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