Hairy suprise

Hi

Quick blast of winter this week reminded us that time is passing. We had a few snow flurries but nothing dramatic, just cold. It was good to see some sunshine which took the edge off, as long as you weren't tending to plants early in the day in an unheated and open ventilated tunnel! It does make me feel very guilty when I slink off into the office to do management stuff of which there is a surprising amount to do at this time of year. Plant ordering, net zero research, planning and calculating, email chasing up for all the winter projects and, this week, a lot of catching up to do after a little break in Cornwall. We are back well refreshed with a couple of notches released on the belt and ready for another battening down of the hatches for the winter. Hours for some have been willingly reduced as the temperature drops and the outdoor workload subsides a bit, although there are several winter projects well underway or just about to start.

After a little flurry of sales a couple of weeks ago, things have unsurprisingly gone pretty quiet this week and we have got stuck into those winter chores. Leaf clearing, wood cutting, pallet sorting, building maintenance, wooden box cleaning, stacking and storing. The new wooden box parts to top up the marketing tray supplies have all arrived, ready for treating, printing and construction. We replace about 10% a year at the moment, allowing for the average 10 year lifespan and a few other odd losses, adding up to just over 1,000 boxes made up of 13 parts each. That's a lot of parts to paint/treat and 5 of those need printing too, before the eventual construction. Even this we make more difficult for ourselves, by screwing the base parts together rather than stapling them (slower but longer lasting) and gluing the corners before stapling to add extra strength. It adds to the cost but increases life span and the number of uses we get from each one, providing of course we get them back in a timely manner rather than them ending up in a semi permanent display in a plant area display!

Good news this week on the solar panel installation which looked to be delayed until the New Year. I managed to get them to install the tilting frames and hopefully the panels, in a couple of weeks time. We may still have a slight delay in grid connection but at least they will be ready to roll and not be a distraction when the plant sales get started in the New Year.

The acid tank replacement deal improved a little bit after registering my shock at the size of the quote, but still had to be paid in advance before the work could start (sounds like a nice way to do business), so we are hoping things will now speedily progress on that front too.

Last week I discovered the new version of the electric Renault Master van (87Kwh) that has just been released, it looks very promising with a 250+ mile range, quicker charging rates and potentially larger payloads. The only hiccup is that the chassis cab version, to build our box on the back, hasn't been released yet so we might not get one in time for the spring, however it is the first one out there that looks capable of doing the job. I suspect it won't practically make it to Cornwall or Yorkshire but the more local sites are a definite possibility at last. With the solar and wind both operational as well as some battery storage we should be able to refuel almost for free when it is back at base with just the external fast chargers to pay for in order to make it home.

A great NBIS meeting on Thursday, lots of practical fresh ideas, tips and therapeutic encouragement, a bit of a shortage of attendees but very rewarding none the less. Ham egg and chips were delicious and well worth the trip, I am easily pleased. The return to the house after a few days away turned out more exciting than usual when we opened up to a fairly cool home and sadly no warm welcome from my mum with the wood burner on full blast. Mum has tweaked her back quite badly after a weekend hang-gliding with my sister, so stayed at home with our central heating left only on tick over, so just kept the chill off. Excitingly for the first time for a year and a half I was able to flick on the central heating, turn up the radiators and get an instant response while moving into the living room to light the wood burner. I opened the burner door and shut it pretty quickly, there was something big grey and furry in the grate. After checking it didn't move I tried again, to find an ex-squirrel lying in there. The cowell had blown off the chimney and it must have climbed in and fallen. Luckily the door had been shut otherwise if it had survived the fall the house could have been trashed, but there wasn't even a smell and no damage to the body or burner, so I count that as a lucky escape. I suppose we were also lucky it made it all the way into the grate, if it had got stuck at the chimney base I could have developed a sudden inexplicable urge for a roast dinner once the burner was fired up!

Availability list.

Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved) but they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower and loads of buds. They will go on right through until April so no rush!

The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing the occasional signs of flowering but it's a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy break

Hi

At least it seems to have stopped raining for the moment and kept reasonably mild, a bit late to make sales go into overdrive but easier to get those outside jobs done. As a result the office got a new coat of wood preserver today and is looking very smart in front of the recently 'lifted' beech trees. A few leaves are getting cleared away, hedges trimmed and Halloween snacks devoured, it must be autumn now.

The last of the bulbs got potted this week so that is all the potting completed for 2024, another milestone passed. It was the second busiest year ever on the potting front, only surpassed by 2021 when we got a bit carried away with ourselves. It was post covid madness and we were very short of stock early in the year, so potted like crazy and didn't stop early enough. We ended up donating a load of stock to the local hospitals, surgeries and vaccination centres to shed the excess, which put a positive twist to a bit of a balls-up on my part. I'm hoping we haven't overdone it this time, I'm banking on the spring weather being a bit kinder than the last couple of years so we will need the extra stock, fingers crossed for it all to come together.

Fun times with the Budget this week, I suppose none of it was a huge surprise as most of it was leaked well in advance, but it does set out in black and white a few hefty extra labour costs that we are going to have to deal with in the coming season. Just as I was hoping the inflationary pressures were easing our biggest single cost gets elevated beyond our control. I suppose it just reinforces the need for even more efficiency and investment in labour saving kit, to avoid employing quite so many people. Unfortunately it also encourages taking short cuts and avoiding risk, which tends to make the final product potentially a bit disappointing, as most people look to take the easier options. Don't worry, if there is a more difficult option I'm always on call to take it, you can rely on that!

Talking of which, the plastic acid tank removal and replacement quote came in this afternoon. The original tank cost less than £3,000, 8 years ago, the quote came in today at £16,000! The removal cost was more than the replacement tank, which itself has more than doubled in price. With an 8 year lifespan that means the annual tank costs are higher than the acid cost. I think I'm in the wrong game. I am in further negotiations.

I have a feeling I also handed an open cheque book to the electrician on Monday, just to add to the pressure. He now has a list of repair and replacement work to hit over the next couple for months as we prepare for winter and try to get everything shipshape for the spring rush. Once we get to February it's really too late to start any new projects and the overdraft starts to dictate a more sedate approach to spending, so it's now or never.

On a brighter note, weekly jive dancing returned to the fabulous Guildhall in Winchester on Tuesday. Lots of over excited dancers turned up bright and early with over 150 making it in by the time the lessons got underway. Over 3 hours of laughter, heart-pounding gyrating and twirling for just £10 and learning new skills along the way, what a bargain. There was a healthy smattering of beginners as well as those still returning after the covid break, let's hope the momentum keeps going over the next few months, that will be the test to the viability of returning to such a high end venue.

This list will have to cover the next couple of weeks as I am otherwise engaged, but if you have any queries just drop us a line and Greg will sort something out. Orders are quieter now and most of the boxes have been returned so, although we are still out and about, the long seasons pressure has at last relented and we should be able to cope with most requests, within reason!

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected over 85% of our empty wooden boxes from most sites and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

The herb range is still looking surprisingly perky in the autumn sunshine. We should have a reasonable range looking nice for a few weeks yet.

Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved) but they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower and loads of buds. They will go on right through until April so no rush!

The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing the occasional signs of flowering but it's a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

Erigeron Stallone are still doing their thing, flower and bud will keep coming until they are battered too much by winter frosts.

We have had them in flower at Christmas before now, although it does depend on the weather and anything could happen there!

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Jive

Hi

Weather is still a bit up and down, but after a damp start, this evening is looking gloriously autumnal as the sun dips romantically behind the poly tunnels. I know it's not always very accurate but the forecast for next week looks ok, we might get to see quite a bit more of this brightness over the coming few days.

We've had another good week with a few novelty jobs and a big thrash at getting the spring bulbs potted. The bulb potting is nearly done, just the awkward smaller ones to do, lots of counting and juggling and not many pots to show for the effort. However they look fab when they burst into flower in the spring so it's worth the trouble. All the ones that are too big to eat or carry off, are on the tunnel floor, already mulched and watered in and the smaller ones potted then stacked on trolleys out of harm's way for all but the most acrobatic of rodents or squirrels.

Adam the asbestos man came and took off our old asbestos roof from our old block built meter shed on Tuesday, as planned and all went really well, it was all done in no time. He also took away a few spare old sheets that had been stacked behind the barn for donkeys years, so we have had a good tidy up at the same time. He did a great job, it was all nicely wrapped up before being taken to the appropriate disposal site, the paperwork came back straight away, it was all very satisfying.

The plan to slip the new roof straight back on the shed again didn't quite go as well, as it tipped down with rain and reroofing a shed full of electric kit wasn't the sensible option so we covered up the risky stuff and waited. Two of us spent all of Wednesday fitting the roof and even if I do say so myself we did a very tidy job, it looks very smart for a shed. I bought the pre-cut insulated panels, edge flashings and fitting kit in advance and assumed it would just slide on, screw down and we would be done, but I had forgotten that I built the block shed back in 1984 when we started the nursery so it wasn't actually very square. It took quite a bit of juggling to get the roof panels positioned sensibly and know I can see how useful edge flashing is for covering up a character filled wall build. Anyway it's all done now and inside is beautifully dry and draft free, it's a joy to go in there and marvel at the luxury,

We are having the acid storage tank, which acidifies our hard irrigation water, replaced this winter as a precautionary measure. It is 8 years old and the maker had said that this was its minimum lifespan and obviously we wouldn't want to risk a leak. The fabricator who is making the replacement tank popped in to check his design and the site where it was to be installed and was pleasantly surprised at the condition of ours, he was more used to visiting sites with 20+ year old tanks that had started leaking. It was a really valuable site meeting as he did pick up some design features from our old tank that he will incorporate into his. It will be made easier for us to operate by adding a drainage valve to the water bath that neutralises any acid vapours needing to leave the tank, and reduce the risk of a joint leak by moving the acid outlet point from the base of the tank to the top. A practical two way conversation that benefitted both parties, that's the sort of meeting I like. He is going to be recommending a longer lifespan for his tank so hopefully this might see me out and we won't have to go through all this fun of getting it empty, disposed of and replaced before the irrigation water can be acidified again.

Big night coming up on Tuesday with the reopening of Winchester Guildhall for weekly Modern Jive lessons for the first time since Covid stopped everything in March 2020. We had to scrap quite hard to get it back at an affordable price, but it's a stunning venue and used to attract well over 100 dancers most weeks with 300+ at the big Balls. Danny who runs the dances and lessons has been keeping several smaller venues running each week, but getting this one back is a big feather in his cap and it has such potential for good times. There is nothing like a good dance, I love it and have my fingers crossed that it gets the support it deserves.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected over 80% of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

The herb range is still looking surprisingly perky in the autumn sunshine. We should have a reasonable range looking nice for a few weeks yet.

Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved) but they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower and loads of buds. They will go on right through until April so no rush!

The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing the occasional signs of flowering but it's a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

Erigeron Stallone are still doing their thing, flower and bud will keep coming until they are battered too much by winter frosts. We have had them in flower at Christmas before now, although it does depend on the weather and anything could happen there,!

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Electrics

Hi

It's all go between the rain storms, as we lurch from cold to hot and rain to blazing sunshine. Much of the stock is still growing nicely so those late potted batches of plants I was a bit anxious about are looking good, much to my relief.

The bulbs arrived this afternoon, a couple of weeks later than usual, so it will be all hands to the potting machine next week to get them planted and watered in. It's a challenging job with lots of extra hands involved in getting the right number of bulbs, the right way up and at the right depth before topping up the pot with compost and then mulched, before setting down in the tunnels. A few of the more delicious varieties will be kept on the danish trolleys to keep them out of reach of the mice that, given the chance, will decimate a crop in a moment. We will put those down on the beds when they are rooted, beginning to shoot and harder to dig up. I have to hold off on all ideas of fast efficient potting when these get done, there are frightening numbers of bodies involved and a degree of organised chaos. Best if I just let them get on with it and walk away, there are still plenty more brambles for me to attack with my mattock.

As the prospect of the colder weather looms we have been preparing the prop tunnel with all its heating and lighting kit and controls, and naturally it all came apart in my hands, as is the way with these things. The tunnel itself looks great, lovely clean beds and new clear inflated twin skin covers all looking very smart, but over the past few weeks the control computer has been getting increasingly erratic throwing regular wobblies (technical speak) and turning itself off and on again, losing all the information about temperatures and timings, which is a bit critical when you are trying to grow susceptible tender plants in the winter. A man was summoned, opened the computer up and checked the backup battery, which was the suspected culprit, but all was well with that. He checked for loose wires and pulled a few cables out and pushed them back again declaring the whole thing a write off. So I'm stood there thinking that these things don't last two seconds anymore, we didn't fit it that long ago. Apparently it was 1990, so although that still seems quite recent to me, it is well past it's sell by date and of course no parts are available for repairs anymore, so a new one would have to be made. I was braced for a fairly hefty quote and wasn't disappointed, but worst of all was the predicted January fitting date, how would we control the heating until then? Anyway we might get away with it as they are hoping to squeeze us in a bit earlier and after all that cable removal and reinsertion, the old one appears to have cured itself! I was tempted to cancel the new one but realistically we have to update it, if it goes wrong at a critical time we could lose a lot of valuable stock.

The time clock controlling the grow-lights stopped turning, so although it can turn the lights on and off, it can't keep the correct time, two of the LED grow-lights have blown and a heater fan is tripping out the main trip switch if I turn it on, so the electrician is coming by to put all that right and then we will be ready for winter.

Most of the crew are out in the tunnels now, tidying up plants, cutting back some stock and getting the liverwort suppressing mulch applied. It takes a while but the results can be very satisfying. Lots of tidy rows of tidy plants, ready and waiting for spring sales action. It will take us most of the winter to plough through it all, but it saves so much time in despatch in the spring if the plants are already pre-prepared and liverwort free. Some days this week it was definitely shirt sleeve work, but in the depths of winter it can be a bit of a battle, but it's a job that has to be done.

The old meter shed roof is due for removal on Tuesday, by a specialist asbestos man, and hopefully the new fancy one will be installed by us by the end of the day. What could possibly go wrong with that? I'll let you know next week.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected over 75% of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved) and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush! The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

Summer potted Phlox subulata varieties are having a quick flowering flush. Not sure for how long but looking pretty at the moment. Erigeron Stallone are still doing their thing, flower and bud will keep coming until they are battered too much by winter frosts. We have had them in flower at Christmas before now, although it does depend on the weather and anything could happen there! Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies, 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy procrastinating is productive

Hi

It's definitely autumnal now with temperatures very close to freezing this morning and still very damp underfoot. The start of the week was wet and nasty but it did improve significantly and resulted in the last two tunnels getting their new covers installed today. The cooler temperatures meant the skin was not quite as stretchy as we would have liked but there wasn't a breath of wind all day, so it was a relatively relaxed performance this time and the covers look tight enough.

It was another week for getting stuff done with our excellent tree/hedge surgeons back again early in the week, to have a go at some unruly hedges that had got away from us and to lift the crowns of the beach trees that overshadow the office. They did a brilliant job, the crown lifting was so well done you could hardly tell they had been here at all, and the hedges were done in double quick time. They make quite a din with their shredder munching through the off cuts, the donkeys were pretty jumpy while they cut one of their bordering hedges but settled down again once all the excitement had passed. They quite like a change of visitor and some different activity, it gives them an excuse to lark about bit more.

We collected a substantial new roof for the electric metering shed which currently leaks a bit. With more control kit and battery storage going in there we felt keeping the water out might be sensible. Now I just have to find a specialist to safely remove and dispose of the old roof which is likely to have low grade asbestos in it and we will be a bit closer to being ready for that solar installation.

I have started my biggest annual brain exercise with the main young plant ordering, which is always a bit of a wet finger in the air moment. I have all the figures in front of me to aid in my guesswork, an up to date stock-take with all the potting and sales more or less completed, a list of all the total sales over 2024 for each of the 550 varieties and lists of plants bought last year from each of 8 or so suppliers over multiple deliveries throughout the season. It's a massive juggle of what, how many and when, with a healthy dollop of wondering, how many customers we will have next year? what will the weather be like? and will the gardening hoards be in the mood for letting those purse string loose? I find it quite daunting to get stuck into this chore and it's astonishing how many important things pop up to distract me. I spent a couple of afternoons with a mattock chopping out brambles on the solar site, emptied part of the barn where some logs had got parked so we could fit in some more of our returning wooden trays and helping out the heating engineer to fix our central heating. I have managed to do some planning, honest, but not enough. Holiday time is rushing up and it needs to be done before then so I can then also order the colour labels to go with the plants. Still not enough days in the week and we aren't even busy!

Very exciting events in the house with the central heating back in full operation after probably at least 18 months with only the bathroom and loo radiators working together with the hot water. We had been manually moving a valve controller to get the main radiators on for several years prior to that, so when the valve was eventually 'fixed' last year we were expecting great things, only to be disappointed with failure and unable to get the engineer back. Well he made it this week and on investigation found that not only had the valve been faulty but the main pump had seized. All the heat we had in the hot water system was created by convection currents not the circulation pump. With the whole system drained and new pump and isolation valves purchased the next challenge was getting the old kit off. Naturally nothing would budge, but in the end gas torches and mega spanners plus the two of us heaving and cussing, it all came apart and miraculously went back together. Instant and gratifying success with heat radiating from all over the place. It feels really decadent to have the potential of heat from radiators, I'm quite excited at the thought of some cold enough weather arriving, and turning them on. Feeling slightly worried that these thoughts are getting close to the highlight of my autumn.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected a lot of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area.

Availability list.

Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved) and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush!

Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower. Last few left. The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies.

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy Wind

Hi

We have had a really exciting and productive week with the combination of fewer orders to prepare and a lack of potting to get on with, because the bulbs haven't pitched up yet. We were able get on with starting on the monster task of applying the overwintering mulch on the pot tops to slow up the liverwort and mosses, and hit a load of chores that have been building up over the season.

The irrigation tank lining crew were back again to fit the tank cover, which was very much missed. Blanket weed had started to grow in the open tank, which in turn clogged up nearly all the fine filters in each irrigation line. Draining the tank in preparation for their visit concentrated the weed which was then easily cleaned up from inside the tank itself, but unfortunately also introduced a good dollop into the pipes. Two afternoons of pipe flushing and filter cleaning followed but I think we are now over the worst, and we do now have a lovely new tank cover professionally fitted with not too much distraction from other work for our crew.

The threat of imminent solar panel installation is now hovering over us, so we have started to fight back the poplar runners and bramble invasion that was threatening to take over the previously cleared site. It was cleared long ago, assuming planning wouldn't take nearly a year to get organised and passed, and now a whole growing season has gone by and the bramble growth has gone ballistic. We had tried to get an outside company to come in and knock it back for us but having visited and seen the undulating terraced site, we never heard from them again. Probably just as well because we can be really thorough about the clear up, if we do it ourselves and I suspect we would still have had to clear up after the brush cutters anyway. It is going to take a while to win back the site but we made a really good start this week and at least now we can see the terraces again.

Today was not a day I had been looking forward to, with one longstanding challenge overcome and just one day to get it done. Recovering the propagation tunnel has been on the list since February when the outer sheet of this twin skinned tunnel split, but we could only do the job when there weren't too many sensitive plants weaning in there and temperatures extremes were not too harsh. The twin skins enable us to create a double glazed effect by blowing the sheets apart with a small fan and it works a treat as far as heat saving is concerned, but it's a bugger to reclad. At the best of times recovering a tunnel is fraught with anxiety and tension as you need warm still conditions together with enough time to get off the old cover, repair any tunnel parts that may have rotted away and get it recovered again. The wind inevitably gets up as soon as you unroll the huge replacement sheet, it happens every time. Doing a twin-skin way outdoes a normal tunnel, as we have to drag over two covers, one pulled over the other, while both remain unattached. Adding wind into the equation at this point gets a bit too exciting for my sanity, and sure enough that's how it went today. Delays in pulling the new sheets over the frame meant we were already tight for getting things secure in time for lunch break, but a combination of sheets snagging creating holes and slipping sheets, put us even more behind. Having tacked down the two covers we very nearly got away for our break when the wind really blew up raising one entire side of the sheet to probably 15ft in the air. We realised lunch was going on hold, as we rushed round fitting the sides into place and an hour later it was pretty much nailed down, although not as prettily as we would have liked. An afternoon of securing the remaining loose edges and trimming off the excess plastic put us into overtime for a heroic few, but at least it's on. Fingers crossed we won't have to do that again for another 8 or 9 years.

End of season wooden Box returns

We have already collected a lot of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Only a few of the white variety left,. Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush! Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower.

The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential. The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display.

Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies. New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Hairy planning success

Hi

At long last we have planning permission for putting in our solar panels. It turned into a really long slog to get it through, despite there being no apparent objections and the installation only being 120 panels. Big thanks to Anna, the planning advisor for the Cornish Rocker company who are putting in our tilting frames, she just kept pushing and prodding, way longer than we would have kept it up and it paid off in the end. I'm hoping the rest of the installation will bowl along, although I'm not holding my breath, I suspect SSE, who are our local network distribution company, will have a few spanners to throw into the mix when the installer has to negotiate the solar and battery connection. As we shouldn't actually need any upgrades to our existing substation connection, it should be fairly straight forward, but previous experience has shown that their records aren't always quite as accurate as you would think. Earlier in the development plans they denied that we had permission to export from the wind turbines which had been going since 2011, we only had permission for a domestic solar installation according to the computer. We had to dig out the connection agreement to find the relevant info to prove we did have it all sorted correctly. It turned out that our installation was made before the current computer software was installed.

The main module potting season came to an end today with most of the tunnels now full to bursting point with stock being readied for the spring. We cleared one last tunnel today so that we have some space to pot the last crop which will be the spring bulbs, as soon as they arrive. The potting machine was run to the point where every last bit of potting compost was used up, so that we can refill it with the nutrient reduced peat-free bulb compost mix. 

Compared with the normal potting team of 3 on the machine, the bulb planting is more of a team game with lots of people counting bulbs into the drilled holes. It can get a bit tense at times and is scarily slow to get through it all. A few pots are singular bulbs which is easy, but we go up to 12 in a single pot and that can be a real challenge when the pot is moving past you. We adopt a few different methods to stop people losing the plot, sometimes each person puts one or two in before it moves along and sometimes we have to remove the pot from the moving belt to achieve a satisfactory result. The key things are not to press the compost down too hard under the bulb as it can lead to over wetting or compaction and rotting, or the roots simply push the bulb back out of the compost, and try to get them the right way up! Then we have to decide which ones are the tastiest for the various critters that might want to snack on them. There are one or two varieties that we definitely can't put straight onto the tunnel floor as they get dug up almost instantly. We have a couple of main culprits, the squirrels can make a mess, but worst is the mice. In the early years we had entire crops of Fritillaria meleagris completely stripped out. We eventually found stores of the partly eaten bulbs all over the place, but not quickly enough to salvage the crops. Now we pot and water them, and stack them on shelved trolleys for a couple of months, until they start actually rooting and growing. This gives them a bit more resistance to removal when they get put onto the beds and must reduce the taste levels I think, as we tend not to lose too many by this point. We do have a small arsenal of traps which we set out under little covers to catch those still willing to have a go and that gets the crop to their budding stage most of the time. We trolley up about half of all the bulb pots, just to be on the safe side, which takes up 40 or 50 trolleys. It's a good test to see if we have retained enough usable trolleys and shelves through the season! 

That reminds me, it looks like CC trolleys are going to issue another new trolley tag this winter, to try and make sure everyone within the system has the correctly marked kit and the right quantities, and to make life more difficult for those who don't pay their dues to use and swap trolleys when receiving plants. It could be a good time to sign up if you haven't already. 

End of season Wooden Box returns

We have already collected a lot of our empty wooden boxes from many sites and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you have empty boxes ready to go please do drop us a line and we will pop in when next in the area. 

Availability list.

Summer is rushing by and the Autumn flowering Cyclamen hederifolium are well ready with the bud and flower. Only the white variety left,. Unfortunately after a poor seed harvest we only have one Cyclamen coum variety this winter (Silver Leaved and they are just beginning to produce the very occasional flower. They will go on right through until April so no rush! Premium variety Tiarella Pink Skyrocket are ready with attractive foliage and now also in bud and flower. The other winter star is the Helleborus range, a few varieties already showing signs of flowering but a bit early for most. Good strong plants with plenty of potential.

The more classic Aster varieties are coming on strong now, after all the new early Alpha range has sold out. Most are now coming into bud ready for their late summer and autumn display. Summer colour is still there with Gaura Rosy Jane and its bicolour flowers plus the lovely delicate white Whirling Butterflies. New range for this year is the Helenium Hayday series, Strong and compact and still showing good colour and bud. 

Best wishes from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.