Hairy Availability

Morning all,

A much steadier and controlled week with the cooler weather. There was a definite dip in sales which is a relief sometimes, if not a little worrying at the end of the week when the adding up isn't quite so exciting. But the previous week was another record and little else got done, so it will all balance out in the end. This week we made a nice dent in all those plants that arrived the week before, with three days solid potting with only a shortage of prepared tunnel space and compost stopping us running the Saturday potting crew for the first time for months. A well earned break for those regulars who manned the pumps for most of those Saturdays and I'm sure we will be back to it next weekend, assuming the compost arrives in time. The forecast looks promising tomorrow morning for me to finish the spot spraying of the last of the weed outbreaks around a few of our tunnel sites where the weed mats/mulches were not quite finished during the winter projects. The fact that this is my first weed tidy up indicates that the ground mulching effort put in during the winter has paid off, I usually would have spent several early mornings spraying by now.

The slowing of sales and a flurry of box returns has alleviated the wooden box shortage for a day or two, which means we can pause the box construction and concentrate on the plants 100% again which is just as well with the amount there is to do out there. Having a few extra staff this spring is helping catch up on the chores when we get a pause in despatch, which is great for reducing the pressure created by the usual summer production demands. It is easy to slip into panic mode when the jobs and young plants pile up and the days start to shorten, I know the summer is all too brief and before you know it plant growth slows and you run out of time to get it all done. I'm ever hopeful we will find more time this summer to get things done in a timely manner and not miss out on any plant flowering opportunities,

Very exciting day last Saturday with the purchase of new waterproof work shoes after the previous days drenching in the rain.. Out into the real world for half an hour, purchase made and back to the nursery to try them out. What a relief, the threat of trench foot recedes and despite my best efforts to retain them the old ones disappear into the bin.

Availability list highlights

Loads of plants ready to go and more bud and flower than you could shake a stick at! So please check out the attached list. Lavender Spear Blue, very bushy with loads of bud and the odd flash of colour, just perfect for those smelly lavender sales. New hardy Gerbera range in 5 lovely colours, just fab, real impulse plants and flower for ages. Limited numbers this year. Dainty Lewisia Elise in flower already. Flowers all summer in a range of pastel colours.

Two Oxalis varieties up and flowering, Iron Cross with two tone leaves and red/pink flowers, triangularis with deep purple foliage and contrasting pretty pale pink flowers. Both impressive. All the Hemerocallis varieties are producing flower stems and bud, no colour yet, perfect to go now with loads of promise.

Osteospermum Tresco Purple has been selling like hot cakes. We have several batches potted and bud is well on show. A late potted batch of Gallery range Lupins are showing great chunky growth and are producing flower bud. Not many in stock so don't hang about on these. Lovely crop of Catananche with flower stems extending and tight bud showing. Papery blue flowers to come soon. Most of the Lobelia's are coming into bud, no colour yet but attractive foliage to back up the buds.

Lots of bud and some colour on our ranges of compact Leaucanthemums, Salvia nemerosa and Coreopsis. Summer favourites the Gaura are all coming into bud, a nice range of colours and good bushy stock. Our Dianthus have been in bud a while now and the first flowers are now beginning to open. All varieties are well scented. The compact Campanula's are budding up now, about to show off their summer displays.

Our two forms of Erodium have lots of tiny open flowers dotted over the plant surface with plenty of bud to follow. Still loads of bud on the Scabious range, which flower for such a long time, although numbers are a bit tight. We are trialling a range of patio Verbena this summer which are showing loads of colour, great if you want to make a colourful impact in your plant display, but numbers are limited as this was only a trial.

Other colourful impact plants on trial this summer are compact Helianthus (very dwarf Sunflower!) and the Helichrysum Nevada range with its impressive display of papery flowers. There is plenty of stock overall but numbers of some lines may be still limited, so there could be one or two substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy Peach

Morning all,

Hope all is well and you didn't suffer too much in that heat wave. It certainly broke here today with heavy rain from dawn to dusk and much cooler temperatures. I would normally be much happier in this sort of weather if it hadn't been quite so wet. Thankfully the winter work we did on completing the tunnel side drains paid off, with very little flooding of beds although the tracks did get a little river like at times. However I'm going to have to do some work on my wardrobe as I was inadequately protected for the excess damp around me. The only waterproof kit I had on that worked was my over-trousers, so I got wet from the top down and the bottom up until in the end it all met in the middle. The holes in the soles of my trainers (last pair of usable shoes in the house that are not for 'best') acted as a pump injecting water quickly into socks and lower leg and the ex-waterproof coat with its specially designed 'blow off' hood that stays on for about 10 seconds or falls over half you face, deposited water in from the top end. Time to tough it out and head out for a trip to the shops I think.

Super busy week on sales again, another record for that week number. Also a record week for young plant stock coming in with about 15% of the entire years plants arriving in one go. A big part of that was our first import that we had to register on the government Peach web site. Caroline had done all the preparation over the winter, watched all the training videos etc, so it was all going to be so easy. 5 hours later we gave up we couldn't get past the first page, web help no good, help line unreachable, other growers who we called who had used it were most helpful, but still no positive result. In the end we just sent the info to our Plant Health Inspector, who was the one who needed to know the plants were coming and she sent round a new inspector within hours. It turned out the website had fallen down and wouldn't work, but no-one thought to put any notification out there. Good job we are not busy and had 5 hours to spare.

Wooden Box shortages

Same old story for this spring, we are still desperately short on our wooden display boxes, it is still very hand to mouth on whether we get through each day without running out, so any returns are gratefully received. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Loads of plants ready to go and more bud and flower than you could shake a stick at! So please do take a look at the attached list. With so much bud and colour sales should be flying with a bit of luck.    A few special highlights to note are;

Lavender Spear Blue, very bushy with loads of bud and the odd flash of colour, just perfect for those smelly lavender sales. New hardy Gerbera range in 5 lovely colours, just fab, real impulse plants and flower for ages. Limited numbers this year. Dainty Lewisia Elise in flower already. Flowers all summer in a range of pastel colours. Two Oxalis varieties up and flowering, Iron Cross with two tone leaves and red/pink flowers, triangularis with deep purple foliage and contrasting pretty pale pink flowers. Both impressive.

All the Hemerocallis varieties are producing flower stems and bud, no colour yet, perfect to go now with loads of promise. Osteospermum Tresco Purple has been selling like hot cakes. We have several batches potted and bud is well on show.

A late potted batch of Gallery range Lupins are showing great chunky growth and are producing flower bud. Not many in stock so don't hang about on these. Lovely crop of Catananche with flower stems extending and tight bud showing. Papery blue flowers to come soon. Lots of bud and some colour on our ranges of compact Leaucanthemums, Salvia nemerosa and Coreopsis. Summer favourites the Gaura are all coming into bud, a nice range of colours and good bushy stock.

Our Dianthus have been in bud a while now and the first flowers are now beginning to open. All varieties are well scented. The compact Campanula's are budding up now, about to show off their summer displays. Our two forms of Erodium have lots of tiny open flowers dotted over the plant surface with plenty of bud to follow. Still loads of bud on the Scabious range, which flower for such a long time, although numbers are a bit tight.

We are trialling a range of patio Verbena this summer which are showing loads of colour, great if you want to make a colourful impact in your plant display, but numbers are limited as this was only a trial. Other colourful impact plants on trial this summer are compact Helianthus (very dwarf Sunflower!) and the Helichrysum Nevada range with its impressive display of papery flowers.

There is plenty of stock overall but numbers of some lines may be still limited, so there could be one or two substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy mountains

Morning all,

Despite there being 5 days in the week again we struggled to get through the mountains of work. This is a time of year where it all seems to happen. Rapid growth, flowers appearing, weeds growing, potting needed, irrigation faltering, box shortages and masses of modules arriving for this year and next. We can turn from feeling vaguely under control to being completely lost. This week had some major distractions too, with three people early in the week having to construct boxes to try and keep the orders flowing out of the door. They should really have been doing something else more productive and the consequence is that other jobs later in the week got put on hold because we ran out of time. It doesn't help that we lost nearly 200 hrs work time this week with various absences and illnesses, it's not as if we are even a very big nursery. Oh the joys of running an idyllic rural business.

On the positive side we have recovered to much better stock levels of both the flowering plants and herbs, as I suspect have a lot of other nurseries. The warmer weather has encouraged the buds out and suddenly we can actually put together orders with a bit of colour in them, or at least potential colour if the buds are still early. It's a much nicer position to be in with so much choice, although I suspect the accountant would rather we kept to the lower stock levels and reduced the wastage that can occur with over stocking.

Hopefully the football won't be too much of a distraction for the gardening consumers and they continue to beat a way to your doors, we certainly need to keep the orders moving out over the next few weeks as I have been quite bold with the potting volumes! I'm slightly nervous about what will happen next, although we are still selling batches through really quickly which indicates I can't sensibly stop the potting.

Physically fell apart this week, started off breaking a tooth last Friday night on a crusty pizza, leaving a sharp bit of tooth sticking into my tongue whenever I talked, swallowed or chewed. I wasn't much fun to be around after that, it's surprising how much swallowing and chewing you do in a day, but luckily I got to the dentist on Thursday and he filed off. It will have to come out but not just yet, that'll be something else to look forward to. On Saturday I broke the bolt that holds the potting machine drill in position and had to drill it out. Managed that bit ok, but while using a screwdriver to remove the remaining thread left in the hole, the shaft turned in my hand and I impaled myself with some force right into the area between the forefinger and thumb. Luckily no-one was there to hear the response, but that ended my days work with that hand. Caroline came to sort me out and was a little relieved it wasn't a little more spectacular after my description over the walkie talkie. I was expertly treated with steristrips and plasters to hold it all together and all eventually healed up nicely. Greg finished off the repair, so that was a result and I was able to catch up on some paperwork and label printing. All's well that ends well and all that.

Time to stop and fall asleep in front of the football I think, although I suspect by the time I get in it will be just about all over. Never mind, England on Sunday so that'll be exciting. The build up always has so much potential, we could win it.

Wooden Box shortages

Same old story for this spring, we are still desperately short on our wooden display boxes, it is still very hand to mouth on whether we get through each day without running out, so any returns are gratefully received. We are really dependent on those returns to keep on coming. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Loads more stuff is ready now of both the perennials and herbs, so please do take a look at the attached list. There is quite a lot of bud appearing on quite a few lines so sales should be flying with a bit of luck. I have run out of time again tonight to go through much in detail but things are looking hot.

We have grown a few more tender patio and flowering pot plants this summer, not huge numbers, but a few very floriferous highlights. There are ranges of Diasica, Nemesia (including Wisley Vanilla which is just so brilliantly scented), Verbena, Helichrysum, dwarf Helianthus, Euryops & Bidens. Masses of bud or flower for months on end, but not generally hardy.

Numbers of some lines may be still limited so there could be a few substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy and hectic

Morning all,

Another quick one as it is starting to get dark and my tummy is rumbling. Early start for potting again in the morning, then another weekend of box printing and construction, plus a few herbs to sow. At least we should be without social disturbance this weekend after last week's birthday whirlwind. I'm not sure how we ever managed a social life before all this covid disruption, there just aren't enough hours in the week. At least there are a few weeks now without any bank holidays to get in the way of world domination, sorry, I mean nursery production.

Happily we had two returning crew members this week which helped get us through a very hectic and shortened week. They are only here for a few weeks but at this key time, it makes such a difference, especially when we are a few others short for various reasons. We also had a skeleton despatch team in on Monday which helped enormously in preparing a load of orders to get Tuesdays deliveries off to a flying start, so we are very grateful to them for giving up their day off.

The weather has at last turned warm and bright and the plants have responded with a leap forward in growth, so availability is now miles better with quite a few buds appearing too. Batches of plants will still be running out, such is the demand level at the moment, but we have plenty still coming on so there should still be a great selection. Now the issue comes back to the shortage of wooden boxes which is beginning to hamper despatch and trying to increase sales volumes so please do let us know if you have any spare. We are busy trying to put the new ones together and more parts should be arriving next week but it is a slow job and we have so much else to do. Putting them together as a winter job would be perfect, but trying to do it when there are so many other things we should be doing is very frustrating. Still, at least we are selling more plants overall, so it's a positive problem to have!

I was discussing earlier this week with a nursery friend about how tired we were both feeling at times at this hectic time and how easy it is to get a bit tetchy with others around you. We are both very lucky to have such understanding partners who end up taking the brunt of the fallout. However do forgive me if I am ever a bit short on the phone, it's probably just that Caroline wasn't here to absorb the impact of me forgetting to put my trousers on.

Wooden Box shortages

Same old story for this spring, we are still desperately short on our wooden display boxes, it is still hand to mouth on whether we get through each day without running out, so any returns are gratefully received. We are really dependant on those returns to keep on coming. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Lots more stuff is ready now of both the perennials and herbs, so take a look at the attached list. There is quite a bit of bud appearing on quite a few lines so sales should be flying with a bit of luck. I have run out of time tonight to go through much in detail but things are looking hot.

We have grown a few more tender patio and flowering pot plants this summer, not huge numbers, but a few very floriferous highlights. There are ranges of Diasica, Nemesia (including Wisley Vanilla which is just so brilliantly scented), Verbena, Helichrysum, dwarf Helianthus, Euryops and Bidens. Masses of bud or flower for months on end, but not generally hardy.

Numbers of some lines may be still limited so there could be a few substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy celebrations

Morning all,

Apologies for the late list this week, time has got the better of me again this week. I usually manage to get this done on Friday afternoon after everyone has left the scene, but it was a big birthday for Caroline and we were having a few friends over for a takeaway and a beer in the garden and it all got a bit out of hand. Several unexpected callers popped in to pay their respects which disrupted things a bit and then I had to prepare the dining area while Caroline had a zoom get together and a glass or two, with some old school friends who have all reached this significant age together. I ended up completely running out of time and giving myself just 15 minutes to prepare the site for the diners. Anyway it all went brilliantly and a good time was had by all. Slept well that night!

So here we are, I've just got shot of the Saturday potting team after another hectic session and managed to dash round the nursery to see what has grown, I have updated the list which should be attached. There are quite a few changes again as different varieties come back on line again. Numbers are recovering well after a quieter week on the sales front so feeling a bit better about the range we can now offer.

The new van had all its missing parts attached this week so we are up and running with all four vans now (famous last words). With the great improvement in the weather over the coming few days, and a bank holiday too, I suspect we will need all those vans next week. Deliveries won't start until Tuesday so if it is super busy we may stray into Saturday delivery, we will see how it pans out. I have a gang in on Monday to make a start on getting orders prepared so please do get any requirements to us as soon as you are able and we can start the usual juggle to squeeze it all in.

That's it, I've got to get back to it.

Wooden Box shortages

Same old story for this spring, we are still desperately short on our wooden display boxes, it is still hand to mouth on whether we get through each day without running out, so any returns are gratefully received. I'm going to spend the rest of my weekend make new ones in an effort to keep up with likely demand next week, but we are really dependent on those returns to keep on coming. Thanks.

Availability list highlights

Ok, there is a list again this week, hurrah! Numbers of some lines are still limited so there could be a few substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Chatty and Hairy

Morning all,

Very busy week after the return of a list! Good job the weather was dodgy otherwise we probably would have struggled to cope. Several lines sold out again already but luckily the slightly warmer weather has push things along a bit so there are more lines coming on stream to replace them.

Not much time this evening to fill you in on all the excitement of the week, I lost a chunk of my afternoon rescuing Phil our big van driver, not him, the van, who ran out of driving hours on the tacho. Just managed to get the potting shift finished before leaving, now this to do and my mum to entertain with whatever is left of the night.

There must be some 'normality' creeping back in as this is only the second time in a year that we have seen my mum so we are looking forward to a chatty weekend and getting the conservatory a good spring clean! I think tomorrows flat out potting team might be a bit much for her so I have promised not to try and talk her into joining in with that.

Very windy over the last couple of days which has moved the turbines round nicely but made the rest of nursery life a bit tense and messy. Moving compost and plants about in storm conditions is not much fun but we couldn't hold off as we were reduced to just a day and a half potting after so much time despatching.

Nice piece about the nursery this week in the online version of 'Hort Week', covering many of our latest updates. Not sure if we will make the cut into the paper version, but it was a nice bit of recognition for what we have achieved recently. It was entitled 'How the Hairy Pot Plant Company came of age' which to my mind puts me back at being 21. If only!

Must go as I am overdue for entertaining and I still have the modules to pick up in readiness for tomorrows session.

Availability list highlights

Ok, there is a list again this week, hurrah! Numbers of some lines are still limited so there could be a few substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need. There is even a little bud on a few lines, but not a lot, so please don't ask me for a trolley in bud and flower. As hard as I try I can't get the little tykes to grow any quicker.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Hairy improvements

Morning all,

A slightly warmer week, the frosts have subsided and the soil has replenished it's moisture level in most areas. Plants are responding with a little flush of growth although it's not exactly tropical out there, so it's not as rampant as it might be. However we have an availability list of sorts to offer this week, after several weeks of no such luxury, so there is definite progress. I can't quite believe the number of plants we have got potted, nearly 2 and a half times the number of spring 2019, all ready to satisfy that pent up demand. There are still masses of modules arriving each week so it's not like we've finished yet, although quite a few are stock for the autumn or next year, fingers crossed we can get plenty sold over the remaining spring and summer.

We had our second container of coir pots of this month delivered yesterday together with a little dose of trepidation. We nearly ran out a couple of weeks ago, so two containers in two weeks has restocked us nicely and resulted in a bit less finger nail chewing. We don't like to sit still in our quest for improvements and we had asked for a tweek in the pot design to make separating the pots a little easier when loading the potting machine. A tiny bit less latex to make them a little more flexible, the removal of the newspaper inserts between each pot (they, in theory, made pot separation easier) and a very small reduction in pot base diameter which would increase the angle of the pot wall, hopefully making the release easier. We opened the first box of the 130,000 pots to find the plan had worked and we now have pots that one pot wrestler alone can separate and feed the potting beast. I immediately sent of an email congratulating the production crew in Sri Lanka who were probably as anxious as we were, a nice step forward for us and a small production/packing saving back in Sri Lanka.

I read a short piece this week by a grower on some of the issues with using more sustainable ingredients within their production process and how there are quite a few inconveniences and extra costs involved, including the problem that they don't always fit in with the current mechanisation plans that most of the big growers have understandably invested in. With a very strong focus on keeping costs low it is going to be almost impossible to make major changes to our approach in how we use alternative materials in our production processes, for producing just about anything, and if we don't start changing we are pretty well stuffed as a planet. I wondered what they would think if they saw us bashing our stacks of pots with a 10kg tarmac tamper before we could then wrestle the pots apart. It's not like it is the odd stack that needed bashing, it's all 500,000 each season! Having literally wrestled with this issue for many years, we have now found a possible solution, to the point where I am seriously considering reinstating our automatic pot dispenser on the potting machine. It will need a few modifications but it may now be a workable option. It's a project for the winter but quite an exciting one to have up our sleeve.

Our peat-free journey has followed similar challenges along the way, with the earliest recipes being a bit of a disaster, but we stuck with it and now we have a great mix which has been growing some lovely plants. It is not a journey without risk, this winters big overwintered trial of a UK 'alternative' peat-free mix was a disaster as it killed a high proportion of the crops that went in it and those that survived were stunted and very late into growth. The survivors are eventually going to make nice plants as the weather warms and the nutrition becomes available to the plants again, but this was not the season we really wanted late crops let alone high losses. It was a shame as the previous smaller trial had gone so well, but sometimes the gamble doesn't come off and we have to revert to the tried and tested.

The non plastic label and packing developments we have completed recently, have taken years to get where we are now. Almost all our labels and POS header boards etc are now completely plastic free, with just the remains of a bit of old stock still to use up. Each year we take a few small steps and see if things work in practice, it isn't always more convenient or cheaper for us, but sometimes it eventually works out to save us on material costs. The header boards and small run pot labels are now cheaper with using the Floramedia B500 waterproofed card, our new die cutters and 20 tonne press, and on the wooden box front, even with a doubling of the cost this year, they still work out cheaper in materials than using single use plastic trays.

In a nut shell if we are going to save the planet we are going to have to work more sustainably, not necessarily more conveniently or the easiest, cheapest way. That is how we got in this mess in the first place. David A is saying that we need the urgency and effort of fighting Covid applied to climate change and I don't doubt him, but I worry that as a society we are not yet prepared for that level of application. Come on, surprise me!

The new van is still sat in the yard unused. The extended mirrors arrived, but they sent the wrong ones! Meanwhile we ordered a new 7.5t lorry this week, hopefully for delivery in the autumn. Took some effort but managed to get them to put in a lorry sat nav not a car one, I couldn't believe they could get away with installing a car version. Luckily it was only another £250 on top of the standard installation. I'm absolutely sure they can see me coming.

Availability list highlights

Ok, there is a list this week, hurrah! There are quite a few lines on there, but numbers of some are still limited so there could be a few substitutions in the orders to make up numbers. If you prefer we can still do a selection of our own choice of the herb and/or perennial range again and will take your guidance on any lines you don't need. There is even a little bud on a few lines but not a lot, so please don't ask me for a trolley in bud and flower. As hard as I try I can't get the little tykes to grow any quicker.

After a few weeks of slightly less frantic sales I am a bit anxious that providing a list will kick off a big rise in demand, so I'm quite pleased the forecast looks a bit unsettled, which hopefully will prevent a mass buyout from your plant areas. There will be plenty more stock coming from us, so please don't overdo it in week one of our comeback. Fingers crossed we can keep it all together and keep up with the deliveries.

Take care out there, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries