Hairy Wagon Wheels

Hi

Another short week as I swanned off to Wisley for another sustainability workshop on Wednesday, this time run by ICL who manufacture some lovely peat-free composts. It was a fairly general presentation highlighting what they did and what products might be in the pipeline that will help everyone improve their sustainable production systems. Although a lot of presentations at these sort of events tends to wash over me as my mind drifts away, I did manage to make some progress with the module compost problems we had been having. I took a little report with me, where I had recorded my findings on the poor germination and growing-on of our slower germinating perennials and showed it to the technical chaps at the event.

They were surprisingly receptive to my rather unprofessional report and were sure that they could make us a module mix that would overcome the problems I had highlighted. (see last week's notes for more info!) There was also a presentation on a compost wetter they have which could help peat-free composts from drying out quite so fast and also assist with re-wetting if they do dry out. Although we don't suffer too much with watering issues on our site, other than battling with the system itself, I know the retail environment isn't always as well set up for perfect growing conditions, so if we are able to add this product to the compost at dispatch it could improve water retention for several weeks in the plant sales areas. Together with the new capillary mats we are looking to insert into all trays next year, we may be able to make plant maintenance as little easier in the hot weather. This is bound to bring on the wettest spring and summer on record I know, but it does future proof us a bit against the climate changes that are happening all too quickly.

We've made a start on tidying the solar panel site over the last week. The whole installation project took several months longer than anticipated and didn't actually finish until late April, by which time we were far too busy on the nursery to finish off the pretty bits. We've now filled the last of the cable trenches and spread most of the wood chips we generated when cutting back the nursery windbreak, under the panels. The strips between are nearly cleared of debris and will then be raked over for chalk-land grass seed sowing, as part of the site biodiversity improvement.

The panels themselves have just been moved to their winter tilted position of 60 degrees which looks very upright. The days are obviously shorter now but I did notice that on a sunny day they are still generating quite close to their maximum output at midday which is a good indication that the more upright winter position is still pretty productive. Unsurprisingly they don't produce very much when it's as cloudy and grey as it has been most of this week, but you can't win them all. It took about 20 minutes to adjust the tilt on all 120 panels, a small price to pay for squeezing out up to 40% more winter output.

It's coming up to wind turbine servicing time and the realisation that we are already 14 years through our 20 years of anticipated output. Where does the time go, it only seems like yesterday I was panicking at the size of the turbines as they were being hoisted up. We should be able to keep generating after the 20 year birthday, but only realistically if the running costs don't surpass the combined income and savings. This is gradually getting more difficult to gauge with pretty low returns for exported power (about 6p per unit) with the cost of imported energy at 29p. If we can use more of the generated power ourselves we can justify keeping them going, but if we export most of it the return is marginal, especially if you have any breakdowns or repairs needing to be done. Now we have the solar and the wind together our imported energy costs are tiny, which is great, but at the same time the standing charge and capacity charge (another monthly charge) have shot up in price. We are now paying about £4,000 a year on these and next year I have been told that the capacity charge alone is going to rise by another £1,500. This means that we will be paying close to £6,000 just to have a supply, before any energy use charges are added. I'm getting very old, everything seems to cost so much these days and Wagon Wheels are so small! 

Wooden box collecting has started

We are already well underway collecting up our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually. We try to put together a good number of collections on each trip as it is always painful sending out the van without any paying cargo, but each tray does cost £10 to replace so it does pay for us to make the effort.

Availability list.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already and H. orientalis Halcyon Early Red has plenty of bud and some red colour too. Cyclamen coum are coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form, the first odd flower is already now showing. This selection is a champion winter performer, very hardy and just keeps on endlessly flowering, usually from November through to March and April.

Most other late flowering stock has just the remnants of colour showing, so I can no longer really mark them up as being in bud and flower as I'm not sure how much longer they will show themselves nicely.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy modules

Hi.

There's nothing quite like a few days away to freshen you up for the mountain of stuff to do when you get back! This time it was the stock-take paperwork that all needed transferring to the computer spreadsheets. I've just about got to the bottom of the pile now, so just the adding up to do and decide if it was a good one or not.

We had a fantastic break although all too short. We stayed on St Martin's on the Scilly Isles which was very quiet, even during storm Amy. Not quite as manicured as Tresco but stunningly beautiful over the moors and along the white sandy beaches. There are so many tiny hedge lined fields with little patches of cultivation going on, some vegetables, fruit and still some cut flowers, little orchards planted up, the odd couple of cows and a few chickens, but quite a bit just put down to grass. It looks idyllic but it must be a nightmare to find a market for the stuff when it's harvested. The cost of getting anything to the mainland is prohibitive and even the other islands are not cheap or that easy to get to. I suppose there will be the captive holiday makers in the summer, you just make hay while the sun shines, but by now the island was pretty deserted other than our rock and roll music gathering in the one small hotel. We tried our hardest to support the local economy by eating more than our fair share of pig, cow and eggs and washed it down with Cornish ales, but have now had to go on a crash diet to try and restore normality to the waistline. Trousers have definitely shrunk, must be the salty air.

Having been blown all over the place over the weekend the weather has settled nicely again, enough to get the last two split tunnels recovered this week. One done today and another to slip over tomorrow.

I have another exciting sustainability event to attend next week at Wisley, this time put on by the compost company ICL. It is mostly centred around all things peat-free and the latest developments in overcoming some of the current pitfalls some growers and retailers are having. Hoping they have made some breakthrough in the propagation area in particular. This is where we have seen major challenges. Luckily a good proportion of our stock is already produced peat-free by other specialist propagators, or by ourselves, but we have definitely struggled with some of the slower growing/germinating plants. I had initially thought it was something I was doing wrong. We had three different propagation composts which were designed as loose fill mixes to use in our new reusable legged module trays. The vigorous stock was fine but the slower growing varieties looked very sad. Most germinated ok but never grew away, staying small and yellow with virtually no penetrating root growth for weeks on end. As a trial I pricked out some of each into our micro-prop peat-free glue-plugs and they absolutely romped away, making a plant we could pot in just a few weeks, strong growth and deep green in colour they were unrecognisable. In a rather embarrassed fashion I did show one of our supplier reps, who had previously worked with peat-free propagation, the trays with the very sad plants and she recognised it instantly as the same problem she had had. This boosted me a bit in that it wasn't me this time, and with the instant recovery of health when moved into the glue-plugs, perhaps there was an answer out there. Having thought it might be nutritional issues or overwatering my theory now is that the fine nature of the propagation mixes used for efficient filling of small modules, means that the finer particles have a tendency to quickly wash down into the module and clog up all the air pockets. In contrast the glue plugs are held fairly solid and have a very stable structure. To test out the theory I asked our glue-plug suppliers to send us a sample of their loose peat-free mix but with all the finest particles sieved out, so preventing the loss of air holes in the modules. It cost a fortune to get just 70li imported from Holland, it was about £80 just to get it through customs, but well worth it as it appears to have worked. I have a handful of lovely trays of the tricky seedlings, all growing away strongly and a lovely healthy colour. It's still early days but I'm happy I now have a more workable prop compost, just need to bite the bullet and order the minimum quantity of 8 pallets of the stuff! Wooden box collecting has started

We are already well underway collecting up our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually. We try to put together a good number of collections on each trip as it is always painful sending out the van without any paying cargo, but each tray does cost £10 to replace so it does pay for us to make the effort.

Availability list.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already. Cyclamen coum is coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form there can't be far from flowering now, the plant frame is there, just waiting for the colour to appear. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are now showing bud and open flower.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy comfort

Hi.

Caroline and I are leaving Greg in charge as we swan off for a couple of days away, which we are really, really looking forward to. Hoping the Cornish seas are calm as we travel to the Scilly Isles for, walking, good food, great music and possibly the odd tipple. Looks like we have timed it perfectly for the arrival of Storm Amy! It has happened before, a few years ago, when we got stuck over there due to bad weather. There are worse places to get stranded. Relatively normal or even better service will continue in our absence so don't hold back in getting in touch.

Made the most of the calm and warm weather this week by re-cladding 3 poly-tunnels which had split over the summer. It was perfect weather and they went on beautifully with hardly a moments drama. Usually the moment we unroll a sheet the wind gets up and it all gets a bit too exciting for my liking. Unfortunately we noticed another two had split during the recent cooler nights which tightens the sheets resulting in the oldest ones splitting. Two extra sheets ordered but didn't arrive in time to get them on so we will have to wait with crossed fingers for some more favourable weather.

The last coir pot delivery came this week, another full container stuffed into the barn alongside the 10 pallets of recycled wool capillary matting ordered for cutting up and inserting in the wooden marketing trays next season. Naturally everything arrived at once, together with a visitor booked in for a tour of the nursery. At least we looked really busy for the visitors arrival!

This is our financial end of year so it's out with the clipboards for mass counting and recording what is out there. A general pain to complete, but is pretty vital in planning the coming season. We can see exactly what plants are on the ground and which labels are left in stock, then more accurately order modules for the spring and most importantly decide on plant label quantities for the whole of the next year. Without it expenditure and stock levels can get even more out of control than it already is. I'm leaving most of the plant stock-take to a small team to do over the next couple of days while we are away. A happy coincidence of timing.

Slightly distracted with my shortened week, too much to prepare before departing early tomorrow and too many other distractions. A long opticians appointment this morning relieved the credit card of most of its contents, although the news was overall good for 'someone of my age'. Am I supposed to be reassured by that or offended? Need some replacement reading glasses but that's not a worry, I never manage to find much time for reading anything other than a computer screen anyway. Did a bit of last minute online holiday purchasing, getting a couple of new shirts in the sale. Picked the 'long' fitting hoping to avoid untucking while dancing, this turned out to be a mistake. Everything was perfect except the sleeves were much wider where they fitted to the body. Fine while your arms were down but when lifted the whole body of the shirt lifts like stage curtain revealing a heap of stuff best left under wraps. They've gone back and I'm left with a rather ragged collection of old favourites, but that does mean comfort will rule on this short break.

Wooden box collecting has started

We are already well underway collecting up our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually. We try to put together a good number of collections on each trip as it is always painful sending out the van without any paying cargo, but each tray does cost £10 to replace so it does pay for us to make the effort.

Availability list.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured. Helleborus orientalis varieties. Christmas Carol is showing some bud already. Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Just a few White left but still looking great. The follow up Cyclamen coum is coming on quickly. A winter and spring flowering form there can't be far from flowering now, the plant frame is there, just waiting for the colour to appear..

Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new batch of Verbena bonariensis (fairly short), now in bud. The Salvia Lip's series and Salvito's are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back.

The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are now showing bud and open flower. A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries. 

Hairy UV glow

Hi.

Bit of a nip in the air these past few mornings, just reminding us that time is slipping by again and time is running out to get any growing done before the days get really short. Luckily some plants like the later potted Erysimum's and Aubrietia just keep growing no matter what happens to the day length and temperature.

I'm having to do a last minute shop around where we have run out of some vital nursery supplies. We didn't have quite enough peat-free bulb compost to get all 30,000 pots spring bulbs done, so a rush order has gone in for several bulk bags , and we also ran out of our plastic lattice production handling trays, before all the bulb potting is even started. This one caught me out a bit because we had enough last year, but this year we did have to filter out a load of broken ones which had reached their 'use by' date and had started dropping the pots where some plastic bars had given up. I don't know what the world is coming to they are only twenty five years old and already falling apart. The next lot might see me to retirement with luck.

It always seems to work out this way, just as sales and income slow up I have to make some huge purchases just to get us prepared for the start of the next season. Cash-flow control goes out of the window. The trays and compost are just the start, we have another container of 160,000 pots due in on Tuesday, at ten times the price of plastic pots, I have multiple pallets of the pot mulch we put on the pots overwinter, and 12 pallets of recycled wool capillary matting.

The capillary matting is new marketing upgrade for 2026, which we need to prepare overwinter in readiness to line the bottom of our wooden trays in 2026. This should help keep the pots wetter for longer especially in the increasingly warm spells of weather we seem to be getting. We have trialled a few of these over the last year or two and it definitely helps, and now it's time to bite the bullet and get them inserted into all trays. This means someone will be spending the winter here cutting up the matting into over 12,000 appropriate sized pieces, what fun. Of course I had to buy a new toy to help in this task, it's like a rotating pizza cutter disc and it slices through the matting like a knife through butter. It does have guards on it so should be pretty safe but we are going to have to call a finger register at the beginning and end of each day. Having just spent such a lot on this matting I was dismayed to hear I had wasted my time and money after Mr Trump informed me that Climate Change was a big con. Thank goodness we have these powerful and wise people to guide us through life.

Sorry I'm a bit early this week but I'm away tomorrow for family stuff and won't be back until later on Friday, and please expect another early one next week as Caroline and I are leaving Greg in charge as we swan off for a couple of days away, which we are really, really looking forward to. Hoping the Cornish seas are calm as we travel to the Scilly Isles for, walking, good food, great music and possibly the odd tipple. Relatively normal or even better service will continue in our absence so don't hold back in getting in touch.

Great jive session on Monday, it was a UV glow night, so anything white or neon coloured was the vibe. I'm very short on that type of kit but managed a white tie and laces which looked minimalist and cool, well in my eyes anyway. There is a tendency for white underwear to make an appearance under this lighting but I couldn't even supply that, only Caroline has that sort of thing in our house and I find it a bit snug fitting as dancewear.

Wooden box collecting has started

We are already well underway collecting up our reusable wooden boxes ready for cleaning, drying and repair if needed, before they go into winter storage. If you have any ready to go just drop us a line and we will pick them up when next in your area. It may take a week or two to get round but we will get there eventually. We try to put together a good number of collections on each trip as it is always painful sending out the van without any paying cargo, but each tray does cost £10 to replace so it does pay for us to make the effort.

Availability list.

Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Rose and White looking at their best. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new short bushy batch of Verbena bon. Lollipop and bonariensis (fairly short), now in bud.

The Salvia Lip's series and Salvito's are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back. The Aster Alpha series are showing tight bud but close to selling out some colours, The more standard classic varieties of

Aster varieties are also showing nice tight bud with the odd opening flower as well. A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured Helleborus orientalis varieties.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Autumn

Happy autumn to all. Certainly a change over the last few weeks from the blistering heat to more autumnal wind and damp.

Quite a relief and certainly better for good plant growth and getting a fork or trowel into the ground again. Slight worry that sales have taken such a sudden dip in the last couple of weeks, but it does seem to be happening earlier and earlier each year as some consumers turn away from the garden just as it comes into traditionally the best planting time. Unfortunately there is no amount of autumn promotion that seems to be able to change that feeling. The autumn is when things die back look a bit knackered and the spring is when all things burst into all that promising growth. Seems a shame to miss out on all that warmth and growth potential in the soil, but it is what it is.

It's all change on the nursery as the seasons move on, with the last of the main potting completed this week, just the late Erysimum batches to pot and the spring bulbs too.

My long summer campaign to renew and re-furb the irrigation spray-lines is very close to completion with just 2 tunnels to do, hoping to get that all done either this weekend or early next week. I could do with a break from it all as my right hand thumb has suffered a repetitive strain injury where I grip the pie-cutting tool and when I push in the rubber inserts into the very tight drill holes to hold the down pipes. I have a new jerky click in my thumb joint, just hoping it isn't old person arthritis coming on. and that a change of job, some more pills and a big dose of ignoring it will make it go away.

We have our annual 'end of potting season' trip to the local recycling centre on Friday to clear our massive collection of card boxes which our coir pots are packed in, together with the last of the plastic tubs that we grew our micro-propagated crops in. It takes two trips in our 7.5t lorry to clear it all but it creates lots of space in the barn which is very satisfying. This will be the last trip to include the lab plastic tubs, as production in the lab has now come to a halt. This week saw the second batch of lab and growth room equipment leave the site to find new homes on a couple of other nurseries who are have a play with their own small labs. We still have another couple of batches to pack and dispatch over the next few weeks, but it really hits home that this is the end of an era when I start to dismantle the shelves and LED lighting system in the growth-room and see the empty spaces.

I had a couple of timely distractions this week, one day spent at a workshop on 'carbon reporting in horticulture' and another showing a group from one of our favourite National Trust sites around the nursery. Unfortunately for our visitors I probably had a too much time on my hands and they got the full on ramble on all things hairy and sustainable, We did the full nursery tour, history of the site, demonstrations of automated seed sowing (couldn't get the machine started!), potting machine. wooden box printing and construction, label making, micro-prop tour, solar panel operations it was all there. I think I suggested originally it would take and hour and a half but two and a half hours later I had to stop myself before they passed out through a lack of lunch!

Far less exciting was the carbon workshop. After a couple of winters struggling with trying to obtain a sensible carbon report to try to help us get to Net Zero at some point, I thought they might have an answer. The main stumbling block is calculating what are called the Scope 3 carbon emissions, they cover all the carbon produced by the things you buy into the business from materials to services. Currently most carbon calculators use very generalised figures which for horticulture create very inaccurate results, and I was hoping to see a change, but the workshop illustrated clearly that we are still in the same position. so we were told don't worry about it just monitor your direct carbon use instead, which is where we were in 2009 when we first started looking at this!

Availability list.

Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Rose and White looking at their best. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new short bushy batch of Verbena bon. Lollipop and bonariensis (quite short), now in bud.

The Salvia Lip's series and Salvito's are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back. The Aster Alpha series are showing tight bud but close to selling out some colours, The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are also showing nice tight bud with the odd opening flower as well.

Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are running out, just the white variety left with lots of bud. I only have this one left as I forgot to add it to the list a few weeks ago so sales are lagging slightly behind the others! A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured Helleborus orientalis varieties.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy break

 

Hi.

Sorry no news to report on this week, I like to keep things informative, realistic and personal as that's how I roll, but

sometimes that proves difficult to achieve when the real world kicks in. The world is kicking hard at the moment and I'm unable to blag it this time. Hoping to feel brighter next week when I can update some of the stuff going on down here.

Take care out there.

Availability list.

Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Rose and White looking at their best. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new short bushy batch of Verbena bon. Lollipop and bonariensis (quite short), now in bud.

Compact and neat Achillea Milly Rock varieties coming into bud again for a quick splash before the weather turns.

The Salvia Lip's series and Salvito's are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back.

The Aster Alpha series are showing tight bud but close to selling out some colours, The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are also showing nice tight bud with the odd opening flower as well.

Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are running out, just the white variety left with lots of bud. I only have this one left as I forgot to add it to the list a few weeks ago so sales are lagging slightly behind the others!.

A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing. Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured

Helleborus orientalis varieties. Scabiosa Blue Butterflies has shot away after a late potting and is now in bud with some colour. 

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy and brief

Hi.

Hope everyone is ok out there? There is a lot going on this week so I am unable to complete the usual update so apologies for that. Hopefully the punters will still be keen to get in the garden and do some autumn planting to keep those tills ringing, do they do that anymore? I don't get out much.

Hoping to be back on line next week, meanwhile take care and enjoy the cooler weather and damp soils!

Availability list.

Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium is showing great colour. Rose and White looking at their best. Liriope muscari is now showing plenty of flowers so summer must be passing quick. Best we have ever had. Two tone foliage of Tiarella Pink Skyrocket looks very smart, buds are just beginning to show themselves. Lovely new short bushy batch of Verbena bon. Lollipop now in bud.

Compact and neat Achillea Milly Rock varieties coming into bud again for a quick splash before the weather turns.The Salvia Lip's series and Salvito's are still going strong, we keep giving batches a trim to strengthen them up and keep them from getting too tall and they just keep bouncing back.

The Aster Alpha series are showing tight bud but close to selling out some colours, The more standard classic varieties of Aster varieties are also showing nice tight bud with the odd opening flower as well.

Mini Garden Chrysanthemums are here, masses of bud on the first batch already with a hint of colour too. A fab range of the compact Helenium Hay Day series are budding well now, with colour showing.

Get ready for late winter flowers by planting our Helleborus range now. Just added a whole heap of different coloured Helleborus orientalis varieties.

Take care, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.