Morning all,
A good week past for getting things done. Feeling quite virtuous after taking on a few of those odd jobs that have been waiting for months to get done. We have only a few weeks before the next season kicks off again and it always catches me out as to how quickly that time arrives. By the time Christmas has interrupted the proceedings a lot of well meaning plans get pushed on another year as the plant preparation demands increase as the season rushes ever closer. Despite the windy feel to the week we actually found a couple of windows in the weather to get the three most heavily lacerated tunnel sheets off and replaced. The old covers are folded up on a pallet in the barn all ready to take to our recycling man just down the road in Romsey and the new covers on nice and securely. We might have to re-tension them a bit in the summer when it warms up to keep them taught, they last much longer if stretched well over the hoops.
We are well on the way to completing repairs to our collection of damaged wooden display boxes, which is great, we had accumulated several pallets of them over the last year or two, never quite finding the time to get them all done. I have now sourced the narrow replacement timber slats to repair the inner lattices too so not long before that big job is done and we are back to full box capacity ready for all those mega spring sales.
A rehash of the outdoor lighting has brightened up the end of the day activities, no more stumbling about in the dark trying to find our way back to base. The old PIR spotlights had past their sell-by date a while ago with most no longer doing their thing and to mount and plug in some far more efficient LED replacements was a joy. I did a bit of research on the lights and ended up at Screwfix who were supplying several makes but I plumped for a LAP range which seemed to have good reviews. With differing areas to light I went for a 10W, a couple of 20W and a 30W. They are all just right for what we were after, not really good enough for working under for long but perfect for seeing where you are going. The 10W is tiny but does a great job for lighting the area we were after, it keeps it safe and uses only a tiny bit of electric. Also got the electricians in to quote for fitting some LED replacement strip-lights I bought for the lab work cabinets and the office. They are nice and bright, great for the close up intricate work we do in the lab but without the irritating flicker of the old fluorescent tubes and reduce electric use by about 65%. The old lights desperately needed replacing anyway so not feeling too guilty about recycling those. I located an insulated tea urn too to replace our limping old one. Less heat loss and quicker heating should pay for itself within 18 months.
Need to find some hope in humanity after Paris, check out this touching moment featured in episode 5 of Russell Howard's TV show. Go to the last item which starts 26 mins and 10 seconds in. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06q9zv3/russell-howards-good-news-series-10-episode-5
In the words of the infamous John Otway song ‘Beware of the Flowers (because I’m sure they’re going to get you, Yeah)’
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter.
As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 30 November 2015
Monday, 23 November 2015
Home and Hairy
Morning all,
It’s been a while since my last splurge of news simply because Caroline and I have been on our annual break to sunny St Ives. The world seems to have been in turmoil in the past few weeks which casts a menacing shadow over a lot of stuff, but we press on, what else can we do?
The unseasonably warm weather has kept plants growing longer than usual, we have a few spring crops trying to flower already which is a bit of a worry but a good cold snap over the weekend should slow that up a bit and also knock back those pests that are still active. The recent winds have taken off a couple of tunnel covers which was to be expected at some point really. We still have 9 covers to replace so in reality we could have lost more but we are still waiting for a quiet spell to get them done. We have a few empty tunnels so we can shuffle any over exposed crops around to keep them happy, a good job to keep us warm and it gives us a chance to tidy them up ready for the spring. Every cloud and all that. St Ives in November lived up to expectations yet again, we’ve been going there a bonkers number of years and already looking forward to next year! Nothing sad about us! Found yet more great places to maintain nutrient levels and extended the lunch stops to very relaxed levels. There was a time when we walked well over ten miles a day with just a warm pasty and sip of water to keep us going but as the years slip by and we carefully select older walking partners the midday recovery break has stretched to 2-3 hours with a little more than a pasty snack to keep up the strength. That’s more like a holiday! Now I know the expectation from a holiday these days is somewhat higher than the old times but how about this for a big day; Short drive to Marazion for a beach and cliff top walk to Perranuthnoe and a fantastic very long lunch at The Victoria pub (reported in The Times a few weeks ago as possibly the best pub food in the UK), walking back we spot a Hudsonian Whimbrel (only the 12th seen in the UK since 1950), it had been in the area for a week or so but we spotted it on a remote bit of beach with no pointers other than the larger Curlew that was chasing it. It landed a little away from us then moved twice getting closer each time showing off all its identifying features, a great spot and six of us to witness it. Then Brian picks up a flint tool from a ploughed field next to the path and identifies it as a likely Paeliolithic (early) stone age by the way in which flint has been prepared and struck. It turns out when we got back that this could be only the 31st Paeliolithic tool found in Cornwall (book was a bit old) so it’s location was accurately recorded and it’s on its way to the Truro Museum. A fabulous murmuration of starlings over Marazion Marsh topped off the day, one to remember.
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter. As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous and classic display of cyclamen.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
It’s been a while since my last splurge of news simply because Caroline and I have been on our annual break to sunny St Ives. The world seems to have been in turmoil in the past few weeks which casts a menacing shadow over a lot of stuff, but we press on, what else can we do?
The unseasonably warm weather has kept plants growing longer than usual, we have a few spring crops trying to flower already which is a bit of a worry but a good cold snap over the weekend should slow that up a bit and also knock back those pests that are still active. The recent winds have taken off a couple of tunnel covers which was to be expected at some point really. We still have 9 covers to replace so in reality we could have lost more but we are still waiting for a quiet spell to get them done. We have a few empty tunnels so we can shuffle any over exposed crops around to keep them happy, a good job to keep us warm and it gives us a chance to tidy them up ready for the spring. Every cloud and all that. St Ives in November lived up to expectations yet again, we’ve been going there a bonkers number of years and already looking forward to next year! Nothing sad about us! Found yet more great places to maintain nutrient levels and extended the lunch stops to very relaxed levels. There was a time when we walked well over ten miles a day with just a warm pasty and sip of water to keep us going but as the years slip by and we carefully select older walking partners the midday recovery break has stretched to 2-3 hours with a little more than a pasty snack to keep up the strength. That’s more like a holiday! Now I know the expectation from a holiday these days is somewhat higher than the old times but how about this for a big day; Short drive to Marazion for a beach and cliff top walk to Perranuthnoe and a fantastic very long lunch at The Victoria pub (reported in The Times a few weeks ago as possibly the best pub food in the UK), walking back we spot a Hudsonian Whimbrel (only the 12th seen in the UK since 1950), it had been in the area for a week or so but we spotted it on a remote bit of beach with no pointers other than the larger Curlew that was chasing it. It landed a little away from us then moved twice getting closer each time showing off all its identifying features, a great spot and six of us to witness it. Then Brian picks up a flint tool from a ploughed field next to the path and identifies it as a likely Paeliolithic (early) stone age by the way in which flint has been prepared and struck. It turns out when we got back that this could be only the 31st Paeliolithic tool found in Cornwall (book was a bit old) so it’s location was accurately recorded and it’s on its way to the Truro Museum. A fabulous murmuration of starlings over Marazion Marsh topped off the day, one to remember.
Minimum delivery reduction for the winter. As the winter approaches our range falls away with the many deciduous varieties withdrawing into the relative warmth of the compost, but we still have a few evergreen hardy sorts doing their thing. I know it can be tricky putting together a minimum order of a full trolley (21 trays) at this time of year so if you fancy a few trays but can’t get to 21 we are happy to reduce the minimum to 12 trays for local drops and 15 trays for a bit further afield. Drop us a line and we will try and put together a few orders to make it work for everyone.
Availability highlights
Dainty flowered but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three separate colours and now the silvered leaved form too, They should flower from now until April. You don’t get the face full of flower of the pot plant types but a continuous classy steady show of hardy blooms.
The slightly showier hardy Cyclamen hederifolium types are also now in bloom. Bolder colours and more floriferous and classic display of cyclamen.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing some buds and very occasional open flower.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 26 October 2015
Hairy Tuesday
Morning all,
Considering how quiet it usually is at this time of year I can’t believe how little time there seems to be. Had a frenetic day on Tuesday with Caroline off on a two day refresher first aid course I was left to warm the chair in the office and catch up on some of my office back log. We had few orders to sort out despatching by a combination parcel carrier, trolley carrier and our own van which added a bit of nice momentum to the day but it was all the little additions that made for the extra challenge. The laminar air flow cabinet servicing engineer was due, never quite sure of the timing but he was here fairly early which meant finding some nursery tasks for a few hours for all the lab staff, and it was a new engineer so had to get him sorted on where to go and what to do. At about the same time the engineers to carry out the annual service on the turbines pitched up, apologizing for the lack of notice of their arrival but had managed to squeeze in our scheduled work between a couple of other projects. Luckily it was the same crew as last time so they knew where everything was and got on with things without too much help from us. A nice big collection of plants for a landscape job had been put to one side and you can guess what day they decided to collect that at an hour’s notice. Managed that nicely, loaded onto trolleys after a few quantity readjustments for some order alterations and a quick tidy up. Have to be careful here not to admit missing Caroline’s steadying hand at the helm.
Just to add a bit of spice to the day I was also called up by the MET police about our attempted internet banking heist last week. I went through all the events as I remembered them and it seems they know the culprit or at least know of him/them. We had enough detail for them to recognize his specific ‘M.O.’ which was encouraging although I doubt we really had much in the way of tangible evidence that could be used in a conviction. Still at least it looks like they are on his trail. The bank have also been following up ours and other attacks, by sending round a general reminder of what to look out for in these types of call. The main messages were that there are some bits of bank info they would never ask you to change to specific words or letters given to you by a caller to your business and also that if a caller id appears on your phone display appearing to be from the bank don’t believe it (you can get an app to do that!). Take care.
Good luck to nephew Tom today, he is running his first marathon today (Bristol to Bath), should about half way round at the moment and hopefully his disrupted training will not slow him up too much, he does have plenty of youth on his side. My sporting efforts continue unrewarded, yet another hockey thrashing yesterday 6-3, might be nearly time to retire. Luckily it’s the taking part that counts, just ask Tom's sister Emily, playing Lacrosse in Newcastle her team have never won a game (that’s about two seasons now) but the tea’s are great apparently. Then with Mum still playing hockey too it might be a bit of a letdown to retire at such a young age at just 21 years older than the youngest in the veterans team, that’s me not Mum.
Main woodstore now nearly full after another foraging trip last weekend, well seasoned but slightly damp I’m hoping we got it under cover in time to burn well through the winter. It’s all cut, split and stacked, just the nursery store to fill now with the rather quicker burning scrap wood we accumulate here, but it all adds up.
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing buds and the odd open flower.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is not much sign of flower bud just yet.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm
Considering how quiet it usually is at this time of year I can’t believe how little time there seems to be. Had a frenetic day on Tuesday with Caroline off on a two day refresher first aid course I was left to warm the chair in the office and catch up on some of my office back log. We had few orders to sort out despatching by a combination parcel carrier, trolley carrier and our own van which added a bit of nice momentum to the day but it was all the little additions that made for the extra challenge. The laminar air flow cabinet servicing engineer was due, never quite sure of the timing but he was here fairly early which meant finding some nursery tasks for a few hours for all the lab staff, and it was a new engineer so had to get him sorted on where to go and what to do. At about the same time the engineers to carry out the annual service on the turbines pitched up, apologizing for the lack of notice of their arrival but had managed to squeeze in our scheduled work between a couple of other projects. Luckily it was the same crew as last time so they knew where everything was and got on with things without too much help from us. A nice big collection of plants for a landscape job had been put to one side and you can guess what day they decided to collect that at an hour’s notice. Managed that nicely, loaded onto trolleys after a few quantity readjustments for some order alterations and a quick tidy up. Have to be careful here not to admit missing Caroline’s steadying hand at the helm.
Just to add a bit of spice to the day I was also called up by the MET police about our attempted internet banking heist last week. I went through all the events as I remembered them and it seems they know the culprit or at least know of him/them. We had enough detail for them to recognize his specific ‘M.O.’ which was encouraging although I doubt we really had much in the way of tangible evidence that could be used in a conviction. Still at least it looks like they are on his trail. The bank have also been following up ours and other attacks, by sending round a general reminder of what to look out for in these types of call. The main messages were that there are some bits of bank info they would never ask you to change to specific words or letters given to you by a caller to your business and also that if a caller id appears on your phone display appearing to be from the bank don’t believe it (you can get an app to do that!). Take care.
Good luck to nephew Tom today, he is running his first marathon today (Bristol to Bath), should about half way round at the moment and hopefully his disrupted training will not slow him up too much, he does have plenty of youth on his side. My sporting efforts continue unrewarded, yet another hockey thrashing yesterday 6-3, might be nearly time to retire. Luckily it’s the taking part that counts, just ask Tom's sister Emily, playing Lacrosse in Newcastle her team have never won a game (that’s about two seasons now) but the tea’s are great apparently. Then with Mum still playing hockey too it might be a bit of a letdown to retire at such a young age at just 21 years older than the youngest in the veterans team, that’s me not Mum.
Main woodstore now nearly full after another foraging trip last weekend, well seasoned but slightly damp I’m hoping we got it under cover in time to burn well through the winter. It’s all cut, split and stacked, just the nursery store to fill now with the rather quicker burning scrap wood we accumulate here, but it all adds up.
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose and its slightly earlier flowering cousin H niger Praecox are already producing buds and the odd open flower.Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.We have some nice looking Heuchera too in a range of foliage colours.Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is not much sign of flower bud just yet.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm
Monday, 19 October 2015
Stout and Hairy
Morning all,
A hectic couple of weeks punctuated by a weekend away which although tricky to organise was well worth the effort. We have all but finished the spring bulb potting, just the last few tulips to slip in a pot and we are done. Then we can start the big winter tidy up and get those over ventilated tunnels re-clad. Unfortunately the weather has been against us on the cladding front, we had been looking at the high pressure forecast on the TV weather and hoping for some quiet sunny days but that nagging easterly wind has kept blowing making the unrolling of a big plastic sheet unrealistic. It’s not even been enough wind to rack up huge numbers on the turbines which makes it doubly frustrating (steady but no records). Now the temperatures will be falling and winds likely to pick up so we will have to take our chances when we can and put up with slightly looser covers next summer.
No news update last weekend as we were living it up on Tresco for a couple of days. 4 pub gigs in three days, 2 exciting plane rides, boat trips, guided tour of the amazing gardens, prehistoric chambered tombs, lots of bird spotting including our first ever sighting of an Osprey (on its migration) and some delicious sustenance. This was our second visit and I think we are getting the hang of it. There is just such a lovely relaxed atmosphere, it’s quiet, little traffic and so well organised. It took less than an hour to get on the plane at Lands End, fly there, get a transfer to the harbour, get on a jet boat to Tresco, transfer to the pub and be sitting in the room with all our kit. It may not be the youngest or hippest holiday venue but they still know how to have a good time, every evening gig was a seething mass of very happy revellers with a few entertained onlookers. Easy to get carried away with the good times, an evening’s testing of the local Oyster Stout (Rebel Brewery) had me swearing I’ll never drink again, in the middle of the night, but luckily I was cured by breakfast.
Just a quick word of warning on the growing banking scams knocking about. We had an attempted attack on Friday afternoon, but not a general internet scam this was a targeted phone attack on us. They had researched us, knew where we were, who one of our customers was (an old one luckily which started the alarm bells ringing) and some account details. The line was that they were from the internet side of our bank and had noticed suspicious activity on the account, they listed the info they had, enough to make them quite believable and enough to introduce some urgency into what to do next, which gets you nicely flustered and more likely to make a mistake. They firstly talked through the internet address we used to log onto the account and spun a quite plausible story about the address being altered by some sort of malware attack, and they needed us to go into the account and change some settings. Luckily we are a pretty suspicious lot and a few bits weren’t quite right, no caller id on the phone call (although this can’t be trusted anyway as they can us an app to give their phone the id number of the support centre), the caller spoke very quickly and wasn’t as helpful or calm as previous contacts we have had with the help centre and the things we were asked to do were just not quite right. Anyway we got rid of him and once sure that the line had been cleared we called our local office who helped us check everything out, putting us through to report the incident to their fraud department. Trouble is there is so little evidence they can pick up to track down the culprits. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a good test of trust might have been to ask the caller to hang on while you start up the record facility on the phone system, and see if that puts them off. Anyway, take care out there. Trust no-one, except me or course!
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose, is already producing buds and the odd open flower. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.
Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is little sign of bud just yet.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
A hectic couple of weeks punctuated by a weekend away which although tricky to organise was well worth the effort. We have all but finished the spring bulb potting, just the last few tulips to slip in a pot and we are done. Then we can start the big winter tidy up and get those over ventilated tunnels re-clad. Unfortunately the weather has been against us on the cladding front, we had been looking at the high pressure forecast on the TV weather and hoping for some quiet sunny days but that nagging easterly wind has kept blowing making the unrolling of a big plastic sheet unrealistic. It’s not even been enough wind to rack up huge numbers on the turbines which makes it doubly frustrating (steady but no records). Now the temperatures will be falling and winds likely to pick up so we will have to take our chances when we can and put up with slightly looser covers next summer.
No news update last weekend as we were living it up on Tresco for a couple of days. 4 pub gigs in three days, 2 exciting plane rides, boat trips, guided tour of the amazing gardens, prehistoric chambered tombs, lots of bird spotting including our first ever sighting of an Osprey (on its migration) and some delicious sustenance. This was our second visit and I think we are getting the hang of it. There is just such a lovely relaxed atmosphere, it’s quiet, little traffic and so well organised. It took less than an hour to get on the plane at Lands End, fly there, get a transfer to the harbour, get on a jet boat to Tresco, transfer to the pub and be sitting in the room with all our kit. It may not be the youngest or hippest holiday venue but they still know how to have a good time, every evening gig was a seething mass of very happy revellers with a few entertained onlookers. Easy to get carried away with the good times, an evening’s testing of the local Oyster Stout (Rebel Brewery) had me swearing I’ll never drink again, in the middle of the night, but luckily I was cured by breakfast.
Just a quick word of warning on the growing banking scams knocking about. We had an attempted attack on Friday afternoon, but not a general internet scam this was a targeted phone attack on us. They had researched us, knew where we were, who one of our customers was (an old one luckily which started the alarm bells ringing) and some account details. The line was that they were from the internet side of our bank and had noticed suspicious activity on the account, they listed the info they had, enough to make them quite believable and enough to introduce some urgency into what to do next, which gets you nicely flustered and more likely to make a mistake. They firstly talked through the internet address we used to log onto the account and spun a quite plausible story about the address being altered by some sort of malware attack, and they needed us to go into the account and change some settings. Luckily we are a pretty suspicious lot and a few bits weren’t quite right, no caller id on the phone call (although this can’t be trusted anyway as they can us an app to give their phone the id number of the support centre), the caller spoke very quickly and wasn’t as helpful or calm as previous contacts we have had with the help centre and the things we were asked to do were just not quite right. Anyway we got rid of him and once sure that the line had been cleared we called our local office who helped us check everything out, putting us through to report the incident to their fraud department. Trouble is there is so little evidence they can pick up to track down the culprits. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but a good test of trust might have been to ask the caller to hang on while you start up the record facility on the phone system, and see if that puts them off. Anyway, take care out there. Trust no-one, except me or course!
Availability highlights
The dainty but hardy Cyclamen coum are showing bud now in all three colours, they should flower from now until April. Aster Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display. H. Niger, the classic Christmas Rose, is already producing buds and the odd open flower. Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour.
Now available are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties, although there is little sign of bud just yet.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 5 October 2015
Hairy nut drop
Morning all,
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Hairy nut drop
Morning all,
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Fantastic autumnal mood at the moment, cool nights, misty mornings and sunshine slipping through the yellowing tree foliage. Looks more unsettled in the coming week but that’s ok, it is still right for the time of year. Autumn tasks are mounting up, a big tidy up of the wood stores to deter those pesky rats from setting up home this winter and keeping the fuel dry and neat at the same time. Yes, I love a nicely stacked pile, another level of reward on top of the oil saving and carbon neutral fuel source. It takes a bit of work to cut and stack it all, but a full and tidy wood store has a great feel good factor. Had a good start on the log cutting last weekend although only dented the target so far. Made really big strides this morning after a fortuitous conversation on Friday night when we were offered a huge stack of seasoned logs, just needed collecting, a bit of splitting and a final dry out. The van is now full and ready to unload, split and stack, I’ve got a lovely hickory shafted axe/splitter just perfct for that job, a great chance to wield my man tool and prepare for the winter. On top of all that, my nuts have dropped big time this week, a fantastic crop of cob nuts many of which are now in a crate drying off in the conservatory after a couple of hours on my hands and knees picking them out of the grass before the mice/squirrels/badgers or donkeys beat me to them. That should keep me entertained on those long winter evenings in front of the flickering log burner. That’s my basic hunter/gatherer instincts satisfied for another year, it does take must to keep me off the streets.
Potting on the nursery is just about done for another year, a couple of late potted crops to go which won’t get to us for a week or two. Getting stuck into a final tidy up of the last few tunnels of summer crops, then we can hit all those jobs we haven’t had time to do since last winter. We always have a long list of those but always seem to run out of time before the early spring sales get going and all thoughts turn back to potting and selling. One big job in the next week or so will be the tunnel recovering that ideally need to be completed while the temperatures are still warm enough. I thought we might get round to some of these last week after the weather forecast last weekend promised high pressure settled over the country for the whole week, but although it was a lovely week the wind was just too strong to unroll those huge sheets. We can get away with recovering in a very light breeze but if you get a stronger wind under a 150m x 11m sheet the power that sheet has to damage itself and anyone holding onto it is pretty impressive. You definitely don’t fight it and hold on, we’ve seen people lifted off their feet before now which is quite exciting. Live and learn! On a good day a team of four can cover at least a couple of tunnels, or more if the preparation is done before, but with nine currently sporting extra ventilation features we have quite a job on. There are a couple of regular lessons you pick up doing this particular task, after mastering when not to hold on to the sheet, one being that the wind speed may be non-existent when you start but the moment you unroll the sheet it will blow up to the point just short of giving up, and then, even if sheet looks really wrinkly after fixing, after a couple of days and nights of cooling and warming it will look fine. No worries.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers now opening. Larger and intense purple heads of Purple Dome are just opening on the new crop of summer potted plants.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer. Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen. A couple appear on the list this week and hopefully a few more in the next two weeks.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday, 28 September 2015
Hairy Gas
Morning all,
Another bright weekend, joyously autumnal feel to it, pretty nippy early on but the sun makes up for that.
We had a great week ploughing through the last batch of potting compost and getting several tunnels cleared of the end of season debris. I am hoping for another good splurge on the potting this week keeping back just enough compost to pot the spring flowering bulbs and last Erysimum batches both due in over the next couple of weeks. Might be a bit tougher this week I reckon we are 7 people down on Monday compared to last week, a combination of holidays and the last of the uni students getting back to their ‘studies’.
Great game of rugby last night, very entertaining, certainly more competitive than our 9-2 defeat on the hockey pitch. Our first competitive game was doomed from the start. Away against one of the best teams in our league, only 10 men to start with, down to 9 within 2 minutes with an injury, he limped back on later, just before another one went off after being hit on the eyebrow defending a shot on goal. In the end we did pretty well keeping it to 9, I did my bit saving at least three off the line. Main bonus was getting off still upright, stiff today and resolved to get fitter for next time. Like that is going to happen! Had a very productive box collecting session over the last couple of weeks so thanks for putting those all together. We are well underway repairing and drying them all out ready for the winter. If anyone still has any boxes to collect please do drop us a line, we lose Phil our driver after this week for a while so it might take a little while to get to you but we can add you on the list.
Bought our first mince pies yesterday, just for a laugh. Shocking really how much retail commitment there is towards that one day. Still need to get the log cutting started. Used up a few of last year’s this week as it got a bit cool in the house, just took the edge off nicely and sent me to sleep. Hopefully all that house insulation and the wood-burner we put in will pay dividends again this winter and we can keep the central heating off again, bar a few of the coldest days.
Disappointing VW revelations this week, once again big business lets us all down and it turns out we diesel drivers are polluting more than we were told, all in the name of making a fast buck. It makes a mockery of anyone trying to do the right thing, why bother if no one else cares. Maybe because more and more do care. Let’s hope so. There wasn’t much sign of balanced discussion at Sparsholt college last week where they put on an open evening to show their plans for a green gas plant. Basically a modest bio-digester producing gas from fermenting grass to pump straight into the mains gas pipe. A relatively simple scheme, well hidden on the edge of the campus using grass and rye grown as part of a cereal crop rotation and supplied from local farms. The main impact would be the extra tractor journeys to bring the crop into the site of a maximum of 21 tractor return trips a day during the 5 month harvesting period. It would not only produce almost carbon neutral gas but be used as part of the development of renewable energy training and education courses for the engineers of the future. No extra traffic in the village and virtually no impact, but to stand in the middle of the room and listen you would think they had announced the building of a nuclear waste dump. All the queries of the local parish council were nicely answered on a sheet of A4 but any thought of reasoned discussion seemed to pass the majority of the visitors by. Come on boys and girls let’s put some thought into the legacy we are leaving the following generations and make a bit of a difference by promoting and changing to a better way. Our postcode is one of the highest carbon producing in the land and it shows little sign of wanting to change. Come on we can’t do it alone.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Another bright weekend, joyously autumnal feel to it, pretty nippy early on but the sun makes up for that.
We had a great week ploughing through the last batch of potting compost and getting several tunnels cleared of the end of season debris. I am hoping for another good splurge on the potting this week keeping back just enough compost to pot the spring flowering bulbs and last Erysimum batches both due in over the next couple of weeks. Might be a bit tougher this week I reckon we are 7 people down on Monday compared to last week, a combination of holidays and the last of the uni students getting back to their ‘studies’.
Great game of rugby last night, very entertaining, certainly more competitive than our 9-2 defeat on the hockey pitch. Our first competitive game was doomed from the start. Away against one of the best teams in our league, only 10 men to start with, down to 9 within 2 minutes with an injury, he limped back on later, just before another one went off after being hit on the eyebrow defending a shot on goal. In the end we did pretty well keeping it to 9, I did my bit saving at least three off the line. Main bonus was getting off still upright, stiff today and resolved to get fitter for next time. Like that is going to happen! Had a very productive box collecting session over the last couple of weeks so thanks for putting those all together. We are well underway repairing and drying them all out ready for the winter. If anyone still has any boxes to collect please do drop us a line, we lose Phil our driver after this week for a while so it might take a little while to get to you but we can add you on the list.
Bought our first mince pies yesterday, just for a laugh. Shocking really how much retail commitment there is towards that one day. Still need to get the log cutting started. Used up a few of last year’s this week as it got a bit cool in the house, just took the edge off nicely and sent me to sleep. Hopefully all that house insulation and the wood-burner we put in will pay dividends again this winter and we can keep the central heating off again, bar a few of the coldest days.
Disappointing VW revelations this week, once again big business lets us all down and it turns out we diesel drivers are polluting more than we were told, all in the name of making a fast buck. It makes a mockery of anyone trying to do the right thing, why bother if no one else cares. Maybe because more and more do care. Let’s hope so. There wasn’t much sign of balanced discussion at Sparsholt college last week where they put on an open evening to show their plans for a green gas plant. Basically a modest bio-digester producing gas from fermenting grass to pump straight into the mains gas pipe. A relatively simple scheme, well hidden on the edge of the campus using grass and rye grown as part of a cereal crop rotation and supplied from local farms. The main impact would be the extra tractor journeys to bring the crop into the site of a maximum of 21 tractor return trips a day during the 5 month harvesting period. It would not only produce almost carbon neutral gas but be used as part of the development of renewable energy training and education courses for the engineers of the future. No extra traffic in the village and virtually no impact, but to stand in the middle of the room and listen you would think they had announced the building of a nuclear waste dump. All the queries of the local parish council were nicely answered on a sheet of A4 but any thought of reasoned discussion seemed to pass the majority of the visitors by. Come on boys and girls let’s put some thought into the legacy we are leaving the following generations and make a bit of a difference by promoting and changing to a better way. Our postcode is one of the highest carbon producing in the land and it shows little sign of wanting to change. Come on we can’t do it alone.
Availability highlights
The ever popular dwarf violet/red Aster Jenny looks very neat now with the odd bud showing colour. Starlight is slightly more purple in tone but a really strong bright colour and neat habit. Lady in Blue budding nicely, nice and short with very pretty pale blue flowers about to do their thing.
A few more Anemones coming back on the list again as we catch up again after a very busy summer.
Helleborus are coming back on stream now as they gather their strength for their great winter display.
Absolutely stonking Ajugas in different foliage colours and forms. Fantastic ground cover and bursting with vigour. Just around the corner are the late flowering Hesperantha (Schizostylus) in a range of 4 varieties and autumn/winter flowering hardy Cyclamen.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)