etc was probably more financially significant but the overall story of lack of margin for most on this crop or no margin at all, despite a crop waste rate of less than 3%, was sobering. The market is hugely supermarket led and ruthless. Stories of large pot cyclamen imports at 50p/pot were told and there were a few long faces at the longer term prospects if this sort of madness carries on. The depth of knowledge in the room was very impressive, with clever use of heat, irrigation and venting reducing and in some cases eliminating the need for sprays to control growth habits and diseases. These were very highly skilled growers producing fantastic crops yet they struggle to pay minimum pay rates to make ends meet and without better consumer appreciation will struggle to survive. It was interesting to see one large ornamental grower selling up two of their nursery sites over the last couple of weeks to a food producer, possibly a trend to watch. Luckily I did pick up a few useful pointers as to how we can eek our oil heating costs out a bit, while at the same time improving our propagation successes, so it wasn’t all bad news.

I’m not sure whether I should mention how well Southampton FC are doing on their return to the championship, riding high and playing pretty well. It’s amazing how far a bit of extra confidence can take you. We went into the city on Friday to see The Beat and a great young band called Will and the People, all of them oozed confidence but in a fun and non-irritating way. Even if you are not old enough to remember the Ska scene of the eighties look out for The Beat. It always seems slightly sad to be going to see a reformed band in a small local venue, but it was a great party atmosphere and the band very entertaining and talented. It’s always a good sign if the band look like they are having a good time!

Have you noticed the cooler weather has brought about a change in fly populations. We did have a big influx of quick moving little buggers who were very irritating and in my eagerness to catch & despatch them tended to get over splattered. It’s been a good time to avoid any homemade garibaldi biscuits in our house! Now we are into the cluster flies which tend to congregate at this time of year to hibernate. Fatter, dopey things, easier to swat but form ugly seething masses when they find a nice home. They used to be a problem in the loft until we put up an electric killing machine and now I’ve noticed them filling up the control boxes at the base of the turbines, not very nice when you open them up to check the readings. The joys of country living.

Eco News

We made page two in the paper with a reasonable splash. www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/9319823.New_wind_farm_near_Winchester_up_and_spinning

I would hardly classify us as a wind farm (too small and less than 5 in number), let alone a major wind-farm, but there you go why would you want the press to be accurate, there is no sensationalist or entertainment value in that! I may have accidentally invited a load of complaints by mentioning that only one person had complained directly since they went up 3 months ago, but hopefully all will pass off quietly.

We are having the first service of the turbines in a couple of weeks which should see the last of the setup stuff completed. Although they have been busy generating since we turned them on there are still a few bits of the installation to tidy up before all is signed off at which point we will have a look at getting some local groups/schools in to have a look at what is going on and how it all works.

Times are tough and sustainability rules. Even our labels get the chop. Apparently the huge tongue depressor market is saving resources by now making them 1mm narrower so I will need to remake our wider printing plates to accommodate the change, I bet they didn’t think of that when they changed.

Skylarks are back in the field already singing and fighting over territory.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Morning all,


Plenty of weather last week. We measured over 50mm of rain here on Thursday, it was wet. The drains just couldn’t cope with the volume of water and there was water everywhere. Luckily as we are on a slope and thin chalky soil so it doesn’t take long to soak away and the next morning the sun was out and you wouldn’t have believed it had happened. Hopefully there was not too much damage down in Dorset where it was even worse. I was at a meeting near Swanage on Thursday and drove through the worst of it which was exciting but a little scary, the power of nature to create chaos so quickly is humbling.

The meeting was our quarterly gathering of our NBIS group (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) in which we look at our relative performances, analyse a few figures and focus on specialist topics to try and make things better. It’s always an inspiring session starting with a close check-up on the local hostelry for lunch to get us warmed up. The discussion of our mistakes and successes over the past few months is very honest, refreshing, and therapeutic. It is the horticultural equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous and the key thing to getting it to work for everyone is that key moment when you are able to face the group and admit ‘I am a nurseryman, I make it up as I go along, I don’t make any real money, I work ridiculous hours, I need help but it is what I do.’ Once you get over the embarrassment hurdle and you get to hear of everyone else’s problems it is much easier to make real improvements. Everyone is insecure and a bit frightened of life out there, we all just find different ways to hide it and sometimes finding a sympathetic ear on a similar wavelength is just what we need to push us onwards and upwards. Watch out for those ears.

A very unusual feeling at present. Southampton FC always have rubbish starts to the season but here we are riding high on top of the championship table with four wins out of four. We only got promotion at the end of last season and this was a little unexpected. We always start the season full of hope, which usually lasts about 45 minutes so we are not quite sure what to think at the moment, we are very pleasantly dazed. We got so carried away that we have entered the Lowaters Nursery 5-a-side football in late September, a decision I hope not to regret as I haven’t kicked a ball for many years. Hopefully some of our youngsters will prop me up and it won’t be too embarrassing.

Eco News

Turbines have been running for a few weeks now, but the weather hasn’t been very windy yet. We also had a set up problem with one turbine which needed another visit from the installers to adjust some of the sensors. There are several safety measures in place which involve various sensors and computer controlled cut-out/ braking procedures and we suspect they weren’t quite right on installation. It ran for a couple of days before registering a fault and we then lost several days output from the one turbine until it was reset. It seems to be running fine now so hopefully that will be it. Since August 1st until this morning (21st) we have averaged generation of 145 units a day (would have been 175 if all three going) and we are aiming for 240 units as a daily average through the year. Not too bad considering the fairly still weather. We have had one brisk days wind when we generated just over 400 units and I have seen an individual turbine producing at close to its maximum output of just over 12 kW an hour although only for a very short burst.

Originally we were hoping to generate the same amount of electricity as we use and this we are close to achieving already as we have managed to reduce a little further our consumption (replacement air source heat pump which is more efficient than the 7 year old unit it replaced). Our daily use since Aug 1st has been 195 units, so at a rate of 175/day generation we aren’t far short.

I have managed to break into my You Tube account and put on a video of one of our turbines being lifted into position if anyone fancies a look. There is one of the turbines running too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ44nQpdVnI.

I had advanced notification from Floramedia (label printers) that they will be offering a wooden label printing service very soon. They have been doing a few for one big customer but are now able to offer it more widely for anyone interested. You may want to sit down before you read the price list. Still it is great to see more use of natural materials being taken up.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Many sighs of relief this week. We don’t have to worry about bank holidays this weekend, the work load has eased slightly, got my hair cut, the temperature has dropped, Southampton secured automatic promotion to the Championship and best of all we have had two nights of heavy rain. Ok, we have had the odd little flood but who cares, everything looks so much better for a refreshing splash. With a bit of luck this will also freshen up peoples enthusiasm for the outdoor pursuits and give all gardens a bit of a boost. It’s quite a comparison to last Sunday when the really strong dry winds were ripping off the fresh poplar leaves and young branches of our main windbreak, littering the nursery as if it was autumn.

To save the brain working too hard I have started writing the odd note during the week, of things to mention but naturally I can’t remember where I’ve put it, so I’ll have to try and recall the highlights as best I can.

Luckily we didn’t have to work too late this week as we did have a concert to attend on Wednesday evening. Jools Holland and his huge band provided a jolly and very loud bash and everyone looked to have a good time. Ok I admit it, this wasn’t one of my favourites, I’m not very good at community clapping or singing on demand, it was all a bit to manufactured for me which was a shame because there were some very talented musicians among the 20 or so on stage. Sandie Shaw made a guest appearance which was a surprise, and she looked fabulous especially considering she is 64. We reckon she must have pinched a pair of legs from an 18 year old.

It was all a bit of a rush to get there on time especially as I thought I ought to get my hair cut before entering the real world again. While the pizzas were warming in the oven Caroline whisked over me with the clippers and I got the whole thing done and myself showered off in 30 minutes (this exercise helps cover the mortgage payments made to cover Carolines trips to the real hairdressers!). Then there is the tricky bit of eating hot pizza in my only nice shirt just prior to rushing out. Easy solution, don’t get dressed until after eating. Slight hiccup as I sit at the kitchen table juggling hot pizza in my undies, when the ladies from the Cat Protection turn up and troop through with a late cat delivery. Not a word was spoken as I shuffled further under the table and acted cool!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the last home game of the season at Southampton to see them seal promotion back to the Championship. A sell-out crowd saw a very entertaining game with lots of action and goals (won 3-1) and there was a fantastic party atmosphere by the end. Even the opposition (Walsall) were celebrating as they had been in danger of relegation if other games had gone against them but they escaped despite losing and in the end everyone lived happily ever after. Quite a contrast to the past few seasons of relegation and near bankruptcy.

Eco news
After another week of irrigating and now some real rain, the recently sown wild flower strip is well up. The new hedge has shot well too with the extra water, although we will have to pull a few weeds out to reduce the competition a bit. The mulch we put down did ok but the odd weed that got away has got really big suddenly.

Things look like they are about to kick off with the turbine construction. The way-leaves etc are all sorted by the grid folk and they reckon we should be wiring up in about a month. A programme of dates is nearly ready and I’ve lined up the trench and ground works team to be ready to go. The foundation installers are also looking at dates to install hopefully before the supply is actually in, so that the concrete has time to cure before the masts are bolted on. Naturally we are expecting the wind which has been incessant over the last few weeks to die away in mid June.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Another interesting week as the telephone engineers try to get the new phone system to work as planned. Nearly there, just the answer-phone service to get going now. During the past 10 days we have been intermittently on and off with nursery phone lines, internet lines, fax lines in, fax lines out, recorded messages etc so apologies if you have had any difficulties getting through.

It even knocked out all our printers from the computer network on Friday after a new router they fitted on Thursday had renamed the IP addresses. The problem didn’t materialise until the computers where turned on again on Friday morning. The joys of high tech. Still, on the bright side we now have network and internet access from the house again after a break of about 5 years and the new mobile hand-sets seem to have a better range than the old ones.
A bit flat today after an afternoon off yesterday the see Southampton FC play against Rochdale. Oops, lost again with another disappointing performance after a tricky couple of weeks when they lost, their main money man who sadly passed away, and their manager and most of the coaching staff who all got the sack. Still at least Portsmouth are doing badly too!

Production of the hairy pots is back under way in Sri Lanka after the fire that destroyed our last shipment and damaged the presses, but it is not up to full speed yet. Naturally there are some insurance delays which haven’t helped but the things are coming together. We will keep production there moving along throughout the winter to build up stocks here and keep their cash flow going. It will mean earlier outlays for us but does give us the insurance of uninterrupted pot supply for next season.

It isn’t the sort of issue we have come across before with a supplier, but it is in its own way it does give us a real connection with the people producing this product and a realisation of some of the social responsibilities we have as consumers.

Eco news

Exciting news on the wind turbine planning which is going before the planning committee on Thursday 16th Sept which is quicker than we anticipated, so well done to the local planning dept. There are 4 time slots for people to address the panel, 3 mins (total) for the public to oppose, 3 mins for the parish councils to support or oppose, 5 mins for any city councillors and 3 mins at the end for the applicant and/or supporters. Our planning guide will prepare my input once the planning dept report recommending approval is issued 7 days before the meeting, nerve wracking stuff. I have a couple of the local city councillors who are supporting the proposal, one Lib Dem and one Tory, so with a split representation on the panel itself we might be covered. There has still been very little negative local coverage other than the Crawley Parish Council’s foot stamping, and even that seems to have failed to produce much reaction as far as we know. I am ever hopeful that the tide is turning and a project like this will start to see a more positive response from local communities but the proof will be in seeing how the city councillors respond.

Hoping to get to the Winter Energy Weekend at Whitley Village near Southampton next weekend and see if we can pick up any info on local sustainability projects. It’s aimed mostly at the domestic market but there should be plenty of companies and organisations exhibiting and pointing us all in the right direction.

This year’s nursery electric consumption is now down by 23.02% (at end of August).

Don't forget to do your bit.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries