Monday 8 November 2010

Just a quickie as I’m not meant to be doing this. We’ve been so busy over the last few days that I couldn’t find a moment to sort out last week’s update which was supposed to disclose the fact that I wouldn’t be able to do this one!

It’s fairly early on Sunday morning and I can look up to see the blue skies and azure seas of sunny St Ives out of the sitting room window. Usually I have to go online to do that but today I can do it for real, lucky me. If it makes you feel any better it’s actually blowing a gale, the rain is lashing the window and I can only just make out the waves through the murk. Well it is November in Cornwall. Heating works well and tea is hot.

So as you might guess we are on our hols and have left the nursery in the hands of all the very skilled and capable staff and if there are any problems my Mum & Dad are staying to sort it all out. Good luck to everyone!

If anyone has any burning issues or even the odd order they want to discuss, Richard will be in the office most of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the next couple of weeks.

Eco Stuff

A lot of activity in the last week which caused a few delays in the holiday preparations. Despite nothing too much actually getting done in real terms we had a load of visitors coming to have a chat, give advice and find out what we are up to. There was a visit by a Green MEP who had heard about the turbine stuff but was very interested to see all the sustainable directions we have taken. He knew very little about nurseries which always helps when making an impression!
Then we had an environmental consultant visit to see if we qualify for some funded environmental advice and training which could help us fine tune some of our projects and hopefully get some recognition or accreditation for our efforts. I’ve never been a great one for official form filling and box ticking, but from what he said we wouldn’t have to do too much to get some fairly major results which could improve our credentials and profile. Mind you after two weeks eating and drinking down here I don’t think I’m going to have any problem increasing my profile!

The bank, bless them, asked us to get another company to come and do an independent report on the viability of the turbine project so that they can avoid losing sleep over lending the dosh. Naturally this is for our benefit and so consequently we foot the bill. A very nice couple came to take a look at the whole business as well as the turbine site and seemed very positive so the report should be ok. The site assessment involved a fairly scientific walk to the top of the hill, rotating 360 degrees and deciding that it looks really good, big views, no trees and planning consent achieved. Thank the lord for expert input.

More expensive input with the arrival of the ecologists report on the turbine site. A nice long one describing what we have, what will happen on installation (remove three sections of 6 meters of young hedge, and hang a bit of orange fence on the hedge ends to prevent damage during fitting). Then what happens after for ten years (replant hedge over foundations, plant a further 60m of hedge and a 60m wild flower strip). Still such is life.

Got the insulators organised to do the house on our return so looking forwards to a cosy, reduced carbon winter.

Sun now out, so need to get the surf gear sorted, not.

Got to go and see if the American Bittern is still in Zennor.

See you all in a couple of weeks.

Monday 25 October 2010

Hello all,

Another lovely sunny day but bit nippy again. A real autumnal feel, which usually means things start to quieten down as we prepare for a bit of a holiday, Christmas and next spring’s madness. But we have so many plans and projects on the go, I’m not sure if we will find time for Christmas.

This week I have been updating the catalogue for the coming year which will be winging it’s way to you very shortly, a few new varieties and a few encouraging words on how we are building in more affordable sustainability into the business. It is very easy to believe that getting more sustainable means increasing the costs but we are finding an increasing number of savings associated with the changes we are making. Sometimes it takes a bit of initial investment to reap longer term savings but occasionally it just takes a bit of focus and application. We are working on a combination of simply reducing our consumption and waste in all areas and changing kit, which both lead to reduced costs and lower carbon output.

Unfortunately although we are achieving very positive progress, there are not enough savings to prevent a price increase for 2011, our two major costs labour (50%+) and coir pots (12%) have gone up significantly and there is no slack in the system to absorb the increases. The cost of the coir pots alone have increased by over 4p/pot after the devastating fire at the production plant on top of the high inflation experienced in Sri Lanka over the last couple of years. Since the fire it has come to light (no pun intended) that although we were paying a rate that provided a valuable income for all the staff it didn’t allow enough to be put aside for reinvestment which is now going to be so vital to their future development. Naturally the insurance company involved are doing their best to wriggle out of paying back what is needed to get back to where they were before the fire and delaying the payments too (nice to know insurers are the same the world over!). So in the interest of continuing a sustainable relationship with them into the future, we have volunteered a big increase to get things back on a more realistic level. Having researched potential alternative supplies we have found that we are still getting a competitive deal and don’t forget that this is very much a handmade, multi-processed product and as, such still provides exceptional value for money.
Eco news (Don’t forget that if you receive this via fax we can save paper and email instead, just let us know)

SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.

Ok, now here is a top tip for saving loads of dosh almost instantly. This is on a personal level but makes its importance no less significant. With all the eco stuff going on we have been looking at our personal impact and heating costs have come up as a major cost both financially and carbon wise. Insulating things seems a really dull way of spending money but can be extremely effective if you don’t have much installed yet. We had a man take a look at the house this week for cavity wall, roof and water tank insulation. Despite having some loft cover we didn’t have the recommended 11 inches and cavity insulation would be easy to do. Now here is the exciting bit, we would need over £1,000 to complete the job but with the grants available we can get it done for a little over £300 and we don’t even have to apply for the grants, the company does all that. Anyone is eligible, owners or tenants (although not quite sure how this side works) and if you are over 70 it is free (yes I realise you are all under 35). Your financial situation and house size seems to make no difference. It’s a hell of a bargain. With our leaky old house we should make the cost back in a very few months and we will make those savings year on year. Don’t delay, Google ‘cavity wall insulation’ and loads of sites will offer their services, all at very similar rates.

Our wind turbine and sustainability efforts got recognised on the 10:10 website this week with a great little blog article. Fame at last. Link: http://www.1010global.org/uk/2010/10/making-cut-kirton-farm

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September. Water consumption down 15.6%.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Friday 22 October 2010

Check us out at http://www.1010global.org/uk/2010/10/making-cut-kirton-farm and pick up some energy busting tips of your own from our friends at 10:10

Monday 18 October 2010

Beautiful sunny morning but bit nippy as I sit here in the office complete with vest and fleecy hoody. No the hoody isn’t an attempt to hold onto some idea that I retain any hint of youthful style, the vest extinguishes all hope of any street cred, it is just thick and cosy and super effective at retaining the vast amount of heat radiating from the head area (lots of hot air). All hope of youthfulness disappeared this week when we went to see Judie Tzuke in concert who was brilliant, but the audience was 100% old gits of a certain age (mine) who could remember the one and only big hit (Stay with me ‘till Dawn) 30+ years ago. I’m sure I don’t look that old really but everyone else was definitely showing signs of wear & tear with a corresponding dated ‘style’. Sod it, just reread the first part of this, I give up.


Busy social week with another concert last night with an intimate evening with Ben Waters a sensational boogie woogie pianist. A sell out but with only 95 seats to see a great talent, it’s amazing the class out there you can see at a local little venue, must get out there more. Ben was telling us of his recent work with gigs across Europe, sessions with most of the Rolling Stones, Jools Holland, Ray Davis (Kinks) and others I can’t remember. I must admit to being slightly distracted towards the end of the first set when there was nearly a nasty accident. Having downed a quick pint before the start I popped off to the facilities but bumped into Ben and his mum on the way and got chatting. Suddenly Ben was due on so I had missed my chance. Things got a bit uncomfortable as time passed and to add extra tension near the end Ben asked for a request for the last tune. Two got called out and he said he would do both, neither were short either! I was right in the middle of the seating and would have had to shuffle across right in front of Ben to get out, I thought I was going to pass out! Had an ice cream at half time rather than a drink!

Dramatic and heart-warming news about the rescued miners in Chile, what a great result. Mining has always been dangerous and when safety is cut to produce raw materials cheaply, things are bound to go wrong sometimes. Just a note to think about is that 2,600 miners died in China last year. Let’s hope the Chileans do as they say and get their safety act together, I just hope it doesn’t mean they kill the industry because someone else cuts corners to do it cheaper. Sometimes the global economic system we work in can be tricky to live with and don’t get me onto bankers (yes, I do understand just how hard they must work!).

Eco news

Ecologist is booked to do our official environmental programme/scheme for the wind turbine site. Once that is done we can get final clearance from the planners to get started, we just need to secure finance and order everything then we are off.

A friend of mine is a military strategist and looks into planning what the expected military requirements are likely to be in the future so that procurement plans are as effective and relevant as possible. Bit scary. It was interesting to hear how the eco stuff is now affecting their sector so much. The predicted scenario is based on the simple basis that demand for raw materials and energy is accelerating, populations expanding and supply of the stuff is running out or getting much harder to extract. They are now wondering what will happen when things start to get in short supply and recognising the importance and urgency in doing something about securing the future by reducing consumption and securing supplies. There is also a realisation that this will take a major change in culture to make this happen. That’s you and me.

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September. Water consumption down 15.6%.

Have a good week.

Monday 11 October 2010

Hear Derek live on the radio....http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/p00bd0hy/
Let us know what you think by posting a comment?
Morning all, 11 October 2010I


Just a quickie this morning as I’ve got to rush off to BBC radio Solent in a minute to be interviewed live about the wind turbine project on their Good Life programme. I’ve done a couple of spots on there before and it’s pretty laid back and I don’t think the listening figures are going to make me an overnight star! I’ve been trying not to think about it this morning, as the shakes begin as soon as I do, but I’m sure it will be fine. Background preparation has gone well, none, but then that’s like any normal day I suppose.

We had a week full of various visits this week the most exciting of which was the installation manager for the turbines. He checked over all the practical challenges on the site, which luckily appear fairly easy to overcome. We looked at the likely order of play with surveys, electrical substation, meter and cable installations, trenching and ground-works etc, but still came out the other end with no real idea how long it will take to come together. At least he was impressed with the site as a whole, great uninterrupted wind flow from all directions, easy access and solid chalk under the foundations. One thing I did learn was that the foundation slabs under each turbine are buried 60cm down and the soil replaced on top so we can replace at least half of the short bit of hedge we remove at each site. This should help the ecology plan that has to be written before we are allowed to start. The archaeologist is lined up to write his pre-commencement proposal and attend the site while digging takes place and the power company are half way to sorting out the new connection quote, so things are moving even if nothing actually gets done for a bit.

Our electricians have been in to sort out a quote for moving all our circuits about to make best use of the renewable supply when it comes in. At the moment we have several separate circuits and meters which have evolved as the nursery grew over 26 years so a bit of a re-jig is necessary. We are looking to disable some parts of the nursery that no longer need a supply and reuse the armoured cable and bits and bobs, where they are still within regulations, this helps with the sustainability of the project and hopefully with the cost too.

I attended our monthly PLATO Sustain meeting this week and we had a new member present his company and products. He was from the UK arm of Hansgrohe who make bathroom fittings. It was amazing to hear some detail of what goes on in other industries. They make very swish fittings, but although more expensive, are so much more efficient in their use of water and energy that they can pay for themselves in a matter of months, all done through clever design and thought. Although you get less water through it doesn’t feel like it, due to the way they introduce air into it and ‘bulk it up’. The reduction in water means less heating hence the energy reduction. Another member who specialises in roofing systems for big buildings was saying that they are taking on a new PV solar panel design that is mounted on a roll of plastic, making it much lighter and easier to install and it is supposed to be less affected by the angle and orientation to the sun. With a life expectancy of 50 years it sounded interesting, although I suspect this sort of technology has plenty more developments to come over the coming years. It’s all go.

Eco news

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September. Water consumption down 15.6%.

Nature notes

Nursery rabbit control has taken a leap forward in the last month or two with the arrival of a new cat. We have now officially adopted this stray that just turned up. Younger and fitter than our other two, who now struggle to find the energy to get out of the cat-flap, he has been named Spare as that was what he got used to while we were trying to locate a possible owner. He does have an interesting drinking technique, he hasn’t mastered lapping so dips in his front paw and licks it off. We can now tell when he’s been in the house by the trial of single foot paw prints across the floor. As our friend Roger would say there is more than one way to skin a cat!

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 4 October 2010

I can’t believe it’s October already, that’s the end of another financial year, so lots of stock taking to do this week and hopefully the figures will come out ok. There are nearly always surprises when they are sorted out, but not usually nice ones!
This year is looking ok so far which is a relief as it has been such a struggle over the past few years to make sense of it all. Things are looking much more together now as we get our ranges and priorities sorted out and the current combination of great staff, customers and stock, as well as continuing positive business developments are making 2011 look even more exciting. Luckily we all get more out of this than major financial gain but with some cash return things are certainly easier.

A touch autumnal last week and next week looks the same, at least the reservoirs around the country will get a good topping up. I had a bit of a water related week with a trip to Lowaters Nursery to an irrigation orientated open day. They have installed a rainfall harvesting system to reduce their reliance on the increasingly expensive mains water supply and ensure future supplies as demand increases. It was very impressive with a range of collection ditches and ponds supplying a new large reservoir. The reservoir water was filtered through a series of iris beds to remove contaminants before going through a fine particle filter and returning to the new main nursery irrigation tank. They had researched the system very well (with some funding help) and have constructed a very sustainable and cost effective solution for their situation. Water has been cheap and freely available in most areas for a long time but as prices rise and continuous uninterrupted supplies possibly coming under threat in the future, it is something that many nurseries like us who currently rely on mains supply will need to address. The exciting bit was that the payback period was 4 years even without grant funding, which not only makes it sustainable but a great investment. Unfortunately it is yet another ‘jam tomorrow’ project, but does show the importance of finding enough funds to invest in the future and how this does help keep future costs down. Unfortunately there were probably only a dozen nurseries represented there and many of those were the inspiration behind a lot of the systems incorporated in the Lowaters project. Buffet lunch was great too!

Got the propagation tunnel finished on Friday after getting the double sheet attached the week before. It needs to be well sealed so that we can inflate it for the winter heating period. We don’t heat much until late Winter, but any heat we can conserve helps and running a weeny fan to inflate the double cover works brilliantly. Although it costs more for two skins they effectively protect each other so last quite a bit longer and the running costs of the fan are minimal.

Eco news

Spent most evenings this week raking the loose insulation in the loft. I’ll be back up there this afternoon to finish it off, it has recovered from 3 or 4 cm in depth to a nice fluffy 7 or 8 cm, so I will just need to top it up slightly to the rafter tops and we are there. Next is having a go at fitting some insulation under our suspended wooden floors. When the wind blows hard the carpet has been seen to rise off the floor which is not just inefficient heat retention but does bring on a feeling of motion sickness and that isn’t something you expect while watching telly!

Electric consumption on nursery down by 23.37% for 2010 up to the end of September.

Water consumption down 15.6%.

Nature notes

Last of the summer sights this week with a large flock (100+) of house martins feeding over the nursery. Red Kite spotted over the nursery last week.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 27 September 2010

We are in the headlines this week with lots of local press coverage of our successful wind turbine planning application. It started with a request for a montage turbine image and a few words for the head reporter which went fine. Then came the disappointment of the first spread in the Southampton Evening Echo on their eco pages, headlined with the caption ‘Green light for giant turbines at beauty spot’ with a picture of a dramatic Cornish multiple turbine scene, which was hardly the balanced view we were hoping for. Having sworn never to speak to another journalist ever again I was forced to rethink when The ‘Hampshire Chronicle’ came out on Thursday. Written by the same reporter, we were the lead on the front page with a more sensible ‘A wind of change on the horizon?’ followed by a longer article with a broadly positive report and including some of my input from the phone call. We were also the lead editorial comment, again sensible and positive, even congratulating us on leading the way. Can’t expect much more than that!

We had great two days sunny weather this week when we managed to re-sheet 5 tunnels. We have been waiting ages for just the right weather and Tuesday was perfect. We had our main heated prop tunnel to do which is a tricky one as it is clad with two sheets which inflate with a tiny fan to improve the heat retention. This one took all day and still needs a bit of finishing off. Wednesday was still sunny and started off still but got breezier as the day went on, this is the usual scenario when tunnel covering, everything is perfect until you unroll the sheets! Anyway, the windbreaks around the nursery did enough for us to get 4 covers on in a day which is a record for us and completed all the split tunnels on site, now we can relax.

We celebrated the end of summer with a trip to the local pub for lunch with everyone before some of our hardworking spring/summer crew finish for this year. Slightly tense incase we bumped into any hostile anti turbine locals but had a great meal with plenty of laughs.

Slowing brain function and over-excitement over a trip out, caused slight confusion yesterday. I am back into the weekly trip to the supermarket, but got slightly confused in the preamble when I met Caroline carrying the shopping boxes to the car after I had just loaded them myself. Turns out I had loaded the cat food! Did anyone see the BBC documentary/experiment on old folk a week or two ago (Young Ones)? it was fascinating. Anyone wanting to see how best to keep themselves or others from deteriorating with advancing years should see it. It’s still on the BBC iplayer and well worth a watch.

Eco news

Winter is coming, it’s getting a bit late but we are looking at major insulation installation in the house and where we can, on the nursery. From watching our daily electric consumption over the last 10 months it has become apparent that a vast amount of our use is related to heating. In the office, mess room and loos our total consumption falls by 80% when comparing winter with summer and when the oil consumption in the prop tunnels and house are added, in this accounts for over 70% of our direct carbon footprint. For too long now it has been too easy to avoid looking at these things but as environmental pressures and especially costs start to increase over the next few years it will become a focus point for everyone. Having spoken to a few people we are now recognising that we probably have many more options than we thought. The variety of insulation options have increased greatly in the past few years as have heating systems and fuel choices. We are looking at biomass boilers, probably wood pellets (now produced locally) which are carbon neutral and after the initial higher installation cost are much cheaper to run and a new hot-water heating system. The hot water is an interesting one, it uses a small air-source heat pump to take the heat directly from a warm room (eg the conservatory in summer) and use it to heat the hot water tank. This would be ideal for periods when the boiler is not on and reduces the boiler load when it is. Having now recognised the shockingly bad performance of our 1930’s house which looses heat from all over the place (suspended wooden floor complete with floorboards with wide gaps between them, un-insulated walls, lots of single glazed sash windows, holes in the wall for cat movement etc). At least the loft is not bad, although I have got to give it a good raking! (some of the insulation up there is recycled paper/card stuff that apparently settles over time and needs re-fluffing every now and then).

Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm

Tuesday 21 September 2010

I can’t believe the amount of stuff that goes on in one week. Not only have we delivered lots of plants and finished the bulk of the potting, but we discovered lots of new info about insulation possibilities for the house and clever hot water heating systems. I struggled to walk for two days after starting the new hockey season in less than peak physical shape and oh yes, we got the planning permission for the wind turbines approved by the city planning committee.

The sudden dip in temperature at night is a bit of a shock, especially as it has timed itself really well with the aga going on the blink, the living room chimney being opened up for repair creating a mini ‘mistral’ through the room and the house boiler out of action. Even the cats are getting a bit fed up trying to find a warm spot for a nap.

The plants don’t seem to mind the cool as we seem to be getting a real growth spurt before the cold really sets in. We are just going through a bit of a change in watering regimes at the moment which is likely to keep developing over the next couple of seasons. We are introducing more of a wet /dry cycle into the production to try and toughen up the plants, reduce the amount of green glop on the compost surface and reduce water use. With our current sub-irrigated sand-beds, which had been considered the best system around at one time for plant quality and water conservation, we get constantly moist compost when compost/sand-bed contact is good, this has served us well in the past but we can now do better. After years of repeated niggles with the sand-beds we were finally persuaded to try a different approach by the water usage figures produced by the NBIS.  These figures illustrated the extra water consumed by the nurseries using capillary sand-beds compared with those using a well managed wet/dry system (usually overhead), the opposite of the expected results. This has been recorded over three years so we know it’s not a one-off. Our current focus on tieing in sustainability with improved crop management has led us to incorporate an overhead system together with the sub irrigated option, trying out new wet/dry sub-irrigation systems and aiming to install some degree of rain water collection. Hopefully this will pay back quickly in reduced water bills, reduced plant wastage and time saved in pot tidying at despatch. You never stop learning in this trade.

Eco news

Ok, the really exciting news was really the planning consent given to our 3 wind turbines. What a relief, I have been playing it down in my head for so long that I can’t really get to grips with the fact that it’s got through and we can get on with it. No individuals turned up to object at the meeting, but as expected a representative for the two parish councils did read out a list of objection points. I did my bit and although I was a bit nervous I think it went ok, I am sure that the personal approach can work, with something like this, rather than sending in a non-local expert to represent you. Anyway, the planners dealt with all the raised points very well and the questions and debate from the committee eventually came to a sensible conclusion. The planning committee did recognise that public opinion has turned in favour of getting something done about renewable energy production, noted that there had only been three individual objections to the project and that the turbines themselves were not enormous. We passed unanimously in the end which was perfect. Thanks go to all those who have supported us on this one, even if it was a only few words of encouragement, it all added to the momentum. One shocking fact that the parish council did raise was that, according to them, this will be the biggest installation in Hampshire! If that is true, I am shocked and embarrassed as a Hampshire resident, that this small project is all we have managed. Still we have to start somewhere.

Last weekend’s Whitely Village energy exhibition was not quite the extravaganza I envisaged but we did meet one very informative chap from a builder merchants (Covers) who have an ‘Eco Centre’ specialising in wide range sustainable products for buildings, from insulation to boilers, heat pumps, energy generation etc. There is an amazing range of clever and sometimes very simple kit aimed at sorting out more sustainable domestic living but it won’t work if we don’t install it!

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

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 13 September 2010

At last the phones are sorted. It took another visit from the engineer to install an earlier version of the software that runs it all (newest version had too many bugs in it) and then a few hours resetting it all up again. We still found the odd hiccup after he had gone but he was able to fix all those remotely via the internet in a matter of moments. It’s all very impressive once it works but it has been a pain-full process getting there. I felt quite sorry for the engineer who was so confident in the kit, only to have to sit through days hunched over his laptop and on his mobile, talking to base and the manufacturers, huffing, sighing, and unable to get it to do pretty basic stuff. The relief on his face when the old software worked so well was a delight to see.
I had an entertaining evening recording the various messages on the new system, I had to wait until everyone had gone home and I could talk without distraction or embarrassment. It took me hours to get anything remotely coherent recorded. When you aren’t used to recording stuff it all seems so odd, my voice doesn’t really sound like that for a start, I can hear my brothers voice but not mine, and how come that a simple phrase can come out with so many words in the wrong order! Then I started to get a bit hysterical and started getting the giggles after a few words, after which the language got a bit more colourful and panic filled as I realised that as soon as it was recorded it was on the system. I then had to quickly rerecord it before someone called which added more pressure and more mistakes. I got there in the end, so apologies to anyone who tried to call when either the system was down or you got an earful of garbled rubbish from some nutter with a microphone in apparent need of a sedative.

Sorry, but those of you receiving this stuff by fax rather than email will have had a rather erotic service over the last couple of weeks due to secondary problems with the new phone system. Hopefully this is sorted now, although it would be more eco-friendly, reliable and cheaper to send it by email if you have the facility available. Just let me know an address and we will add you to the list. Isn’t auto speeling correction just great?!

Eco news

Wind Turbine planning committee on Thursday. There are 4 time slots for people to address the panel, 3 mins (total) for the public to oppose, 3 mins for the parish councils to support or oppose, 5 mins for any city councillors and 3 mins at the end for the applicant and/or supporters. The planning officers report for the committee came out last week and it looks pretty good, they seem to have covered all the objections raised and effectively dismissed them and come out with a fairly strong recommendation to grant permission. We have a couple of the local city councillors who are supporting the proposal, one Lib Dem and one Tory, so with a split representation on the panel itself we might be covered. There has still been very little negative local coverage other than the Crawley Parish Council’s foot stamping, and even that seems to have failed to produce much reaction as far as we know. I am ever hopeful that the tide is turning and a project like this will start to see a more positive response from local communities but the proof will be in seeing how the city councillors respond.

We are off in a minute to the Winter Energy Weekend at Whitley Village near Southampton (http://winacc.org.uk/events/2010-09-10/visit-whiteley-energy-weekend-today)%20see to see if we can pick up any info on local sustainability projects and maybe bend Winchester City Councils ear to make recycling easier for local businesses. It’s aimed mostly at the domestic market but there should be plenty of companies and organisations exhibiting and pointing us all in the right direction. This year’s nursery electric consumption is now down by 23.02% (at end of August).

Nature notes

Summer nearly gone, swallows have all left and the house martins have definitely thinned out over the week. On Monday there were over 50 swooping over the nursery and yesterday just a handful returning to a couple of the nest sites. Still looking on the bright side there will be less guano on the conservatory roof!

Don't forget to do your bit.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Friday 10 September 2010

We have received some pictures of the damage caused by the fire at the hairy pot factory in Sri Lanka that we thought you might like to see.







Production has been delayed but we are continuing to work with the producers to plan for the coming season

Monday 6 September 2010

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

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

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

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

Eco news

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

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

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

Don't forget to do your bit.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 30 August 2010

At last the sun has come back out, just in time for the holiday weekend, hurrah. So here I am enjoying my weekend, sowing a few seeds, de-limescaling the fog nozzles and sorting out the watering. Things are looking pretty good here, a couple of extra staff this summer has kept us on top of most jobs and the nursery is looking good and is pretty full, ready for the spring onslaught. Actually we still have lots to do but there is a definite feeling of control and progress, rather than the usual organised panic to get everything done in time.
Hairy pots on BBC TV last Sunday! Spotted by one of our eagle eyed, keen and Sunday morning TV watching customers! It was on BBC2, ‘Something for the Weekend’ on the cooking spot! You can see it on the following link (it is 1hr 18mins into the programme, if you can’t watch the whole thing! It’s very exciting, I don’t get out much!) http://bbc.co.uk/i/tl5b3/

Needless to say, the office is in chaos again, the computer firewall issues remain and to add to the excitement we have had a new phone system installed, well nearly installed. With assurances that it was a two day job and the lines would only be down for half an hour we thought it was going to be easy, especially as I wasn’t involved with the installation, it was done by professionals! They started on Tuesday and I’m sat now here on Saturday, still sharing my limited desk space with the computer screen and the fax, as the job is still not finished. All the kit is now in position but they can’t get the programming right, so at the moment all the phones and extensions work, but we have no messaging service, our separate internet number doesn’t work and the fax won’t send out through the fax machine (it’s ok sending out via the computer and receiving is ok). The promises of better, cheaper and easy are all a distant memory. So if you call and there is no reply please try again later, the messaging/answer phone stuff will be back but not for a day or two.

I call console myself by admiring my potentially valuable rock I brought back from Cornwall. Unfortunately I have missed the boat on cashing in on it’s value by about 5,000 years, as it is a chunk of Gabbro rock from the Lizzard Peninsular. It was prized in ancient cultures as the best cooking stone. They used to cook their food in pottery vessels (before metal was widely used) which couldn’t stand the heat of the open fire, so they heated stones in the fire then dropped them in the pot. Other rocks would shatter after a very short time potentially breaking the pot or at least making the meal a bit gritty, but gabbro lasted ages. Apparently you can boil a pot of water in about 30 seconds so it’s quicker than the kettle! It is only found in the UK on the Lizzard and in Skye, but it was traded all over the country and sometimes incorporated into clay to improve heating properties of pots. It is still quarried today as a road-stone. We made a special trip to this beach to collect it, how sad are we? It’s funny but we hardly saw another soul on our trips out.

Eco news

A letter in the local paper stood out today saying that Lloyds are predicting oil supplies to fall behind global demand bu 2013. Oops, that’s going to be exciting. Having spoken to a Shell employee a short while ago he was saying how things were starting to get a lot more difficult with oil extraction, the problems were on two fronts, more extreme environments to extract from (eg very deep sea sites) and more extreme political locations for drilling.

We are looking at all sorts of options for the house now, reducing electric consumption, upgrading the insulation and installing a wood burner to reduce the oil consumption will be a start.

Bat survey results are in and have been forwarded to the planning dept. Results were perfect for the turbine planning but not so good for the levels of bats in the area. Only one common little one detected foraging down by the nursery not up on the turbine site. All looking good for the planning application now with everything in place although by the time the ecology report is updated with the bat survey info it isn’t expected to go to the planning committee until October!

This year’s nursery electric consumption is now down by 22.51% (at end of July).

Monday 23 August 2010

Crab Pasties anyone?

Check out our 'beautiful Lemon Balm' taking centre stage on BBC 2's Something for the Weekend http://bbc.co.uk/i/tl5b3/ it's 'gorgeous' says Louise! 

Sunday 22 August 2010

Back to reality after a fantastic break in Cornwall. Ate too much, drunk too much and walked too far, now I need a fortnight off to recover from all the excitement. Weather was perfect for what we wanted, not quite right for the sun worshipers, but we just about fitted in everything required in a Cornish break, pasties, ice creams, cliff top stuff, unusual bird spotting (Icterine Warbler), fireworks and Red Arrow displays, ancient exploring stuff, mining and art, not sure how we fitted it all in around great eating stops and sleeping.

It always seems to take ages to get through all the pre-holiday preparations when leaving the nursery and it can be a bit of a wrench to actually leave, but despite being without their dynamic leadership team, the nursery thrived without us with loads of jobs getting done and orders delivered, with only the odd little hiccup (tail lift on big van burst a pipe, fog system in the prop tunnel stopped at the same time as the shade net over the tunnel split and slid off and the sun came out over last weekend!).

We have sorted out those problems this week with some prompt repairs and it’s now all up and running again. Unfortunately not all the news was great with confirmation that our last delivery of pots for this summer was lost in the fire at the coir pot production unit in Sri Lanka. Some of their pressing equipment was damaged too although I believe it will be relatively easy for them to repair it. The facilities there are very basic but it is still a huge blow in such a vulnerable community. For us it isn’t the end of the world, as we have most of our stock here already and will just mean a readjustment of the potting schedules and spring planning, but for the small set up out there it is going to be really tough.
They have already arranged to borrow more money to repair the damage and get going again quickly but I suspect we are going to have to find a way of giving them some support in advancing payments/orders and paying a little more for the pots until they are back on their feet and financially sound. As we are their biggest customer (I believe by quite a long way) we do feel a responsibility to this group who have tried so hard to get their product right for what we want and don’t have very much to fall back on. They were very worried initially that we would move straight on to another supplier, as they feel they have let us down, but we don’t see that as a responsible option unless things take a significant turn for the worse. So far we have agreed to take delivery of and pay for, the last of this year’s loads, despite it being too late to pot most lines by the time they arrive and to put in orders for next year’s stock. What the next step will be I am not sure but I suspect a price rise will be the most obvious way to help. We will see how things develop.

Unfortunately the computers have not cured themselves while we were away and are still not talking to each other unless the firewall is disabled. At the moment I just can’t face the pain of calling the help line at McAfee again to help sort it out having spent one afternoon before we went away trying to cure it after an automatic update sent by them seemed to have started the whole issue. As a couple of the other computers are out of date on their contracts I might ditch the lot and get a different security package it might be easier, or not! Who knows?  Not me that’s for sure!

Eco news

Bat survey results came in this week and have been forwarded to the planning dept. (Decimal point hiccup in my last notes, cost was only £1,650, much more reasonable for one nights recording!) Results were perfect for the turbine planning but not so good for the levels of bats in the area. Only one common little one detected foraging down by the nursery not up on the turbine site. All looking good for the planning application now with everything in place although by the time the ecology report is updated with the bat survey info it isn’t expected to go to the planning committee until October!

Electric company have quoted about £20,000 (yes, decimal point is right on this one) to connect the turbines up to the mains as we need a new post mounted substation and quite a lot of cable to cope with the two way traffic of power.

This year’s electric consumption is now down by 22.51% (at end of July).

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 9 August 2010

Just a quickie as I’m supposed to be packing my bucket and spade ready for our week in Cornwall. Just about to dash out into town to purchase my emergency summer wardrobe. I have only managed one trip out to the shops since mid March and that was just Sainsbury’s and apparently my boxers and socks are not in a fit state for such an exciting adventure. I must admit the number of apertures in most of the current stock is far higher than the initial designs intended, so off we go. There is also the chance of a few extra purchases as the ‘one outfit fits all’ may not be enough for all the destinations on the itinerary. This going on holiday lark is not as easy as you would think, especially when you add in all the extra work and planning needed to sort out everything to be away, and then all the effort to catch up what you missed when you get back. When there are so many exciting things going on here it is proving to be quite a wrench to get away, but I’m sure everyone will be glad to see the back of us for a few days as I’m sure the lack of ‘outside world’ contact does send us slightly potty.


We had some worrying news late last week that there had been a fire at one of the pots stores in Sri Lanka in the village that makes our pots. Fortunately there are no reports of any casualties other than possibly our last shipment of pots. Oops. Details are sketchy at the moment but we may have to adjust our potting plans slightly to cope with a slight shortfall in supply, we’ll find out on our return. We are not too worried for our own planning as we have had 75% of our stock already delivered and we can adjust things our end to cope easily enough, but it could be a big setback for the setup in Sri Lanka. I believe we are one of their main customers and so, we do feel, that does put us under an obligation to try to help out where we can, so we are reassuring them that we are not going to abandon them in favour of another supply source and we will be seeing if there is anything else we can do to help them through what could be a difficult time. Being a very resourceful community I’m sure they will bounce back quickly, but until we hear more detail we are not sure quite the level of problem they have. Although this does add a new level of worry for us, it is a potentially rewarding one to have and quite different from the sort of worries we used to have when dealing in the cut-throat world of supplying the multiples (last lorry left on Wednesday, hurrah). Taking some social responsibility as part of running a business can make up a lot for the sometimes thin pickings on the financial front, especially when everyone pulls together as a result.

Eco news

Still no news on bat survey yet.

The quote is in from the electric company for the upgrade necessary for the substation and cable to take in any surplus power we generate. Ouch. Mind you it is still better value than the bat survey (three week wait, one night recording and another 3-4 weeks before results come in = £16,500). Still I’m sure it will be worth it in the end. We are just checking that the sub station and cable are man enough to take a bit extra, in case we want to put in a bit of solar generation at a later date when the price comes down a bit.

This year’s electric consumption is now down by 22.51% (at end of July).

Nature notes

Second batch of swallows have fledged and are getting their first flying lessons this morning. The skies over the nursery and house are now filling up with young house martins and swallows as the youngsters take to the air and move aside for the next lot. They are so busy and quick moving it is impossible to count them, but it is one of those sunny sights of summer that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Sunday 1 August 2010

Slightly more organised this week and sending this a day early in preparation for a day off to visit my Mum & Dad in sunny Stafford tomorrow. This is a trial run because in 9 days time we are going to have a whole week off, and we need the practice in taking time away from the nursery.
This will be the first full day off since the middle of March so we are really looking forward to it. All the usual pre-break sorting out still has to be done, fitting in all the jobs we usually leave until the weekend but it all looks promising for an early start at the moment.

The potting machine has been pounding away all week as we get stuck into producing some of next spring’s crops and we have been putting together quite a few orders again which is great.

Friday marked a special moment when we completed the final plant despatch processing of our last ‘high street multiple’ plastic pot contract. The last trolleys actually get packed and loaded on Wednesday but it does mark the end of an era. We have supplied several of these customers over the last 20 years and this one for 10, each year it has got tougher and tougher to make it work financially let alone get any sort of personal satisfaction out of the relationship, so it is quite a relief to be able to ‘let them go’!

This winter we will have the entire pot production area on the nursery down to hairy pots, hurrah. This means that we will have changed the nursery production from all plastic pots to all hairy in 4 years, let’s hope the sales continue to grow and soak up the extra capacity, it certainly shows all the signs of doing so at the moment. As the last pot was cleaned and priced there was a slightly bizarre, but touching, spontaneous round of applause. I think a round of cakes and sparkling grape juice may be in order for later in the week!

No resting on laurels here though. We have a whole load of further projects aimed at improving the hairy production system combining quality improvements, labour saving and improving overall sustainability. Several irrigation developments to introduce a wet/dry cycle naturally improving plant quality and reducing liverwort growth on the compost, beds and pots, rainfall harvesting, wind turbine installation (one day!), energy and resource saving, tunnel renovation (replacing gantries with trolley paths) and wildlife enhancement. It’s all go, not really got time for a break, still when you work on a nursery life’s one long holiday really, as we trundle about in our clogs carrying our trugs and secateurs!

Eco news

No news on bat survey yet.

One of our things to look at on our sustainability list this year was whether to put in a beehive to help out on the bee survival front. But I have just had a walk about, updating the availability list, and I suspect that we are probably already providing a useful habitat for the bumble bee populations and competition from honey bees may put them off. We don’t have enormous areas of flowering stock as hopefully most gets sold before it gets that far but there were loads on the mints and African Blue Basil in particular. I don’t know a lot about bees but there were several sorts and a lot of them, probably over 100 on the basil alone. I shall see if Sparsholt college fancy doing a project on it, we could also do with some input on overwintering facilities we can install in the tunnels to keep the lady birds and lacewings on site too. I will add it to my list.

Went to my Plato Sustain meeting last week and took along a wooden box of hairy herbs and one of our internet delivery boxes (clever award winning recycled card thing). This was by request, as they all wanted to see what we were up to. I’m glad to say they were quite impressed and excited, I think that their image of what a hairy nurseryman gets up to all day has improved and they can see what can be achieved with a bit of thought and application.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm

Monday 26 July 2010

Another week slips by and it’s the end of July already, how did that happen? I think it’s something to do with how the weeks fill up with so much stuff. This week we had a big compost delivery, a container of hairy pots to unload and store, two work experience girls on their final week, two days of birthday cake coffee breaks, harvest starting on the farm, several orders, lots of potting, irrigation installation, setting up a hairy pot stage display at a local village flower show, a bat survey and a computer melt down.

The worst thing in a busy week is getting off to a dodgy start, it’s so difficult to catch up. I had a particularly frustrating IT problem when on Monday morning when I turned on all the computers and none of them would talk to each other. It worked fine when I turned them of late on Sunday night, but no amount of network messing about or turning it all off and on again could sort it out. After hours of messing about, showing one computer to the other so that they could see each other and maybe communicate I tried turning off the firewall software and sure enough that sorted it. McAfee had sent an virus update in the night and it completely stopped all file sharing with the main computer. So despite all my personal insecurities surfacing and blaming myself for the problems, it turned out to be someone else’s fault! Still not fixed despite McAfee’s help but at least we can make things work now if we need to. The joys of mixing high tech stuff and old people!

Eco news

At last the bat survey has been done, The combination of equipment, personnel and weather all came together on Wednesday night and an overnight survey was completed. A very well informed young chap turned up at 8.30 in the evening to set it all up and do a bit of a hand held, walk-about survey. We heard him slip away (in his top of the range Volvo 4-wheel drive) at about 11.30, so he had done a good shift. We caught up with him the next morning when he came back to collect the recorded over-night data and dismantle his two tall masts to see what he had discovered. He only detected one bat with his hand-held kit and that was down behind our house, where I said I regularly see one feeding, but had heard nothing up by the turbine sites. What the microphones will have recorded from the masts we won’t know until the man who runs the software that reads the recordings, comes back from holiday in two or three weeks. So another likely delay there. One day it will all come together!

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 19 July 2010

What a lovely week of cool and damp relief. Looks like warming up again next week, in the south east anyway, so brace yourselves. Feeling slightly sorry for my brother in law and his family who always have a break in Cornwall before harvest kicks in and almost every year it is a wet week. Needless to say last week was their week! Still at least they got away and are back today, they could have been with Gold Whatsit and stuck overseas, covering hotel bills and sorting out a flight home.

We did our stint at the Woking Show on Wednesday which was a great day out. I always try to be better organised than previous years and get away from the nursery, on setting up day, in plenty of time. As usual I failed and didn’t leave the nursery this time until 3.50 (day didn’t start well with a tyre puncture on the big van which needed replacing and it was uphill from then on). We were due to be set up and off the show site by 6.00 and with the help of one of our young eager staff members we just about got it done. The stand looked fresh, colourful and hairy which is just what we were after, although I will have to come up with some new signs for next time to polish it up a bit.

It is surprising to walk round the show and see how we stand out as the only exhibitor making anything much of the sustainability issues that are set to challenge the way we live. The quality of plants and the displays were fantastic but I do get the impression that only lip service is being paid to the issues that are going to dominate our lives in years to come. I know plants themselves and gardening are pushing things in the right direction because of the benefits of ‘doing it’, but surely we can make more of this.
At the PLATO Sustain (business improvement) meetings I attend everyone thinks that it’s easy for us to ‘go green’ because of the industry we are in and it is quite hard to try and explain why the majority of the trade doesn’t seem very interested in the opportunities that might be out there.

Anyway, the actual show day went well with several new contacts made and existing ones reinforced. Visitors were a bit thin on the ground due, we suspect, to the National Plant Fair at Stoneleigh a couple of weeks ago, which was very well attended. It will be interesting to see how the show adapts and recovers over the next year or two.

Eco news

Bat survey this coming week if the weather is ok. Then it’s on with the turbine application. Each day I see our poplar windbreak rustling & bending in the breeze I can picture those blades turning.

Nature notes

Tiny frogs all over the shop.
Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Sunday 11 July 2010

Just a quickie as we are going out for a educational (prehistoric stuff) walk and pub lunch. Need to make the most of it as this may be the summer holiday!

We are still sending out lots of lovely stock despite the hot and dry weather which does makes the garden a bit of a challenge. Hopefully we will all have a bit of rain and some cooler temperatures over the coming week to freshen everything up and pep up the enthusiasm again. There is still lots of horticultural TV coverage so there is plenty to get excited about.

Woking Show this coming Wednesday hope to see lots of you there!  I must have a think about sorting out a display and printing a few catalogues. Plenty of time for that!

Eco news

Bat survey booked for week after next. Ouch, nearly £2,000.

Nature notes

Tiny frogs all over the shop.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 5 July 2010

Another week whizzes by and still the relentless sun, wind and lack of precipitation continues, for us down in here anyway. The wind is blowing through the leaves of the poplar windbreak again and I mourn the waste of energy (and cost savings) that another days electric generation is lost, but things are looking up.

It already seems an age ago that we dipped out of the World Cup and the fact that the Germans, who knocked us out, go marching on, makes it easier to justify such a poor effort. We've crammed a lot in since then orders, potting, watering and tunnel clearing so it all seems like a distant memory.

I attended two PLATO Sustain meetings, one local and one regional, both on subjects that were to me a bit scary. One was on current best practice/tactics on sales rep employment and use, and the other on marketing in a recession and social media marketing. Having been a bit sceptical about what would be relevant to us, I was blown away by the how much valuable info I gathered. Although at my age I do suffer from the problem that as extra bits of info go in one ear other bits fall out of the other, so I come away thinking wow what a lot of great stuff and when Caroline asks me what it was all about I can only remember that lunch was great!
It reminds me how good it is to occasionally step away from the day to day stuff and get a fresh view of life, the universe and everything. The social media bit was daunting with so many communication channels available for everyone, especially the techno savvy young. It was generally a room full of old fogies or businessmen, of which a few had dabbled in the area but were all astonished at the scale and potential of the various medias. We had a whistle stop tour of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linked-in, search engine stuff and a load of more that fell out of the other ear! The amount of time spent on all this by the users and the amount of available info left floating about by individuals and businesses, which we can use, is astonishing. In the very near future it could become a very efficient way for us all to keep our ‘followers’ up to date with all our news and offers if you get the approach right. Mind you it may take a while for our more mature end of the market to catch up but do bear in mind, we do have a younger customer base appearing. The days of the upfront hard sell appear to be over. Oh yes another gem I picked up was, don’t forget that the main aim of marketing should not be to sell more but to increase your product value and sell at a higher profit. Then you can invest in doing it all even better next year (it’s always jam tomorrow!)

Eco news

A very pleasant surprise this week with a letter from the chief planner who says that the turbine application will go to planning committee to discuss, as expected, but that he would be recommending approval, hoped for but not expected, subject to a bat survey being carried out along the hedge where they are to be positioned.
The survey will delay things another couple of months we think, but the recognition of the relatively small scale of the project and the need for change was very reassuring. We have heard that those in Crawley village opposed to the idea are currently trying to drum up support for a petition against it, but hopefully it won’t get too noisy. There were certainly not many who were moved enough to comment on the application in a negative way during the planning application commenting period. So well done and thanks to all those who managed a supportive comment, you did your bit and it helped.

Nature notes

House Martins have hatched in several nests, there are young finches all over the place and the Sparrowhawk looks to be busy. I know some of our ladies here don’t like the number of kills seen at this time of year, but you need to see the bigger picture and hope it is showing a healthy local environment where the food chain is complete and working. The long tailed tit population seems to have exploded after getting a bit thin on numbers after the cold winter, I can hear them tweeting (even they have mobiles now) all over the place.

Still a few tadpoles appear occasionally in the main pond but most have left home I think, we have certainly seen a few tiny frogs in the adjacent tunnels. It must be a tricky time being so small, I did hear someone say that a big one may eat the tiddlers in hard times which may or may not be true, but it does illustrate that it can be a ‘frog eat frog’ world out there. Take care!

Monday 28 June 2010

Just a quickie as it’s a big day today with a warm up Grand Prix to fall asleep in front of and the big game at 3 o’clock. I would normally be slaving away over a tray of seeds or mending something but it’s just too hot in the middle of the day. One advantage at the weekend, of living on site, is you can come in late in the evening to do any essentials when it’s easier to work. So my sympathies go out to you all if you are working all day in this. Please let’s have a bit of rain to give us a break.

Anyway, other than the increasing heat we have had another exciting week here enjoying a bit of end of spring shopping to add some new toys to our collection, with a new knapsack sprayer, hosepipes and the main bits ordered for the new irrigation tank, pumps and control equipment, It doesn’t take much to get us excited! On top of that we broke and mended the forklift (sounded very ill with lots of screeching which turned out to be the fan bearings), had a man in to check the potting machine which is old and knackered, know how it feels, and organised it to go back to the workshop at the end of the season for a complete overhaul. We finalised our holiday booking in Cornwall for November for our own end of season overhaul, sent back a load of packing crates and module trays to Holland for reuse and started collecting back lots of our wooden trays from those we are passing close to on our travels. All in all, a very satisfying week.

On top of all this I had my faith restored in the future with a visit to a local primary school on Thursday. They were having a ‘low carbon day’ which was a nationwide school thing where they focus the days work on carbon issues. A school helper had contacted us through http://www.hairypotplants.co.uk/ website asking if someone who like to go along and discuss our approach to sustainability and carbon stuff and chat about our turbine plans. I had never done anything like this before, we do the odd nursery tour for old fogies and students from the local college but not off site and not to such a young audience. Not having any kids of our own I had no idea how to pitch it, so I prepared in the usual Kirton Farm management style and decided to take along a few props and wing it! It ended up being a great morning, I did a couple of sessions covering about 90 children aged 7 to 9 and their teachers, assistants and headmistress and the level of knowledge and enthusiasm was just brilliant. I suspect it worked so well because at that age we met on an intellectually level playing field! After being mentally beaten up by the local parish council on the turbine application it was a joy to hear such enthusiastic, balanced and sensible thoughts coming from such young minds. Let’s hope it all holds together when the hormones and sulking take over (although I don’t sulk as much as I used too).

Nature notes

Lots more dragonflies and damsel flies now appearing over the ponds and laying eggs.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Thursday 24 June 2010

Brought to you by Kirton Farm Nurseries, for your viewing pleasure we are proud to present the uncut version of Derek being interviewed about PLATO Sustain!
Keep your eyes peeled for a more coiffeured version with additional contributors soon....



PS nice turbines!

Sunday 20 June 2010

Nearly the end of June already, how did that happen?

Busy as usual, but a slight lull in madness has allowed a bit of development planning to take shape as we try and think of more ways to do it all better for the coming season. The wind turbine project seems to have developed it’s own momentum and progressing along it’s slow pathway to hopefully it’s eventual erection.
We are now looking at pushing along other projects big and small. Perhaps some replacement hose to replace the old multi-repaired ones that are past their best and super frustrating when they continually catch on things as you drag them about, usually just as you have got near the far end of the tunnel and have to turn off and walk all the way back to release! A couple of new small sprayers to bring the equipment up to date and make the whole job easier. Then we have a collection of irrigation projects to start ranging from a new storage tank and pump, to installing some new application kit. We are going to try and introduce more wet/dry cycles into the plant production process in an effort to toughen the plants up, reduce the growth of liverwort and moss on the compost surface and reduce water and labour use. We are also looking at starting to experiment with the installation of some of the infrastructure to harvest the rainfall to reduce mains water use, trialling tunnel guttering and drainage channels etc. Although we can’t put in a large reservoir at the moment to store all the overwinter rains, we can put in a smaller storage tank and adopt a ‘use it up as we go’ system where we use up any rainfall we get during the 8 irrigating months of the year, to dilute mains use. In theory we could reduce mains use by at least 50% at a relatively low cost.

Unfortunately this is the usual story of jam tomorrow! Lots of spending and work to put it all in place, with the promise of an easier life in future. One day. Trouble is, it’s so easy to get carried away with all this nursery shopping ‘cos it seems such a good idea at the time.

Now my 'old gits moan off the week' goes to our nearest village parish council and their objection letter to our turbine project. Now I know it’s not everyone’s idea of good countryside development which is fair enough, but they have really gone to town, bringing to light a list of objections most of which are irrelevant on the planning issue and others I took personal offense at. They complained about a lot of stuff one of which was that their questions had not been satisfactorily answered and there was not ‘proper’ consultation. I couldn’t have made ourselves more open to queries and info, they had months to ask questions and visit the site (one visitor) or arrange to go and see a similar installation. They also suggest that the comments letters are mostly from non locals and all have a suspiciously similar content (not many objections from local individuals), they really are cheeky monkeys. If you want a look it’s on page 6 of the comments page;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&tab=0

As usual we will be donating a collection of plants to the Sparsholt fete at the weekend, only the council objected, not everyone in the village, and I’m not bitter!


Dragonflies and damsel flies now appearing over the ponds. A stunning blue Broad-bodied Chaser got trapped in one of the tunnels during the week but I managed to rescue it with a plastic shovel! I tried to ‘push’ it out and it simply landed on the orange blade and I carried it out 150ft to the open. The easiest ‘rescue’ I’ve ever done!

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 14 June 2010

It’s a perfect summer day for me, bright but not too hot, no distractions from getting stuff done and I’m not the England goalkeeper!  Poor chap, he will be waking up this morning knowing that one tiny lapse in concentration will haunt him for the rest of his life, still luckily it is only a game. I hope the start of the World Cup doesn’t kill the interest, activity and wallet opening associated with the outdoor pastimes, the weather seems to be in our favour still, with a nice bit of rain and cooler temperatures last week. We still have a lovely range of stuff to sell, with all the summer lines now starting and the herb range wider than ever. We have cut back quantities now as things slow up a bit but things do look pretty yummy. (Don’t chew on the lemongrass too long it can bite back a few hours later!)

The planning application comments period ends on Wednesday (16th) and we now have quite a collection of positive inputs which is great. It does take a few days for the comments to appear on the website sometimes so we won’t see the full response until later in the week.

Met the new bank manager this week which is always a bit of a tense occasion as everyone tries to suss each other out.  He seemed very on the ball and customer service orientated, so hopefully we will get lots of support and encouragement and not too much hassle.  Luckily the figures he was working from showed a significant improvement in performance from 2008 (shockingly bad year for us) to 2009. Despite the slow start we have made more improvements this spring, so we hope to keep in his good books.  He was delighted that we were getting out of producing for the multiples as he had seen the soul destroying effects that these customers can have on companies of our limited size.  I must say nursery life is quite exciting again now we have taken control back for ourselves rather than running it for their benefit. We seem to be pressing all the right buttons for the bank at the moment, let’s hope we can keep it up and perhaps even make a profit!

Eco Update

Another month has slipped by, and the meters are read again and we have now reduced our electric consumption this year by 19.79%.  Hurrah, this means that if we ever get the planning stuff sorted we could produce our entire needs with the turbines and possibly have a bit spare to put back in the grid.

Planning application for our three small wind turbines. If you would like to take a look follow this link;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&tab=0

Consultation ends on the 16th June. So please if you have a view express it on the comments button on the planning website. Thanks.

Nature notes

I have seen an adult moorhen feeding around the nursery for weeks now and yesterday disturbed her with a well grown large youngster, so she must have had a nest knocking about somewhere on the nursery.  We usually get a nest somewhere on site, although we don’t often get a successful outcome, so that was nice to see.
Red Kites over three times this week.
Lots of young goldfinches fluttering about following the parents around, scrounging food (sound familiar?)
Housemartins doing lots of house building, they are gathering mud from around a puddle we keep going for them in the yard.  The natural soil is a bit light and crumbly for them and they seem to prefer the yard surface which has a higher clay content.
Swallow chicks have hatched, looks like 4 heads peaking out.  A second pair arrived last week, but don’t seem to be able to settle on a nest site.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 7 June 2010

A good bank holiday meant lots of top ups this week and just the four days to squeeze it all into, but we got it all done before the weekend started and got some potting done too. The scary thing is that this week we started taking deliveries of plant material destined for next year’s sales and I know the sooner we pot it, the chunkier it will be for the spring, so the pressure is on to tidy up and get going. It’s all go! There is this vague hope that we will get a pause between one season ending and the next beginning when we can sort out all those little projects that would make life easier. But as we approach holiday time and staff numbers dwindle, then the sales bowl along for longer each year (which is quite handy!) that gap evaporates and all of a sudden before you know it, it’s winter again! Mind you that might have something to do with age too. We are just about to re-book our annual holiday trek to sunny St Ives, which got cancelled due to the flat we rent being rebuilt. So that’s something to look forward to, roll on November, it’s just around the corner. Mind you I am quite lucky really as I get to go on holiday every day for a few minutes when I sit down for my afternoon/evening tea break after everyone has slipped away. The interweb is great for a taking a quick trip to your favourite place, just let your mind go (mine left ages ago) and you're there.

Quite a bit of effort this week on trying to get some positive comments put up on the planning website (see below) as one of the local councillors phoned earlier in the week worried about the negative landscapers report. It is possible that we make get a straight refusal without it going to the planning committee and then have to take it to appeal unless there is enough interest shown to justify a debate by the committee. She has requested that it should be discussed but we need enough support on the application to back the project up. Our planning man has done a detailed reply to the landscape report which should appear on the planning site very soon and does a great job of picking each point raised and arguing very convincingly that the rules/guidance can be viewed very differently. It’s great to have someone who understands this detail, otherwise we could just get squashed by the ‘experts’ interpretation of the policies.

Eco Update

Wind turbine planning app has been processed and is now being considered. All the details and dates etc are on the Winchester City Council website and there is space there to send in supportive (or not) comments on the application. If you would like to take a look follow this link;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&tab=0

More detail is on there now, including a report from the planning landscape man who visited this week and who like the permission refused due the impact of the turbines on the view. Consultation ends on the 16th June. So please if you have a view express it on the comments button on the planning website. Thanks.

Nature notes

Another RSPB bird watch this weekend. The usual one is early in the year but this gives a count of the summer visitors as well. It’s not very easy to count the bush & tree dwellers with all the foliage out now and the house martins move about so much it’s quite tricky. Rather handily we do have a puddle in the yard we keep topped up, so that the house martins are supplied with nest building material and we counted 11 there yesterday. A Red kite glided over earlier, now seems to be around more regularly. Had a long tailed tit in the office, let it out of the window and it flew into despatch where it called to its mates outside for a couple of hours before finding its way out. It’s funny how some birds struggle to find the exits, insisting on always flying up into the roof rather than out of the 4 wide open doors. The sparrows, robins, great tits and pied wagtails are in and out all the time, feeding on the trapped insects in the tunnel roof spaces, but get a pigeon or partridge in there and you’re lucky if you escape without another puncture hole somewhere.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Yesterday was a lovely day to get down the local garden centre or nursery and empty your pockets. A nice drop of rain yesterday and some sensible temperatures for the next few days should keep things bowling along nicely.

This week saw a flurry of activity as everyone stocked up for a promising weekend and all that added to the usual exciting extras that add to the spice of life. Each week I wonder what I am going to put in this little rant and each week I end up having to leave out a load of stuff as so much seems to happen.

We had to have a new water pump and pressure vessel fitted after last week’s breakdown. Ouch. Naturally the day we get it fitted it rains and temperatures plummeted! We are now looking to update the whole system to try and save a bit of water, increase our efficiency and improve plant health and quality. Even when the pump is running we struggle to cope with low pressures etc in hot weather which can be stressful for us and the plants. The current system tends to leave the pots a little too wet in dull cool conditions and too dry in the heat or if they get moved too much. We are looking at a two stage development, first to get the distribution and application better and then reduce our reliance on the mains supply by harvesting the rainfall. We already use less water in a year than falls on the tunnels, so if we can collect that and store it we can reduce our reliance enormously. Unfortunately although the harvesting and storage part is the most environmentally exciting it’s not the most economically beneficial, so for this summer it will be the application we will concentrate on and maybe next year we will look at collection and storage. It would be nice to do both but time and resources would be against us especially as it may take a while to sought out any grant applications and jump through the necessary hoops there may be, on the collect and storage side.

Fantastic meal out last night celebrating Caroline’s birthday with some friends, in a big yurt. Riverford Organics are touring with their restaurant staff to several locations through the summer doing lunches and evening meals. It’s a single sitting job on benches on tables of ten (80 covers a night). The meal was just great, lots of stuff all fresh & yummy, not too fancy but imaginative and the best I’ve had since a stonking fish & chips at the Porthminster Cafe in St Ives. Despite a cool night the yurt was warm & cosy with a really friendly atmosphere all helped along by a very jolly if slightly stressed crew (only their 3rd night) and free flowing organic beverages. The whole exercise was thoughtfully presented with crockery and soft furnishings bought from charity shops in Devon which added to the chaotic, boisterous family feel to the event. It was a good job the crockery was cheap as quite a bit of it seemed to be hitting the floor as one or two of the staff struggled with the challenges set before them. A good end to the birthday celebrations which had started early as somehow I managed to get the day wrong for my present giving! (Incorrect time/date setting on my watch), at least I was early and not late. Also thank goodness for 24 hr opening at Tesco’s, it’s so much better than the garage for those special gifts!  http://www.riverford.co.uk/about/riverford/riverford_travelling_field_kitchen.php

Eco Update

The wind turbine planning application has been processed and is now being considered. All the details and dates are on the Winchester City Council website and there is space there to send in supportive (or not) comments on the application. If you would like to take a look follow this link;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&PAGE=2&tab=0

More detail is on there now, including a report from the planning landscape man who visited this week and who like the permission refused due the impact of the turbines on the view. Consultation ends on the 16th June. So please if you have a view express it on the comments button on the planning website. Thanks.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 24 May 2010

We are supplying the charity Thrive who use gardening to change lives, with delightful boxes of hairiness. 


Why not make a donation of a Plant a Difference Box to enable them to send a box of full of ready-to-plant baby vegetables, herbs or perennial plants directly to disabled gardeners' homes so they can have a go at gardening and discover the benefits which it can bring to their lives.

One in five people in the UK are living with a disability that they were born with, gained as they age, or as a result of an illness or accident.

Gardening can bring profound change, from improvements in physical or psychological health to adjustments in beliefs, attitudes or behaviours to the transformation of skills, knowledge and abilities.
Yet another great week and a marked change in the weather too. We seem to have moved from late winter to high summer in a week. Still at least it’s due to cool down again fairly quickly next week which should be a bit easier. Gone are the vests and double fleece wearing and bring on the flouncy shirts. Anticipation is already building for the first ‘outing’ of my legendary flowery piece that I wore in the heat of last summer. Having bolstered my case by expressing my confidence in my own sexuality, I am now duty bound to get it out again when the heat builds up this year, although this time with the added expectations of all those who missed out on it last year (luckily it was a very short summer).

Meanwhile the sun coming out and the temperature rising produces the usual irrigation crisis, it always seems to happen when you need the supply most. This time one of the main pumps burst its main seal, tripping out the electric supply and rendering itself inoperable. A man has been to assess it and we need a new pump and pressure vessel due to old age and general fatigue (know how it feels). Not too expensive and luckily we do have a back-up system although pressures are a bit low by the end of the day.

Printer hassle again in the office, with a paper jam error message. Remove paper (stopped in fuser unit), prints one or ten sheets then error repeats. Change all consumables one by one with other printer and think it’s cured but then goes wrong again. Take apart and clean out with air gun, works for 6 hrs then stops again. Now getting a bit cross. Phone consumable supplier, very helpful but never heard of this one before (we always have the errors that have never been heard of before). He gave me the OKI tech support number and the chap there also hadn’t heard of it before but went through a load of possibilities and gave me a number for a printer mender (out of warranty by 3 months). The likely call out charges before time and parts could have made this expensive so I checked the price of a new one. They are currently less than £600 plus £100 cash back, 3 year warranty and a free sat nav. The consumables inside are worth £600+ even when they only fill the toner 1/3 full! This gave me the confidence to take it apart for a closer look. To cut a long story short I sorted it by freeing up a tiny flappy bit which was intermittently getting stuck with one squirt of WD40. Sorted, although I still can’t believe the price of a new one, it is so tempting to chuck away and start again, but what a waste of resources.

Eco Update

Wind turbine planning app has been processed and is now being considered. All the details and dates etc are on the Winchester City Council website and there is space there to send in supportive (or not) comments on the application. If you would like to take a look follow this link;

http://planningapplications.winchester.gov.uk/PlanningWeb/Results.aspx?ID=10%2f00895%2fFUL&tab=0

It’s quite interesting to see the lack of detail in the councils published details, there is much more in our stuff on our website. They have put a scale photo montage of the scale of the turbines in comparison to a big one and a pylon which does indicate nicely how small they are. They are also only notifying by letter, ourselves and our two immediate neighbours which was a surprise. Consultation ends on the 16th June and decision due on 7th June! (I think they mean July) Let’s see what happens now. Suddenly it seems real.

Nature notes

Baby birds all over the place, lots of wagtails crashing about in the tunnels.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 17 May 2010

Good Morning,
Although sales volumes are lower, it is still astonishingly busy here and the promise of a spell of warmer weather should keep things moving along nicely. We are in that slightly scary period of the season when the amount of stock to pot gets critical. It is so tempting after a period of high demand to get on and pot anything green or remotely plant like, but we know a change in weather and the changing seasons can seriously knock back the sales volumes and we could get caught with a nursery full of stock with no home. Both herb and perennial sales went on well into, and in fact, right through the summer on selected lines last year, so we hope this will happen again, the interest in all things green certainly still seems to be there. I suppose as usual a lot will depend on the weather. At least now we have had some income to get over the cash-flow peak to pay for the extra input needed, which makes life easier.

Excitement has been building this week with the imminent arrival of a replacement toilet block on the nursery. We hired a temporary set 10 years ago which had gradually slid into a rather sad condition, so with the postponement of our barn conversion we have decided to get in another temporary set to recover a degree of comfort and dignity! It was still quite a shock to see the old block flying up onto the back of the lorry and many a tear was chocked back by some staff with the memories triggered by the event! There were all the tales of how things used to be, before the arrival of the old block, it’s surprising how the loss of a knackered old bit of kit triggers all this stuff. The new set arrived on Friday so I’ve spent a jolly weekend plumbing it all back in again ready for start of play on Monday. I had all the usual hiccups with a ‘simple’ job like this. The old set had all services entering in one corner (electric, water and outflow) but the new one had them going into 3 separate corners (with different fittings), the doors are in different positions and the whole thing is higher off the floor. This has meant lots of trench digging, re-plumbing and visits to builders merchants, but at least it has meant a trip off the nursery! Naturally everything fitted together perfectly. I managed to flood the outside with a leaking universal water fitting joining our plastic water pipe to the copper of the new block and flood the inside with the first trial flushing (one loo outflow got disconnected in transit). Luckily everything was pretty clean so a full change of clothing and a shower was all that was needed to clean me up. I suppose we ought to celebrate it’s arrival on Monday, perhaps we will have a toast with some lime juice and chocolate doughnuts!

Eco Update

Wind turbine planning app is still waiting to be processed. Apparently they are still getting through the March applications and ours didn’t go in until very early April. We will just have to be patient. Having heard nothing from the locals for a bit, we did get a request for a site visit yesterday from a lovely lady from the local village. She has friends coming over for the bank holiday weekend and they thought it would make an interesting visit for them all. I wonder if I should bake a cake?

Nature notes

4 House martins are here and the swallows are sitting on the nest in the donkey shed.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week,

from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Sunday 9 May 2010

What a week. We were hoping for a lull in proceedings to allow us to catch up a bit, but despite doing a Monday shift we didn’t get as far as we had hoped. We have even more staff in (when not off ill) and another starting on Monday, but it just seems that everything was against us to get very far.
Sales took quite a dip after the poor weather last weekend and I suspect will continue to be limited with the continuing coolness. We are quite relieved as it does give an opportunity to catch up, at least in theory!
The week started badly with a virulent cold sweeping the nursery (hitting me particularly hard!), I haven’t can a cold for ages and I usually save them up for holidays anyway, so this one was a surprise and the head numbing features make running the nursery even more of a challenge, although Caroline says she hasn’t noticed any difference.

The other weeks hiccups included the potting machine dying just when we need it most. Every now and then the wear in the chains reaches a point when the adjusters can’t cope and one of the chains jumps a cog or two.  This messes up the timing of the drill and makes it start drilling into the machine rather than the compost in the pots! So potting comes to a standstill while I dismantle everything, remove the chain and shorten it by removing a link. All went swimmingly until I tried to refit the chain which was now about 2mm too short to fit back together, oh fiddlesticks. After much stretching, nut loosening, hammer hitting and words of encouragement we got it back together, only to find I had knocked over the crate where I had put the chain link retaining bits and they had disappeared somewhere on the compost covered floor! That took another 20 minutes with a magnet being waved over the debris before they were reclaimed. Anyway it’s all up and running again now.
Later that day I managed to get bitten by a local dog just above the knee, when redelivering some post (I ignored the sign on the gate!) and ended up with a hole in my best work trousers (the least ink covered) and a leaky sore leg. Looking on the bright side, at least the dog wasn’t taller.
Other than the wonderful nursery life this week, the highlight was going to see The Beat in concert at Salisbury Art Centre. For those too young to remember they were a ska band from the late 70’s early 80’s (Mirror in the Bathroom, Best Friend, Too Nice to Talk Too among there many hits) and they were brilliant. Lots of sad old folk there reliving their past and judging by some of the outfits and kids in tow some still living in the past! The support band were a very talented young ska band, attired in a more up to date fashion and I must admit to desperately wanting to answer the call for any requests with ‘Yes, pull your trousers up’!

Eco Update

Still no news on wind turbine planning, but they have cashed the application fees so it must be in there somewhere.

Nature notes

House martins have been spotted, arrived on Saturday, so summer is here.

Don't forget to do your bit. Have a good week.