Morning all,
Christmas Eve and the end of another year. Firstly I should thank everyone who has supported us through 2012 from customers to staff, through to suppliers and supporters, we couldn’t have survived without you. We are certainly looking forward to 2013 in anticipation of a much better year especially on the business front. We are basing this anticipation on the hope that the weather can’t be as bad again for a whole year, can it? I can’t believe how wet our ground is, we are luckily on a hill and on very free draining chalk soil but even so it is sodden and I’m sure the local low lying villages are a bit anxious about the rising groundwater levels that usually peak in late Jan-Feb. It is raining again as I write this but at least there is a good breeze to get the turbines turning. Every cloud ......
Considering the weather, the rubbish cash-flow and profitability I am actually feeling quite energised and excited. Luckily we have managed to do lots of positive stuff recently which helps boost morale and there is of course the prospect of a visit from Santa tonight!
We have all but completed our Lean Management course with just a little bit of tidying up of our projects to do in the New Year. All the exams were passed by everyone with flying colours through December, so a little celebration might be on the cards next month when we all get awarded our NVQ’s. We are still applying our upgraded skills to various projects around the nursery so we hope to be more organised than ever when the rush of orders comes that we have been waiting for since 2011.
Despatch, potting, the pricking out areas and the lab work room have all received fairly major attention and some serious investment in time to perk them up, although our resourcefulness in sourcing materials to complete the work has been remarkably inventive and frugal as the current situation demands. It’s always a nice boost to see things continue to improve especially when times are tough.
I managed to squeeze in a couple of concerts which has added to the excitement, Madness in Bournemouth were very entertaining, slick and professional but the best was the fantastic Ben Waters playing boogie-woogie piano in the attic of the Railway pub in Winchester. An intimate venue, warm, cosy and beery, perfect Christmas warm up. He has played this year with most of the Rolling Stones and travelled the world to gigs yet we could still pile into a pub in Winchester to see him do his stuff, we were very lucky. Also booked two tickets to see The Beat there in February, can’t wait.
I might just mention my last hockey match as I don’t expect anyone has told you but I scored two cracking goals in a 2 -2 draw at Bournemouth. One was a great team move which I buried in the roof of the net and the second was a long defence splitting pass which I managed to catch, with only the keeper to beat. As he hurtled towards me I lobbed the ball high over his outstretched arms and it dropped in just under the bar, the crowd (of one) went wild!
Our annual Christmas card making on the nursery was a fun morning with everyone making a very valuable contribution. Those of you lucky enough to receive one will I’m sure realise what a ‘special’ bunch of people we look after here. Some of them had even been practising beforehand although it is difficult to tell which these are!
Among the many chores to get sorted before the break I managed to update next year’s wholesale catalogue with all the latest info, and copies will be whizzing through the post to many of you. If you need to take a look on-line at the new list please take a look on the following Dropbox link; (Dropbox is a very useful site I found this year for posting large files on, instead of actually emailing them. I then send the link to the file and you can download them or just look at them. It is free to use)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u7wtu2qyspp3p26/herbaceous%26herb%20catalogue%202013%20Dec12%20nopr.pdf
It will also be available on the nursery website (www.kirtonfarm.co.uk) very soon. For pricing details please drop me an email.
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a slightly smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier for a while. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from our nursery, not run by us, so please contact Joe if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Nature notes
Don’t forget to keep feeding the birds, the hedges look a bit bare here and we have loads of visitors to the feeders at the moment.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good festive break, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 24 December 2012
Monday 3 December 2012
Morning all,
I can’t believe it has been a month since my last splurge. Lots of excitement especially with having a couple of weeks away to recharge the batteries after a testing year. Mum popped down to watch over the house and animal contingent to allow us to get away, while all the crew knuckled down to prove how much they don’t really need us here anyway, which was all brilliant.
St Ives was lovely as usual, we must have had one of the driest fortnights of the year and we did all the usual walking, bird and art spotting and archaeology between far too much eating and quenching. Spotted long tailed duck, spoonbills, crossbills, reed bunting, black redstart, cream teas and pasties. Despite the lack of rain it must have been the muddiest holiday we have been on, the washing pile was huge. Caroline picked up a couple of nice prehistoric flints, one fragment of a blade from a freshly cleared field and a lovely big scraper from a path above the cliffs at Porthgwarra. The nice thing about finding a flint high up in this area is that it is not a local natural geological land feature so it must have been carried there, usually from flint pebbles on the beach. This means there is a good chance that if you spot a fragment it will have been worked by ancient human hand. Then it is just a matter of identifying the telltale signs on the stone to confirm it, like a platform, a bulb of percussion and signs of nurddling along the working edge, all very exciting stuff. Not entirely sure of all the correct terminology but I have earwigged on a few conversations and picked a few things up, a bit like running the nursery.
We feel much revived and I am told that in some lights it has taken years off me, although it turns out that it’s not the light that makes the difference it is the hat! With the colder weather the woolly hat has come out but only after Caroline had put it through the wash. At first I could hardly get it to stretch over a tennis ball but I have now got it over most of the head. Still nice and warm but the constant desire of the hat to return to its new size does have a definite wrinkle reducing effect and gives me that slightly startled look of a stubbly Joan Rivers.
After one month of hostilities being unleashed on the mice, rabbits and pigeons we seem to be making some progress. Although it has taken some time and effort to get everything set up we do seem to be achieving results. We have caught nearly 100 mice, netted out the pigeons from the tunnels and re-homed 6 or 7 rabbits. The nursery has been re-rabbit proofed with some recycled gates from the farm and a little new netting and we are not seeing quite as many wandering about the nursery. These pests will always be a constant threat but hopefully we are now getting the upper hand.
We mended the phone system on our return by installing a new cable from the office to the house, ending up doing the work ourselves to avoid rather high quotes to fix the problem, so that is a relief.
Our Lean Management training reaching its conclusion with three online exams for everyone over the next couple of weeks and a few odd projects to tidy up. Then we will all have some new qualifications to wave about, hurrah. Looking forward to finishing it off as it seems to have gone on a long time and we are already armed with some very useful tools to tackle most things between us on a very practical level, without the need to complete 18 pieces of paperwork every time to get it done.
Sustainability promo
The propagation heating is on frost protection at the moment. After jiggling about with all the pipe temperatures and mixing valves etc to further reduce oil use we just added some new ace insulation to some of the water pipes where the heat is not needed. This means that the heat is only released around the plants rather than in the area next to them. I can’t believe we hadn’t already done this before as the payback time should be very quick, especially as we fitted it all ourselves. It’s scary when I look back a few years at how much we used to waste when fuel was cheap. Insulate, insulate, insulate. Office thermostatic heater is on but only getting to 8C so time to get outside in the sun and do some wood cutting to warm up a bit.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
I can’t believe it has been a month since my last splurge. Lots of excitement especially with having a couple of weeks away to recharge the batteries after a testing year. Mum popped down to watch over the house and animal contingent to allow us to get away, while all the crew knuckled down to prove how much they don’t really need us here anyway, which was all brilliant.
St Ives was lovely as usual, we must have had one of the driest fortnights of the year and we did all the usual walking, bird and art spotting and archaeology between far too much eating and quenching. Spotted long tailed duck, spoonbills, crossbills, reed bunting, black redstart, cream teas and pasties. Despite the lack of rain it must have been the muddiest holiday we have been on, the washing pile was huge. Caroline picked up a couple of nice prehistoric flints, one fragment of a blade from a freshly cleared field and a lovely big scraper from a path above the cliffs at Porthgwarra. The nice thing about finding a flint high up in this area is that it is not a local natural geological land feature so it must have been carried there, usually from flint pebbles on the beach. This means there is a good chance that if you spot a fragment it will have been worked by ancient human hand. Then it is just a matter of identifying the telltale signs on the stone to confirm it, like a platform, a bulb of percussion and signs of nurddling along the working edge, all very exciting stuff. Not entirely sure of all the correct terminology but I have earwigged on a few conversations and picked a few things up, a bit like running the nursery.
We feel much revived and I am told that in some lights it has taken years off me, although it turns out that it’s not the light that makes the difference it is the hat! With the colder weather the woolly hat has come out but only after Caroline had put it through the wash. At first I could hardly get it to stretch over a tennis ball but I have now got it over most of the head. Still nice and warm but the constant desire of the hat to return to its new size does have a definite wrinkle reducing effect and gives me that slightly startled look of a stubbly Joan Rivers.
After one month of hostilities being unleashed on the mice, rabbits and pigeons we seem to be making some progress. Although it has taken some time and effort to get everything set up we do seem to be achieving results. We have caught nearly 100 mice, netted out the pigeons from the tunnels and re-homed 6 or 7 rabbits. The nursery has been re-rabbit proofed with some recycled gates from the farm and a little new netting and we are not seeing quite as many wandering about the nursery. These pests will always be a constant threat but hopefully we are now getting the upper hand.
We mended the phone system on our return by installing a new cable from the office to the house, ending up doing the work ourselves to avoid rather high quotes to fix the problem, so that is a relief.
Our Lean Management training reaching its conclusion with three online exams for everyone over the next couple of weeks and a few odd projects to tidy up. Then we will all have some new qualifications to wave about, hurrah. Looking forward to finishing it off as it seems to have gone on a long time and we are already armed with some very useful tools to tackle most things between us on a very practical level, without the need to complete 18 pieces of paperwork every time to get it done.
Sustainability promo
The propagation heating is on frost protection at the moment. After jiggling about with all the pipe temperatures and mixing valves etc to further reduce oil use we just added some new ace insulation to some of the water pipes where the heat is not needed. This means that the heat is only released around the plants rather than in the area next to them. I can’t believe we hadn’t already done this before as the payback time should be very quick, especially as we fitted it all ourselves. It’s scary when I look back a few years at how much we used to waste when fuel was cheap. Insulate, insulate, insulate. Office thermostatic heater is on but only getting to 8C so time to get outside in the sun and do some wood cutting to warm up a bit.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 6 November 2012
The joys of modern technology. Just when you want everything to run smoothly for a couple of weeks it all goes bonkers. Part of the phone system is misbehaving and after several engineer visits and replacement bits, the blame moves from the phone system to an erratic power supply upsetting the system. This means buying a special bit of kit to even out the supply and cover any power drop outs which naturally isn’t cheap. So onto the internet to source the kit and order it up for next day delivery so we can install it ready for my Mum to use when she is in the house next week. Ordered a special power cable to connect it all together and what happens, the cable arrives but without the unit! Good job I paid extra for quick delivery. I’m not even convinced myself that it will solve the issue but what do I know.
Project Colditz continues apace, with wire netting and traps all over the place trying to reduce the pest population. We have secured the site from incoming rabbits unless they start sneaking in on the back of the lorries, we just need to catch the resident set to relocate them elsewhere. Carrot is the current bait of choice but we are open to other suggestions if anyone knows any better attractants. Just the one rabbit so far, but plenty of mice lured to an early meeting with their maker. The anti pigeon wiring at the tunnel ends looks good and that should be finished over the next week or two if all goes well.
The lean management training is gradually bearing fruit as we get together and spot things to improve around the nursery. Had a good go at despatch this week and made some useful tweaks here and there to make things run more smoothly with less waste and more efficiency. Hopefully by the spring we will have had a close look at lots of areas and completed our improvements to get things moving more smoothly. We already have a long list of jobs to do, some quite big and some tiddlers. We took a saw to the despatch work benches this week removing an annoying little design flaw that gave us all a couple of extra inches to work in, which doesn’t sound much but when you process thousands of boxes of plants it all adds up. The nice thing was it only took a few minutes once the issue was identified to get it done. If only all the solutions were that simple.
Sustainability promo
Just put the propagation heating on for the winter which always hurts. Heating oil has got so expensive. We have just reinsulated the tunnel, getting all the bubble plastic and seals repositioned. It is a double glazed tunnel with a little fan inflating the space between the sheets which works well until you get a major leak which we found and repaired this week. We have also readjusted the pipe temperatures and mixing valves to further reduce any heat waste and now just need to get a bit more pipe insulation to keep all the heat inside until it is really needed. It is only on frost protection at the moment but it is always a tricky balance with plants and heat conservation. To keep the humidity from getting out of control we have to compensate for the heat retention and sealed environment by forcing some ventilation through from time to time when the weather allows. Running a fan periodically to ventilate at quite low temperatures in the winter seems odd but it does pay dividends.
Insulate, insulate, insulate.
Ok, office temperature has dropped below 10C time, to go.
Things to do, pubs to visit, so no burblage next week, so hang onto this if you might want some plants the following week. If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 29 October 2012
Morning all,
End of October and a cool blast brings Christmas a bit closer. Good for those seasonal sales if you are into that sort of thing. Mild panic this end as I haven’t got my wood supplies fully sorted yet for this winter and we are off on our short Autumn break towards the end of the week so too much to do before then to get wood ready. Ooops. Luckily we have enough in to get by so no chance of getting too cold too soon and I suppose we could always turn on the central heating.
We have started updating our pest control measures this week. The rabbits, pigeons and mice have had a field day over the last year or two as numbers have built up as the cats age. We have never seen so much pigeon damage as we have had this year, they seem to pick on a few crops and decimate them. The tunnels are open ended which has allowed easy access, but no more. We are wire netting the tunnel ends with the entrance way covered with a small split plastic curtain, cut up from spare tunnel cover bits. The netting is wide enough to allow in the smaller birds which feed on a lot of flies etc but keep the big ones out. It will take a while to fit all this as we have 112 panels to net and 66 curtains to make, but at least we will be making a stand and hopefully eliminating the losses. We are re-rabbit proofing the nursery boundary with some recycled farm gates and a couple of patch repairs to the existing fence, so by Tuesday we hope to be secure again. Then all we need to do
is remove the resident population that lives inside the fence. This all started when we installed the fence 12 years ago, we hemmed in a small population which somehow got bigger. Should have paid more attention in Biology. The one working cat is still knocking off the occasional smaller bunny to bring into the house and consume and yesterday we caught our first adult in our new trap so we hope to win out eventually. Carbon costs a bit high as I had to drive the rabbit a couple of miles away to release it! The mice don’t get off so lightly with 40 snappy traps about to be laid under little lengths of guttering.
As well as having a productive week I had a great day yesterday. The sun was out, we did the holiday grocery shop (the excitement mounts), had a tasty breakfast, went to Alton for a hard fought game of hockey, collected and stacked a load of straw for the donkeys on my return (enough until Christmas) and went to Newbury to see Marcus Bonfanti (young award winning blues musician). Although the concert was brilliant and Caroline got a kiss from Marcus (never washing again) the best bit was the hockey game. A bit of a tough local derby and we only had 10 men, so to win 3-0 was great, especially as I scored the opener with my best goal of the season so far (it was my first!). Even better than that was the second goal which was completely against the run of play. We were under lots of pressure when the ball was cleared to me inside their half, I split the defenders with a diagonal cross field pass for our right winger to run on to, putting him in behind the defence, the ball got returned to me at the top of the circle and I put it in the top left corner past the diving keeper. Quite pleased with that as
you can probably tell. Might retire now as it won’t happen again.
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier to our lists for a while. They would make an ideal stocking filler, if a little scratchy. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from our nursery, not run by us, so please contact Joe if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Sustainability promo
Had my visit from the bankers from NAT West to see our sustainability efforts last week. I think they just wanted to see how things look in the flesh when you apply sustainability from the core of a business rather than as a tack-on feature. Slightly disappointed with the lack of ambition to change their own organisation, but they seem keen to promote and financially support sustainable projects to their own customers which must be a help.
Sustainability is not all nut cutlets and sandals, this is important stuff that everyone needs to think about, not just for the good of their planet but for the health of their jobs and businesses. Look at the energy cost increases over the last few years and that is in a recession when demand is subdued. What will happen as the population increases, supplies become more difficult to get at and economies start to move again. Then there is all the other stuff associated with population growth and increasing worldwide standards of living . Where are all the raw materials going to come from and the food? Now take a look at the waste we create with our life style. There is no point blaming anyone we just need to start addressing it and do stuff, big and small. These changes don’t all need to be painful, it depends how you approach them. They are challenges, which create opportunities that can be exciting and rewarding. Over to you.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
End of October and a cool blast brings Christmas a bit closer. Good for those seasonal sales if you are into that sort of thing. Mild panic this end as I haven’t got my wood supplies fully sorted yet for this winter and we are off on our short Autumn break towards the end of the week so too much to do before then to get wood ready. Ooops. Luckily we have enough in to get by so no chance of getting too cold too soon and I suppose we could always turn on the central heating.
We have started updating our pest control measures this week. The rabbits, pigeons and mice have had a field day over the last year or two as numbers have built up as the cats age. We have never seen so much pigeon damage as we have had this year, they seem to pick on a few crops and decimate them. The tunnels are open ended which has allowed easy access, but no more. We are wire netting the tunnel ends with the entrance way covered with a small split plastic curtain, cut up from spare tunnel cover bits. The netting is wide enough to allow in the smaller birds which feed on a lot of flies etc but keep the big ones out. It will take a while to fit all this as we have 112 panels to net and 66 curtains to make, but at least we will be making a stand and hopefully eliminating the losses. We are re-rabbit proofing the nursery boundary with some recycled farm gates and a couple of patch repairs to the existing fence, so by Tuesday we hope to be secure again. Then all we need to do
is remove the resident population that lives inside the fence. This all started when we installed the fence 12 years ago, we hemmed in a small population which somehow got bigger. Should have paid more attention in Biology. The one working cat is still knocking off the occasional smaller bunny to bring into the house and consume and yesterday we caught our first adult in our new trap so we hope to win out eventually. Carbon costs a bit high as I had to drive the rabbit a couple of miles away to release it! The mice don’t get off so lightly with 40 snappy traps about to be laid under little lengths of guttering.
As well as having a productive week I had a great day yesterday. The sun was out, we did the holiday grocery shop (the excitement mounts), had a tasty breakfast, went to Alton for a hard fought game of hockey, collected and stacked a load of straw for the donkeys on my return (enough until Christmas) and went to Newbury to see Marcus Bonfanti (young award winning blues musician). Although the concert was brilliant and Caroline got a kiss from Marcus (never washing again) the best bit was the hockey game. A bit of a tough local derby and we only had 10 men, so to win 3-0 was great, especially as I scored the opener with my best goal of the season so far (it was my first!). Even better than that was the second goal which was completely against the run of play. We were under lots of pressure when the ball was cleared to me inside their half, I split the defenders with a diagonal cross field pass for our right winger to run on to, putting him in behind the defence, the ball got returned to me at the top of the circle and I put it in the top left corner past the diving keeper. Quite pleased with that as
you can probably tell. Might retire now as it won’t happen again.
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier to our lists for a while. They would make an ideal stocking filler, if a little scratchy. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from our nursery, not run by us, so please contact Joe if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Sustainability promo
Had my visit from the bankers from NAT West to see our sustainability efforts last week. I think they just wanted to see how things look in the flesh when you apply sustainability from the core of a business rather than as a tack-on feature. Slightly disappointed with the lack of ambition to change their own organisation, but they seem keen to promote and financially support sustainable projects to their own customers which must be a help.
Sustainability is not all nut cutlets and sandals, this is important stuff that everyone needs to think about, not just for the good of their planet but for the health of their jobs and businesses. Look at the energy cost increases over the last few years and that is in a recession when demand is subdued. What will happen as the population increases, supplies become more difficult to get at and economies start to move again. Then there is all the other stuff associated with population growth and increasing worldwide standards of living . Where are all the raw materials going to come from and the food? Now take a look at the waste we create with our life style. There is no point blaming anyone we just need to start addressing it and do stuff, big and small. These changes don’t all need to be painful, it depends how you approach them. They are challenges, which create opportunities that can be exciting and rewarding. Over to you.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 22 October 2012
Morning all,
Feeling a bit dented this morning and lots to do so just a quickie. Dented on several fronts, perhaps most literally because I stopped a shot on goal in yesterday’s victorious hockey game on the underneath of my chin. Luckily just superficial damage, sore throat, bruised chin, couple of achy teeth and a small cut on the lip where I bit myself! The most disappointing thing was that there is nothing dramatic to show to attract any sympathy.
Brain a bit dented too after a punishing Saturday night at a 1940’s themed dance. A great atmosphere with loads of people all dressed up, a live concert band and nice beer. There were some great dancers swinging their 1940’s stuff as well as us shufflers making up the numbers. Must fit some dance lessons in. As part of my outfit I reinstalled a side parting with slicked down hair. Not had a side parting since I went peroxide and spiky 30+ years ago. Don’t think I’ll go there again soon, the side parting that is.
Had a few meetings this week and it is easy to see how many are suffering from a dent in confidence levels after such a very difficult season for such a wide range of horticultural and agricultural businesses. We got a lot of verbal support from the bank manager this week encouraging us not to step back too far because of any fear of repeat weather problems next year.
Statistically it is extremely unlikely and fundamentally we are doing all the right things. However we will be battening down the hatches over the next few months desperately trying to keep the overdraft from stretching too far before next spring’s income starts to appear. Times are tough but at least we are still able to look forwards in a positive and groovy way. We are now peat-free in all the hairy pots, we are top dressing the pots with bark chips to reduce liverwort and moss growth so saving time in despatch. We have re-covered our production beds which will save clearing up time next year, virtually all the crew are all trained up in Lean Management techniques to help us get things done more efficiently and safely and we will continue to generate a nice dollop of energy from our ace wind turbines.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Energy prices on the way up? The Eden Project have set up a buying group called Cornwall Together which is looking to get groups of individuals and companies together to buy energy. They have set a deadline for people to join up (no obligation) and then they go to the energy companies to get a better deal. The deadline is only a few days away so take a look if you are not already tied into a contract. You don’t have to reside in Cornwall. www.cornwalltogether.com/en/
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier to our lists for a while. They would make an ideal stocking filler, if a little scratchy. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from our nursery, not run by us, so please contact Joe if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Sustainability promo
After last week’s Winchester Carbon Smart accreditation launch I have a couple of bankers from NAT West coming on a visit next week. They seem keen to look at our sustainability experiences on the nursery so it will be interesting to see what they are hoping to gain from the visit. I am also wondering if I should be asking myself, what am I going to get from it? Let’s see what happens.....
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Don’t forget to think about insulation and draft proofing. It can still be free installation or very cheap and it saves money every year. We have just finished our third year recording the house heating oil use which has reduced from 7,400 litres to 2,500 (not all due to the insulation but a good dollop). In that time the price has nearly doubled which makes the savings even better and oil prices are only going one way in the next few years.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Feeling a bit dented this morning and lots to do so just a quickie. Dented on several fronts, perhaps most literally because I stopped a shot on goal in yesterday’s victorious hockey game on the underneath of my chin. Luckily just superficial damage, sore throat, bruised chin, couple of achy teeth and a small cut on the lip where I bit myself! The most disappointing thing was that there is nothing dramatic to show to attract any sympathy.
Brain a bit dented too after a punishing Saturday night at a 1940’s themed dance. A great atmosphere with loads of people all dressed up, a live concert band and nice beer. There were some great dancers swinging their 1940’s stuff as well as us shufflers making up the numbers. Must fit some dance lessons in. As part of my outfit I reinstalled a side parting with slicked down hair. Not had a side parting since I went peroxide and spiky 30+ years ago. Don’t think I’ll go there again soon, the side parting that is.
Had a few meetings this week and it is easy to see how many are suffering from a dent in confidence levels after such a very difficult season for such a wide range of horticultural and agricultural businesses. We got a lot of verbal support from the bank manager this week encouraging us not to step back too far because of any fear of repeat weather problems next year.
Statistically it is extremely unlikely and fundamentally we are doing all the right things. However we will be battening down the hatches over the next few months desperately trying to keep the overdraft from stretching too far before next spring’s income starts to appear. Times are tough but at least we are still able to look forwards in a positive and groovy way. We are now peat-free in all the hairy pots, we are top dressing the pots with bark chips to reduce liverwort and moss growth so saving time in despatch. We have re-covered our production beds which will save clearing up time next year, virtually all the crew are all trained up in Lean Management techniques to help us get things done more efficiently and safely and we will continue to generate a nice dollop of energy from our ace wind turbines.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Energy prices on the way up? The Eden Project have set up a buying group called Cornwall Together which is looking to get groups of individuals and companies together to buy energy. They have set a deadline for people to join up (no obligation) and then they go to the energy companies to get a better deal. The deadline is only a few days away so take a look if you are not already tied into a contract. You don’t have to reside in Cornwall. www.cornwalltogether.com/en/
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier to our lists for a while. They would make an ideal stocking filler, if a little scratchy. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from our nursery, not run by us, so please contact Joe if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Sustainability promo
After last week’s Winchester Carbon Smart accreditation launch I have a couple of bankers from NAT West coming on a visit next week. They seem keen to look at our sustainability experiences on the nursery so it will be interesting to see what they are hoping to gain from the visit. I am also wondering if I should be asking myself, what am I going to get from it? Let’s see what happens.....
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Don’t forget to think about insulation and draft proofing. It can still be free installation or very cheap and it saves money every year. We have just finished our third year recording the house heating oil use which has reduced from 7,400 litres to 2,500 (not all due to the insulation but a good dollop). In that time the price has nearly doubled which makes the savings even better and oil prices are only going one way in the next few years.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 15 October 2012
Morning all,
Brrrr. A nippy 5C in the office this morning, but with the sun now getting higher in the sky that looks like moving up fairly soon.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Just approaching the smug season when we take advantage of all the house insulation we did a couple of years ago. A quick blast from the wood burner in the evening is enough to make a comfy toasty atmosphere and no need for the central heating for ages yet. Being stuck out in the country with no mains gas means we get stuck with an oil fired boiler which has got very expensive to run as a sole heat source over the last 4-5 years. But with the insulation and wood burner we has saved thousands, repaying the insulation cost many times over and we have a warmer house too. The cavity wall and loft insulation were subsidised at the time but the under-floor board was expensive but worth the effort to stop the drafts and cold floors. Since then and up to the end of September the cavity and wall insulation has been offered free in our area under the Insulate Hampshire project and you can still get it done free through British Gas and I believe some other energy companies until the end of November, and you don’t even need to be a customer of theirs. It won’t be the sexiest home improvement you ever do but it makes huge financial and environmental sense so if you haven’t bitten the bullet yet hurry up before the offers all end. This can save hundreds of pounds a year, every year. I know it means making a few calls and hosting a couple of visits (surveyor and installer) but the smug factor for years to come is well worth it.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Energy prices are set to rise again according to this week’s announcements and we are glad we swopped suppliers a few weeks ago to a cheaper tariff and fixed for a year although we ended up missing out on a different opportunity which arose on my trip to Eden a few days ago. They have set up a buying group called Cornwall Together which is looking to get groups of individuals and companies together to buy energy. They have set a deadline for people to join up (no obligation) and then they go to the energy companies to get a better deal. Sounds like a good plan and we will have a look at it next year. The deadline is in about 14 days so take a look if you are not already tied into a contract, you don’t have to reside in Cornwall. www.cornwalltogether.com/en/
Must go and finish my draft accounts and cash-flow for the bank manager who visits this week. The fun just never ends.
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier to our lists for a while. They would make an ideal stocking filler, if a little scratchy. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from the nursery, not run by us so please contact Joe not us if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Sustainability promo
Did my bit this week by speaking to a group of local businesses on our experiences of getting to grips with sustainable stuff .
It was the launch of Winchester Council’s Carbon Smart accreditation scheme and was a sell out. This is not something I do, standing in front of a group of strange people and making sense makes me very nervous, but I didn’t notice anyone fall asleep and no one walked out, so that classes as a result in my books. Trouble is we are now duty bound to go through the accreditation which I believe is free, and hopefully we should have done enough already to at least pass the first stage. I’m just not brilliant at paperwork and hoop jumping, so let’s hope there isn’t too much of that.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Brrrr. A nippy 5C in the office this morning, but with the sun now getting higher in the sky that looks like moving up fairly soon.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Just approaching the smug season when we take advantage of all the house insulation we did a couple of years ago. A quick blast from the wood burner in the evening is enough to make a comfy toasty atmosphere and no need for the central heating for ages yet. Being stuck out in the country with no mains gas means we get stuck with an oil fired boiler which has got very expensive to run as a sole heat source over the last 4-5 years. But with the insulation and wood burner we has saved thousands, repaying the insulation cost many times over and we have a warmer house too. The cavity wall and loft insulation were subsidised at the time but the under-floor board was expensive but worth the effort to stop the drafts and cold floors. Since then and up to the end of September the cavity and wall insulation has been offered free in our area under the Insulate Hampshire project and you can still get it done free through British Gas and I believe some other energy companies until the end of November, and you don’t even need to be a customer of theirs. It won’t be the sexiest home improvement you ever do but it makes huge financial and environmental sense so if you haven’t bitten the bullet yet hurry up before the offers all end. This can save hundreds of pounds a year, every year. I know it means making a few calls and hosting a couple of visits (surveyor and installer) but the smug factor for years to come is well worth it.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Energy prices are set to rise again according to this week’s announcements and we are glad we swopped suppliers a few weeks ago to a cheaper tariff and fixed for a year although we ended up missing out on a different opportunity which arose on my trip to Eden a few days ago. They have set up a buying group called Cornwall Together which is looking to get groups of individuals and companies together to buy energy. They have set a deadline for people to join up (no obligation) and then they go to the energy companies to get a better deal. Sounds like a good plan and we will have a look at it next year. The deadline is in about 14 days so take a look if you are not already tied into a contract, you don’t have to reside in Cornwall. www.cornwalltogether.com/en/
Must go and finish my draft accounts and cash-flow for the bank manager who visits this week. The fun just never ends.
Naked Coir pots
Our pot supplier is now offering you the chance to retail cartons of empty coir pots (10 pots in a carton). The pots are a smaller size than those we use but the pack looks great and I said I would attach his promo flier to our lists for a while. They would make an ideal stocking filler, if a little scratchy. The whole deal is an entirely separate operation from the nursery, not run by us so please contact Joe not us if you are interested. His details are on the flier.
Sustainability promo
Did my bit this week by speaking to a group of local businesses on our experiences of getting to grips with sustainable stuff .
It was the launch of Winchester Council’s Carbon Smart accreditation scheme and was a sell out. This is not something I do, standing in front of a group of strange people and making sense makes me very nervous, but I didn’t notice anyone fall asleep and no one walked out, so that classes as a result in my books. Trouble is we are now duty bound to go through the accreditation which I believe is free, and hopefully we should have done enough already to at least pass the first stage. I’m just not brilliant at paperwork and hoop jumping, so let’s hope there isn’t too much of that.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Tuesday 9 October 2012
Morning all,
Feeling very autumnal today and the tree leaves are definitely well on the turn. We have lit the wood-burner most evenings just to take the chill off the longer evenings but hoping to save up the central heating for a few more months yet. I’m a bit nervous about our current wood stock it is not as big as it should be, just haven’t found the time to get it sorted out. The next couple of weeks already look busy with figures to prepare for the bank and training projects to get through for the Lean Management we are all doing. It’s all go.
Caroline is just about to depart for Southampton’s next Premiership game so figures crossed for that. I meanwhile plan to be tucked up in front of the wood-burner with toasted fruit loaf and a mug of tea. It’s a tough life.
This week saw a large number of trays gathered in for the winter which was great, and a very worthwhile trip down to the Eden Project for me for a breakfast gathering of suppliers and Cornish businesses to hear the latest on all things sustainable. I managed to combine the meeting with a delivery there but it was a bit of an early start for me, I don’t see 3.00am very often !
The seminar was hosted by Lloyds TSB as part of their efforts to spread the word about sustainability and some of its benefits to smaller and medium sized businesses. The message from the bank seemed to be very largely based around the cost savings which can be made by more efficient use of materials and energy which is a nice easy sell to those businesses not particularly interested in the greener side of life. Most of the things promoted were valuable if you hadn’t considered these things before but there was nothing too exciting. Eden were promoting their Green Foundation training packages that they run. These aim to empower individuals and teams to innovate, collaborate and lead positive change within and beyond their organisations. There is of course a large dollop of sustainability involved but packaged in a positive and exciting way. It seems to be attracting a lot
of interest from some pretty big corporates who are sending people to partake which is very encouraging for all. One of their key messages on the day was that sustainability should be at the centre of any business not just tacked on as an afterthought which is the usual knee jerk response to sorting out a new business pressure.
I have had a quick look at the Eden website to see what other info I could pick up and found a nice video clip of the experiences of a group from Eli-Lilly (big drugs company) who did the two day course. On the video, about 2mins 50 secs in, is a lovely snippet from Tim Smit about conversations around the kitchen table where common sense, conviviality and a lack of vanity can be seen. Perhaps the boardroom table should be replaced by a kitchen table and we might get some more balanced decisions made around the world. Take a look;
http://www.edenproject.com/blog/index.php/2012/07/eli-lilly-business-leadership-programme-at-the-eden-project/
I believe some of the staff from Lloyds TSB have been on the Eden course but at the moment it looks like they are still going through the ‘tacked-on’ stage. Firstly I have to say that I think it is great that some of the big boys are making some very positive moves on the sustainability front, we need some encouragement that we tiddlers are not battling alone, but I did do a little bit of research on their own sustainability claims which on close inspection look a bit shallow in places. In 2011 they lent a market leading £413m to renewable energy schemes which sounds great, but that was to just 13 schemes (averaging £32m each) and was spread across the UK, Germany and America. They spent £2.5m on improving their own property portfolio with energy saving stuff which is good. Meanwhile they gave away £375m in bonus payments. I think there are a few more conversations needed around the kitchen table. To be fair you have to start somewhere and they have now started lending to smaller solar and wind installations just in time for the big falls in feed in tariffs and they are thinking about supporting renewable heating installations sometime soon, maybe. A lot of these installations are quite major investments for SME’s and slow bank support doesn’t exactly encourage a positive take up. Anyway, particularly well done to Eden for the wake-up call you appear to be delivering and for just using one staple to hold your brochure together. It all adds up.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Feeling very autumnal today and the tree leaves are definitely well on the turn. We have lit the wood-burner most evenings just to take the chill off the longer evenings but hoping to save up the central heating for a few more months yet. I’m a bit nervous about our current wood stock it is not as big as it should be, just haven’t found the time to get it sorted out. The next couple of weeks already look busy with figures to prepare for the bank and training projects to get through for the Lean Management we are all doing. It’s all go.
Caroline is just about to depart for Southampton’s next Premiership game so figures crossed for that. I meanwhile plan to be tucked up in front of the wood-burner with toasted fruit loaf and a mug of tea. It’s a tough life.
This week saw a large number of trays gathered in for the winter which was great, and a very worthwhile trip down to the Eden Project for me for a breakfast gathering of suppliers and Cornish businesses to hear the latest on all things sustainable. I managed to combine the meeting with a delivery there but it was a bit of an early start for me, I don’t see 3.00am very often !
The seminar was hosted by Lloyds TSB as part of their efforts to spread the word about sustainability and some of its benefits to smaller and medium sized businesses. The message from the bank seemed to be very largely based around the cost savings which can be made by more efficient use of materials and energy which is a nice easy sell to those businesses not particularly interested in the greener side of life. Most of the things promoted were valuable if you hadn’t considered these things before but there was nothing too exciting. Eden were promoting their Green Foundation training packages that they run. These aim to empower individuals and teams to innovate, collaborate and lead positive change within and beyond their organisations. There is of course a large dollop of sustainability involved but packaged in a positive and exciting way. It seems to be attracting a lot
of interest from some pretty big corporates who are sending people to partake which is very encouraging for all. One of their key messages on the day was that sustainability should be at the centre of any business not just tacked on as an afterthought which is the usual knee jerk response to sorting out a new business pressure.
I have had a quick look at the Eden website to see what other info I could pick up and found a nice video clip of the experiences of a group from Eli-Lilly (big drugs company) who did the two day course. On the video, about 2mins 50 secs in, is a lovely snippet from Tim Smit about conversations around the kitchen table where common sense, conviviality and a lack of vanity can be seen. Perhaps the boardroom table should be replaced by a kitchen table and we might get some more balanced decisions made around the world. Take a look;
http://www.edenproject.com/blog/index.php/2012/07/eli-lilly-business-leadership-programme-at-the-eden-project/
I believe some of the staff from Lloyds TSB have been on the Eden course but at the moment it looks like they are still going through the ‘tacked-on’ stage. Firstly I have to say that I think it is great that some of the big boys are making some very positive moves on the sustainability front, we need some encouragement that we tiddlers are not battling alone, but I did do a little bit of research on their own sustainability claims which on close inspection look a bit shallow in places. In 2011 they lent a market leading £413m to renewable energy schemes which sounds great, but that was to just 13 schemes (averaging £32m each) and was spread across the UK, Germany and America. They spent £2.5m on improving their own property portfolio with energy saving stuff which is good. Meanwhile they gave away £375m in bonus payments. I think there are a few more conversations needed around the kitchen table. To be fair you have to start somewhere and they have now started lending to smaller solar and wind installations just in time for the big falls in feed in tariffs and they are thinking about supporting renewable heating installations sometime soon, maybe. A lot of these installations are quite major investments for SME’s and slow bank support doesn’t exactly encourage a positive take up. Anyway, particularly well done to Eden for the wake-up call you appear to be delivering and for just using one staple to hold your brochure together. It all adds up.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sunday 30 September 2012
Morning all,
Very short report this week as we are off to a family lunch celebrating a diamond wedding anniversary. 60 years married that’s a good stint, well done Charles & Betty. Unfortunately I am not well prepared, I haven’t decided on the outfit yet, although one advantage of a limited wardrobe is it reduces the decision making and I haven’t managed to get a razor very close to the chin for a few days and there may be a bit of kissy greeting going on. I know Tom doesn’t like a bristly smacker. We leave in an hour and this bit usually takes two so need to press on.
The last bits of potting sorted this week just a few bulbs to play around with when they come in over the next couple of weeks so that’s a relief. Another season slips buy and a nursery full of pots hoping to find a home in a few months time. Best not dwell too much on looking back this year on plant sales just focus on all the progress made and how much more exciting next year will be. Said good-bye on Friday to our nursery agency boys who do such a great job through our busy seasons and we look forward to seeing them again next year, with hopefully a bit of overtime this time. Our staffing levels do take a bit of a dip on the nursery over the autumn and winter period as we simply run out of jobs and money to keep everyone busy but we are very lucky that everyone reappears to help out in the spring and we are very grateful for that.
Just a very quick report on archaeological developments. We had a surprise visit from Brian our tame archaeologist during the week after he was rained off at home and offered to come and take a look at the ring ditch I spotted on Google Earth. In a nutshell, we sorted ok’ed things with the farm, located the site using scaled aerial shots of the field and put in an exploratory trench (by hand) across part of the ditch. The surveying worked brilliantly and despite not being able to see anything on the surface we hit the ditch perfectly first time. We just did an evaluation by taking out a very shallow trench, but because we are on very shallow soil this exposed the bedrock chalk below which showed the trench very nicely. No treasure, just a very small
piece of Roman pottery in the top level of the ditch and some burnt flint on the surface. Brian has done some measuring, drawing and photos to record the findings which I have got to put together to report to the local archives just so they know what we found. 3500 to 4500 years ago it would have be a mound with a burial in it (a round barrow) but it has been completely ploughed out over the years since it was constructed and only the shadow of the outer trench remains. But standing on the site and looking at the landscape it was positioned in was interesting, it had fantastic all-round views and you could see why you might want to be laid to rest there. If I hadn’t spotted the crop mark I would never have recognised this as such a significant spot.
Saw Ben Waters play a warm up gig in uptown Owermoigne, Dorset on Friday night. Fantastic night in the village hall before the band left for a short European tour on Saturday. Great talent on show from the whole band with guest Mick Taylor (played with Rolling Stones, The Who and Dire Straits) and plenty of room to shake a leg. Ben is doing a solo tour this Autumn don’t miss him if you get the chance www.benwaters.com/web/
OK 15 mins too tart myself up and be on best behaviour.
Wild stuff
Spotted plenty of swallows and house martins again this week flying over the barrow site.
Luckily we harvested most of the cob nuts from the tree as after 25 years with no resident squirrels we suddenly seem to have at least one regular and he is after my nuts. Get out there quick if you want to save yours.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Very short report this week as we are off to a family lunch celebrating a diamond wedding anniversary. 60 years married that’s a good stint, well done Charles & Betty. Unfortunately I am not well prepared, I haven’t decided on the outfit yet, although one advantage of a limited wardrobe is it reduces the decision making and I haven’t managed to get a razor very close to the chin for a few days and there may be a bit of kissy greeting going on. I know Tom doesn’t like a bristly smacker. We leave in an hour and this bit usually takes two so need to press on.
The last bits of potting sorted this week just a few bulbs to play around with when they come in over the next couple of weeks so that’s a relief. Another season slips buy and a nursery full of pots hoping to find a home in a few months time. Best not dwell too much on looking back this year on plant sales just focus on all the progress made and how much more exciting next year will be. Said good-bye on Friday to our nursery agency boys who do such a great job through our busy seasons and we look forward to seeing them again next year, with hopefully a bit of overtime this time. Our staffing levels do take a bit of a dip on the nursery over the autumn and winter period as we simply run out of jobs and money to keep everyone busy but we are very lucky that everyone reappears to help out in the spring and we are very grateful for that.
Just a very quick report on archaeological developments. We had a surprise visit from Brian our tame archaeologist during the week after he was rained off at home and offered to come and take a look at the ring ditch I spotted on Google Earth. In a nutshell, we sorted ok’ed things with the farm, located the site using scaled aerial shots of the field and put in an exploratory trench (by hand) across part of the ditch. The surveying worked brilliantly and despite not being able to see anything on the surface we hit the ditch perfectly first time. We just did an evaluation by taking out a very shallow trench, but because we are on very shallow soil this exposed the bedrock chalk below which showed the trench very nicely. No treasure, just a very small
piece of Roman pottery in the top level of the ditch and some burnt flint on the surface. Brian has done some measuring, drawing and photos to record the findings which I have got to put together to report to the local archives just so they know what we found. 3500 to 4500 years ago it would have be a mound with a burial in it (a round barrow) but it has been completely ploughed out over the years since it was constructed and only the shadow of the outer trench remains. But standing on the site and looking at the landscape it was positioned in was interesting, it had fantastic all-round views and you could see why you might want to be laid to rest there. If I hadn’t spotted the crop mark I would never have recognised this as such a significant spot.
Saw Ben Waters play a warm up gig in uptown Owermoigne, Dorset on Friday night. Fantastic night in the village hall before the band left for a short European tour on Saturday. Great talent on show from the whole band with guest Mick Taylor (played with Rolling Stones, The Who and Dire Straits) and plenty of room to shake a leg. Ben is doing a solo tour this Autumn don’t miss him if you get the chance www.benwaters.com/web/
OK 15 mins too tart myself up and be on best behaviour.
Wild stuff
Spotted plenty of swallows and house martins again this week flying over the barrow site.
Luckily we harvested most of the cob nuts from the tree as after 25 years with no resident squirrels we suddenly seem to have at least one regular and he is after my nuts. Get out there quick if you want to save yours.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 24 September 2012
Morning all,
Best not talk about the weather today.
We had a great day yesterday. Not only did Southampton get their first win in the premiership but we retained our 5-a-side football title at the Lowaters Nurseries national horticultural championship. OK I may be bigging up the scale of the competition a bit but we did manage to overcome 12 other teams on a lovely day in sunny Portsmouth. Hopefully they raised lots of money for the horticultural charity Perennial and everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did. In the spirit of fair play I did my bit levelling up the final a bit by letting in two goals between my legs. I’m not sure what happened, my brain could see it happening but the legs failed to respond. That’s two years and 100% record in all games. There’s only one way to go from here. Retire.
Having had a reasonably active day I undid all my good work by getting home and consuming the remains of an enormous rye fruit loaf I got from the Eden Project on Friday. I just could help myself. Zero self control but delicious. I continued my archaeological research this week, firstly looking up more detail on exciting new Stonehenge discoveries reported in one of the papers last weekend. They have found some huge deposits of very old flint tools and Auroch (huge wild cattle) bones at a site called Blick Mead very close to Stonehenge and carbon dated to 6250BC which is thousands of years before the main construction. The site seems to have been a ‘special place’ over a huge length of time and may eventually help point to the beginnings of why Stonehenge is where it is. For more detail try this Open University web page www.open.ac.uk/Arts/classical-studies/amesbury/index.shtml. We still have so much to discover. On a more local level I am 99% sure I have found the remains of a Bronze Age Barrow in one of the fields on the farm. It is completely flattened by ploughing but thanks to the historical aerial shots on Google Earth it still leaves its mark in the crops most years. I went up there one evening to have a closer look but there was not a lot to see on the ground other than recognising what a lovely final resting place. On the top of a long hill overlooking the local high spot of Stockbridge Down which itself has quite a few Barrows on it. There are also some interesting smaller crop marking close by, another Time Team Project!
Eco news
The local council are launching a green accreditation scheme shortly to try and encourage more businesses to do something about their environmental performance which is great. It still surprises me how much lip service is paid to environmental iss ues rather than any action actually being taken so hopefully there will be some positive response to this initiative. As we have stuck our heads above the parapet and actually done a few bits and bobs on this front they have asked me to speak for a couple of minutes at the launch breakfast meeting on our approach to all things green. I hope they lay on lunch too!
Just getting a bit tense that the huge polar ice cap summer melt means a regular shift in Jet Stream for the coming summers.
Best think about something else. Mmm fruit loaf.
Wild stuff
I could still hear the last group of House Martins chattering away in their nest last night although most have now left for the big fly south. I opened the curtains this morning to see a group of 50+ Swallows passing southwards. Sadly summer is drawing to a close. Despite the crummy weather this year our Swallows and House Martins seem to have done ok, let’s hope they do ok over the next few months and make it back in good numbers next Spring.
As soon as potting is complete we are going to have to do some work on rabbit and pigeon control before they start doing too much more damage over the winter. They are both being a real pain this year, as if it wasn’t hard enough already.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Best not talk about the weather today.
We had a great day yesterday. Not only did Southampton get their first win in the premiership but we retained our 5-a-side football title at the Lowaters Nurseries national horticultural championship. OK I may be bigging up the scale of the competition a bit but we did manage to overcome 12 other teams on a lovely day in sunny Portsmouth. Hopefully they raised lots of money for the horticultural charity Perennial and everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did. In the spirit of fair play I did my bit levelling up the final a bit by letting in two goals between my legs. I’m not sure what happened, my brain could see it happening but the legs failed to respond. That’s two years and 100% record in all games. There’s only one way to go from here. Retire.
Having had a reasonably active day I undid all my good work by getting home and consuming the remains of an enormous rye fruit loaf I got from the Eden Project on Friday. I just could help myself. Zero self control but delicious. I continued my archaeological research this week, firstly looking up more detail on exciting new Stonehenge discoveries reported in one of the papers last weekend. They have found some huge deposits of very old flint tools and Auroch (huge wild cattle) bones at a site called Blick Mead very close to Stonehenge and carbon dated to 6250BC which is thousands of years before the main construction. The site seems to have been a ‘special place’ over a huge length of time and may eventually help point to the beginnings of why Stonehenge is where it is. For more detail try this Open University web page www.open.ac.uk/Arts/classical-studies/amesbury/index.shtml. We still have so much to discover. On a more local level I am 99% sure I have found the remains of a Bronze Age Barrow in one of the fields on the farm. It is completely flattened by ploughing but thanks to the historical aerial shots on Google Earth it still leaves its mark in the crops most years. I went up there one evening to have a closer look but there was not a lot to see on the ground other than recognising what a lovely final resting place. On the top of a long hill overlooking the local high spot of Stockbridge Down which itself has quite a few Barrows on it. There are also some interesting smaller crop marking close by, another Time Team Project!
Eco news
The local council are launching a green accreditation scheme shortly to try and encourage more businesses to do something about their environmental performance which is great. It still surprises me how much lip service is paid to environmental iss ues rather than any action actually being taken so hopefully there will be some positive response to this initiative. As we have stuck our heads above the parapet and actually done a few bits and bobs on this front they have asked me to speak for a couple of minutes at the launch breakfast meeting on our approach to all things green. I hope they lay on lunch too!
Just getting a bit tense that the huge polar ice cap summer melt means a regular shift in Jet Stream for the coming summers.
Best think about something else. Mmm fruit loaf.
Wild stuff
I could still hear the last group of House Martins chattering away in their nest last night although most have now left for the big fly south. I opened the curtains this morning to see a group of 50+ Swallows passing southwards. Sadly summer is drawing to a close. Despite the crummy weather this year our Swallows and House Martins seem to have done ok, let’s hope they do ok over the next few months and make it back in good numbers next Spring.
As soon as potting is complete we are going to have to do some work on rabbit and pigeon control before they start doing too much more damage over the winter. They are both being a real pain this year, as if it wasn’t hard enough already.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 17 September 2012
Morning all,
Another pleasant Sunday on the weather front. Hopefully lots of people will be running down to their local plant centre to hoover up lots of plants. We live in hope.
We have had a quiet week at work with lots of people on holiday. Still managed to get lots of potting done, leaving us with just a few odd crops still to do. The main batch of Erysimum Bowles Mauve cuttings arrived on Friday and then potting the Alliums and other border bulbs is usually the last potting operation of the year and they are due in at the end of the month. It would be nice to say that we can then relax for the winter but we seem to have a pretty long list of things to do so I don’t think we will be bored. One thing we are going to have to have a good look at is completing our Lean Management projects in order to pass our course. We got of to a flying start with these but the pressures of coping with the difficult season and trying to catch up with the potting programme has put them on the back burner for a bit. I’m sure once everyone is back and the potting is complete we will do the training justice and suitably impress the assessors. The first project we did in the potting tunnel has certainly worked well, it is all set out nicely, much tidier and safer as well as hopefully more efficient. The encouraging thing is that the initial improvements we made in there are being maintained which is great.
Feeling a bit let down this week by the disclosures about the Hillsborough disaster of 23 years ago and the long term cover up which I found quite unsettling and the bonkers coverage of some rather nastily sneaky photos of someone topless sunbathing. Kate stole the headlines for at least three days. Now come on boys and girls, everyone has a chest of one sort or another there is no real surprise there and on the whole they are nothing to be ashamed of or shocked by, there must be more important things we could be focussing on. In a week involving the tragedy in Pakistan when 250+ men, women and children were killed in a clothing factory fire because of rubbish safety precautions, shouldn’t we be looking at why this sort of thing might be happening around the world? I wonder if any of the supermarket/multiple buyers will be asking i f their relentless pursuit of cheap stuff might have anything to do with the shortcuts employers might take around the world if pursuit of a sale? Supermarkets are advertising school sweatshirts ‘from £2’ and a pair of polo shirts ‘from £2.50’. Both are 100% cotton. That is astonishing value at the consumer end here and I can’t blame those with limited income taking up these offers but aren’t we going to have to have a think about how these prices are achieved. Take a look at the production cycle, someone has to grow and pick the cotton crop (groundwork, fertilisers, sprays, weed control, harvesting) that will be transported to the processing plant to extract the cotton fibres, spin it, dye it, weave it into the cloth. Then it goes to the clothing manufacturer for cutting, sewing, adding any extras (cuffs, collars, buttons etc), bagging, boxing and crating for transport to the docks. Transport to UK and to central distribution depots, redistribute to stores, go through the retail processes and in theory leave a margin for the retailer. In the UK at minimum wage rates, £2.00 would equate to less than 15 mins work by the time breaks, NI, holidays and sick are accounted for, let alone looking at the costs of any materials or energy involved.
OK lecture time over.
Looking back instead of forward. This week I discovered another wonder of the internet by downloading Google Earth. Better late than never. I have seen Google’s satellite photographs on various websites before and I had a look at the nursery from above this week. I spotted that I could see the outline of some of our iron-age ditches in crop markings in the field above the nursery (to the right(east) as you look at the screen). Having informed our favourite archaeologist Brian Meredith of my findings he said to download Google Earth properly and take a look at the historical pictures you can see on there for even better images. Sure enough the 2005 pictures show even more detail than the current ones (2008). There looks like a small settlement in there somewhere if you look hard enough. Just stick in a postcode and off you go. Our is SO21 2PJ if you want to see the next Time Team project!
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 10 September 2012
Morning all,
What a fantastic day here, lots of sun, not too hot and the breeze has picked up enough to get the turbines going. Hopefully lots of people might think it’s time to have a play in the garden and buy some plants, although judging by the roads yesterday they all seem to have got in their cars to go somewhere. I had a hockey match in Havant and we ended up getting there very late after getting clogged up in it all. Luckily there was no match booked on the pitch after ours so we were able to run over.
It was a bit hot for running about but I managed to pace myself and lasted the whole game scoring the winning goal (well one of six in a 6-5 result) and as an added bonus I’m still able to walk this morning.
We’ve had a sobering week with lots of different stuff going on some good some not. On Monday we had some shocking news that one of our seasonal agency ladies who had popped back to Poland for her summer break had been taken into hospital with headaches and was given a rather pessimistic prognosis. She had an operation on Tuesday which we believe went really well and the news was a bit more positive by the end of the week. Gabby is a really lovely lady, we hope she makes a full recovery and comes back soon. We also heard this week of sad news of the loss of Paul Weston who was the husband of one of our ex staff members. Another sudden loss, through a heart attack at work, so our thoughts are with Pam and the family too. Just to top it all off I arrived this morning to find an email from another lovely lady who was coming on a business visit to the nursery next week, who now can’t come as her young husband had a stroke last week and is still in hospital.
OK I know all this isn’t very jolly but on the positive side it does give you a push to focus on what is really important in life and how you don’t know what is round the corner for you or anyone else. Make the most of it and do some good stuff.
On a more upbeat side the Paralympics have been brilliant. I have heard more stories this week from visitors to the games about all the positive vibes coming from all around, how great the volunteers have been, the athletes, the crowds and the press coverage. So well done to everyone, it gives me great hope that the silent, sensible, good willed majority of the population can influence the direction and outcome of a major event by all doing their little bit of positive stuff. Let’s hope we can harness some of this good will to take us forward in lots of other areas and do loads of sensible positive stuff. It took some very good leadership and organisation to get the ball rolling but it was the people that made it work. Although there still seems to be a lot of focus in the media on the medals I think most of the audience just appreciate the efforts of the competitors in taking part, overcoming the obstacles in their way and having a go. So how do we keep all the positive stuff going? I’ve no idea. I’m just going to try and do my little bit this end and maybe you will at your end. That’s a good start.
Eco News
Some pillock (councillor in Totton) is complaining in the paper this week about a small exhibition in Winchester Cathedral highlighting potential problems of global warming. He is under the impression that this simply doesn’t exist and blames the global warming debate for increased fuel prices with the increases caused by useless wind turbines. He also claimed it to be unchristian to plunge old and poor people into fuel poverty. OK I know it is a tricky subject with no sure answers because it is so difficult to prove one way or another firstly if it is happening and secondly why. Also in a similar way there are no single reasons why the fuel prices are rising and are likely to continue to do so. Don’t we need to sit back a bit more rationally and reassess where we are going as a world population to sensibly assess where problems are likely to occur. Lot’s more people and increasing standards of living across the globe result in increasing demand on limited resources. We are heading for big challenges on energy supply, food production and raw material supply. As demand outstrips supply things are going to get interesting, why not embrace the challenges and rise to them, we can all do our bit and we have to start somewhere.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
What a fantastic day here, lots of sun, not too hot and the breeze has picked up enough to get the turbines going. Hopefully lots of people might think it’s time to have a play in the garden and buy some plants, although judging by the roads yesterday they all seem to have got in their cars to go somewhere. I had a hockey match in Havant and we ended up getting there very late after getting clogged up in it all. Luckily there was no match booked on the pitch after ours so we were able to run over.
It was a bit hot for running about but I managed to pace myself and lasted the whole game scoring the winning goal (well one of six in a 6-5 result) and as an added bonus I’m still able to walk this morning.
We’ve had a sobering week with lots of different stuff going on some good some not. On Monday we had some shocking news that one of our seasonal agency ladies who had popped back to Poland for her summer break had been taken into hospital with headaches and was given a rather pessimistic prognosis. She had an operation on Tuesday which we believe went really well and the news was a bit more positive by the end of the week. Gabby is a really lovely lady, we hope she makes a full recovery and comes back soon. We also heard this week of sad news of the loss of Paul Weston who was the husband of one of our ex staff members. Another sudden loss, through a heart attack at work, so our thoughts are with Pam and the family too. Just to top it all off I arrived this morning to find an email from another lovely lady who was coming on a business visit to the nursery next week, who now can’t come as her young husband had a stroke last week and is still in hospital.
OK I know all this isn’t very jolly but on the positive side it does give you a push to focus on what is really important in life and how you don’t know what is round the corner for you or anyone else. Make the most of it and do some good stuff.
On a more upbeat side the Paralympics have been brilliant. I have heard more stories this week from visitors to the games about all the positive vibes coming from all around, how great the volunteers have been, the athletes, the crowds and the press coverage. So well done to everyone, it gives me great hope that the silent, sensible, good willed majority of the population can influence the direction and outcome of a major event by all doing their little bit of positive stuff. Let’s hope we can harness some of this good will to take us forward in lots of other areas and do loads of sensible positive stuff. It took some very good leadership and organisation to get the ball rolling but it was the people that made it work. Although there still seems to be a lot of focus in the media on the medals I think most of the audience just appreciate the efforts of the competitors in taking part, overcoming the obstacles in their way and having a go. So how do we keep all the positive stuff going? I’ve no idea. I’m just going to try and do my little bit this end and maybe you will at your end. That’s a good start.
Eco News
Some pillock (councillor in Totton) is complaining in the paper this week about a small exhibition in Winchester Cathedral highlighting potential problems of global warming. He is under the impression that this simply doesn’t exist and blames the global warming debate for increased fuel prices with the increases caused by useless wind turbines. He also claimed it to be unchristian to plunge old and poor people into fuel poverty. OK I know it is a tricky subject with no sure answers because it is so difficult to prove one way or another firstly if it is happening and secondly why. Also in a similar way there are no single reasons why the fuel prices are rising and are likely to continue to do so. Don’t we need to sit back a bit more rationally and reassess where we are going as a world population to sensibly assess where problems are likely to occur. Lot’s more people and increasing standards of living across the globe result in increasing demand on limited resources. We are heading for big challenges on energy supply, food production and raw material supply. As demand outstrips supply things are going to get interesting, why not embrace the challenges and rise to them, we can all do our bit and we have to start somewhere.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 3 September 2012
Disappointingly damp this morning after promises that the weather was going to pick up a bit. After the shocker of a year on the nursery it would be a relief if the farming side of the family at least managed to get the harvest off the fields while the grain prices are up, but the summer continues to frustrate. From what I gather the yields aren’t brilliant and the quality not as high as usual but the prices would make up for that if they could just get it in the barn and dried. In a good year they often get the main crops in by the bank holiday but I know they are still on the oats which means they haven’t even started on the wheat yet. Luckily due to the earlier lack of sun the ripening was delayed so there is still some time to rescue things, they just need a decent dry spell. Good luck to them, we wished for that for several months without success. Still there is always next year, which looks like being fab.
Another wave of positive stuff with the Paralympics going on, which is just fantastic. It is difficult not to be moved by events and excited by so many of the sports. Ellie in the swimming last night was a really gutsy race and the wheelchair basket ball has been a spectacle in itself. Watching the performances of all those taking part, not just the winners, is inspiring and I hope we all pick up what we can all achieve with the right approach. I just hope the media which seems to have fallen in love with the positive messages maintains this approach after the flame goes out. Their influence on the public mood is huge and it would be nice to see a drive towards battling against and overcoming problems rather than just getting stroppy about them. Just off for my first hockey game of the new season, just a friendly between us oldies and the academy team. I suspect they may have the edge on fitness, especially as I am still recovering from the over indulgencies of my holiday and haven’t really done anything energetic since hanging up my stick at the end of last season. Not expecting to be able to walk tomorrow.
Eco News
August wind turbine output was slightly up on anticipated, but still not enough yet to overcome the low winds in early spring .
Overall we are really pleased with their performance especially as they now seem to have overcome the initial technical hiccups which caused a few stoppages. We have had a nice run of just over 3 months without a hitch (famous last words!).
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Another wave of positive stuff with the Paralympics going on, which is just fantastic. It is difficult not to be moved by events and excited by so many of the sports. Ellie in the swimming last night was a really gutsy race and the wheelchair basket ball has been a spectacle in itself. Watching the performances of all those taking part, not just the winners, is inspiring and I hope we all pick up what we can all achieve with the right approach. I just hope the media which seems to have fallen in love with the positive messages maintains this approach after the flame goes out. Their influence on the public mood is huge and it would be nice to see a drive towards battling against and overcoming problems rather than just getting stroppy about them. Just off for my first hockey game of the new season, just a friendly between us oldies and the academy team. I suspect they may have the edge on fitness, especially as I am still recovering from the over indulgencies of my holiday and haven’t really done anything energetic since hanging up my stick at the end of last season. Not expecting to be able to walk tomorrow.
Eco News
August wind turbine output was slightly up on anticipated, but still not enough yet to overcome the low winds in early spring .
Overall we are really pleased with their performance especially as they now seem to have overcome the initial technical hiccups which caused a few stoppages. We have had a nice run of just over 3 months without a hitch (famous last words!).
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 27 August 2012
Morning all,
Holiday weekend already, where does all the time go. Not a great weather day yesterday but looks promising for today so hopefully everyone will be out and about loosening those purse strings a bit. Still a bit more summer to come and the Paralympics about to start which should make us all inspired to do good things. With a bit of luck the Southampton football team will absorb the positive vibes and recover quickly from a quiet start back in the premiership.
We have been back a couple of days now after a few days in Cornwall. It’s a bit of a shock going away and coming back but the nursery looks great and lots got done so perhaps we need to go more ofte n. We did loads of stuff while away, the usual walking, not too far, and the usual eating, way too much, with a little something to wash it down with. One of the highlights was an evening picnic in a boggy mosquito ridden forest border. A chance encounter I had that morning on Marazion Marsh with a very chatty twitcher led to him disclosing a great spot to see and hear nightjars (a nocturnal insect eating bird). Not knowing the area very well I got him to repeat the forest name twice so I wouldn’t forget and got directions as to where to park and which track to take in the wood to get to the best spot. I offered the chance to see the nightjars to the rest of the gang who were surprisingly keen to give up their evening to stand about in the dark watching for birds they could barely see.
Where was the forest? Ahh. Umm. I think it was two words, the second was something like goose and the first maybe burn or burnt. Anyway some hours later we trooped into Croft Pascoe Forest just before sunset. It was very wet, puddles all over the place and loads of horse flies and mosquitoes. We made a marginal miscalculation with the lighting equipment considering the conditions, one tiny pencil light with a weak battery between four of us. Easy enough to find our way in but tricky on the return trip in virtual blackout conditions. Anyway after eating dinner and a downing a couple of bottles sunset arrived and we were treated to a near perfect display of nightjar activity. Very shortly after sunset the calling started, a very distinctive ‘churring’ from 3 or 4 birds coming from along the forest edge. Then all went quiet and just before it went too dark they started flying past us over the scrub along the forest edge. It was too dark to see in colour but we got some great views of them flitting about chasing their prey and one very close encounter as one flew straight towards us, halting its path just a few meters away. As darkness fell we could see them only silhouetted against the night sky and heard them calling again. It was just great to witness a sight not too many people see. Who needs a foreign holiday when you can stand in a swamp in Cornwall enjoying bread and butter, beer and get eaten alive!
Need to go and unblock the drains, nice to be back.
Potting is progressing well for next seasons crops. We have put some of our crops this year through an extra production phase to increase the size of plant we are potting which should help improve plant size, reduce moss and liverwort levels and reduce wastage through losses of the smallest plants. We used chunky module trays which already have on site so there were no extra material costs just the extra labour to do it. Results look good so far with really strong growth being seen in some of the more troublesome subjects. This may also be partly down to the great new peat free compost we are using this summer which is performing well beyond our expectations and the miles better than our previous mixes of the last few years whether they were peat free or not.
Eco News
Chickens looking good and are starting to lay, but only tiny eggs so far.
Great weather this summer for frogs and toads, they are all over the place.
Second batch of swallows have just fledged form the donkey shed, Hopefully they will find enough to eat to build up their reserves before the long migration flight in a few weeks/days.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Holiday weekend already, where does all the time go. Not a great weather day yesterday but looks promising for today so hopefully everyone will be out and about loosening those purse strings a bit. Still a bit more summer to come and the Paralympics about to start which should make us all inspired to do good things. With a bit of luck the Southampton football team will absorb the positive vibes and recover quickly from a quiet start back in the premiership.
We have been back a couple of days now after a few days in Cornwall. It’s a bit of a shock going away and coming back but the nursery looks great and lots got done so perhaps we need to go more ofte n. We did loads of stuff while away, the usual walking, not too far, and the usual eating, way too much, with a little something to wash it down with. One of the highlights was an evening picnic in a boggy mosquito ridden forest border. A chance encounter I had that morning on Marazion Marsh with a very chatty twitcher led to him disclosing a great spot to see and hear nightjars (a nocturnal insect eating bird). Not knowing the area very well I got him to repeat the forest name twice so I wouldn’t forget and got directions as to where to park and which track to take in the wood to get to the best spot. I offered the chance to see the nightjars to the rest of the gang who were surprisingly keen to give up their evening to stand about in the dark watching for birds they could barely see.
Where was the forest? Ahh. Umm. I think it was two words, the second was something like goose and the first maybe burn or burnt. Anyway some hours later we trooped into Croft Pascoe Forest just before sunset. It was very wet, puddles all over the place and loads of horse flies and mosquitoes. We made a marginal miscalculation with the lighting equipment considering the conditions, one tiny pencil light with a weak battery between four of us. Easy enough to find our way in but tricky on the return trip in virtual blackout conditions. Anyway after eating dinner and a downing a couple of bottles sunset arrived and we were treated to a near perfect display of nightjar activity. Very shortly after sunset the calling started, a very distinctive ‘churring’ from 3 or 4 birds coming from along the forest edge. Then all went quiet and just before it went too dark they started flying past us over the scrub along the forest edge. It was too dark to see in colour but we got some great views of them flitting about chasing their prey and one very close encounter as one flew straight towards us, halting its path just a few meters away. As darkness fell we could see them only silhouetted against the night sky and heard them calling again. It was just great to witness a sight not too many people see. Who needs a foreign holiday when you can stand in a swamp in Cornwall enjoying bread and butter, beer and get eaten alive!
Need to go and unblock the drains, nice to be back.
Potting is progressing well for next seasons crops. We have put some of our crops this year through an extra production phase to increase the size of plant we are potting which should help improve plant size, reduce moss and liverwort levels and reduce wastage through losses of the smallest plants. We used chunky module trays which already have on site so there were no extra material costs just the extra labour to do it. Results look good so far with really strong growth being seen in some of the more troublesome subjects. This may also be partly down to the great new peat free compost we are using this summer which is performing well beyond our expectations and the miles better than our previous mixes of the last few years whether they were peat free or not.
Eco News
Chickens looking good and are starting to lay, but only tiny eggs so far.
Great weather this summer for frogs and toads, they are all over the place.
Second batch of swallows have just fledged form the donkey shed, Hopefully they will find enough to eat to build up their reserves before the long migration flight in a few weeks/days.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 20 August 2012
I know I’m a bit early for the weekend but we have decided to squeeze in a short break so I’m off on my hols tomorrow for a few days. I need a rest after all the excursions of the Olympics and we could do with catching a glimpse of the real world outside the nursery. There will be plenty of people manning the pumps here so we should be ok for a few orders for anyone keen to get our ace Anemones into store.
Did a U3A (university of the third age) tour on Tuesday. Very nice group trouped round the nursery listening to me waffling for England. NBIS (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) group did the same today although today’s went quicker after a successful business lunch down at The Plough.
Need to go and pack my bucket and spade, be back soon.
Be good. Don’t read Shades Of Grey.
Eco News
Still no eggs, but it’s ok because there is nice beer in Cornwall and I can have a lie down.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Did a U3A (university of the third age) tour on Tuesday. Very nice group trouped round the nursery listening to me waffling for England. NBIS (Nursery Business Improvement Scheme) group did the same today although today’s went quicker after a successful business lunch down at The Plough.
Need to go and pack my bucket and spade, be back soon.
Be good. Don’t read Shades Of Grey.
Eco News
Still no eggs, but it’s ok because there is nice beer in Cornwall and I can have a lie down.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 13 August 2012
Last day of the Olympics and I’m all cried out. Not sure if it’s the excitement of the events and results, the emotions of the athletes and crowds or an excuse to release the pressures of a difficult season. Funnily enough everyone else seems to be the same, they must have put something in the water. The positive input of all the volunteers seems to have impressed everyone who has been there and they have helped carry through a fantastic event we can all be proud of. Well done everyone.
I wonder what else we can do given the chance or the right motivation.
There is lots of talk of the legacy of the games and it will be interesting to see how much momentum we can maintain. After seeing the fantastic performance of Bradley Wiggins early on, I found my inspiration. It didn’t go as far as getting on a bike, I doubt that will happen after a traumatic introduction to road bike riding a few years ago. I got entered to ride the bike section of a team triathlon, cycling about 25 miles, but my preparation of one cycle to the pub proved inadequate and I had to have the saddle surgically removed at the end of the ride and I couldn’t sit down for a week! What happened to the nice wide springy saddles from my youth? Having thought Bradley’s sideburns were a bit naff they suddenly became quite attractive after the Olympic gold medal so I have set about paying my tribute by growing my own version. Not off to a great start as they started nicely below the ears but slightly out of balance. By the time I had taken a bit too much off one side then too much off the other I ended up with a token extension rather than a full blown tribute.
Potting for next season is bowling along although we are being much more conservative with some of the quantities we are producing after throwing away so much unsold stock this year. I know there are many others following a similar route as we simply can’t afford another year like this one and reducing production helps the cash flow and reduced the wastage risks. If next year turns out to be brilliant on the weather and sales fronts then we may miss out a bit but with margins already tight chucking away so much stuff is just unsustainable.
In such a tricky year it is tempting to think it has all been going downhill but there are lots of plus points for us here. This was the first year of output from the three wind turbines, we upgraded the irrigation pipe sizes to improve pressure and flow, we have found a great, new peat free compost which is outperforming not just the other peat free mixes we have tried but also our previous peat reduced mix and I reckon all the composts before it. We have started adding a bark topping to our new potting to reduce the liverwort and moss growth which can be unsightly and increases despatch costs. We are also topping our module composts with a finer material for the same purpose. Then there are all the production beds which are getting new covers to help speed up crop clearance and keep the beds cleaner as well as reducing the potential for slips. We have all just completed a course on Lean Management which should help us fine tune the production operations improving efficiency, reducing waste and encouraging more team work and involvement in the workplace. We have already done one project which was quite impressive and now have to apply it to a few more. Considering we are supposed to be holding back a lot seems to be still pushing us forward which is a nice feeling for everyone.
Eco News
Egg production has tailed off as the rescue chickens fell off their perches. We lost the last of the old batch earlier in the week so have got in our first full delivery of real ‘point of lay’ birds. They look really strong and very smart, a mixed bag of hybrids rather than posh breeds but reared on a small local farm so well used to people and traffic etc. No eggs yet (1 day) but hopeful that we can soon get back up to fulfilling the nursery demand.
Long eared bat roosted for a couple of days in one of the tunnels, that’s the first we have seen for probably 10 years.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
I wonder what else we can do given the chance or the right motivation.
There is lots of talk of the legacy of the games and it will be interesting to see how much momentum we can maintain. After seeing the fantastic performance of Bradley Wiggins early on, I found my inspiration. It didn’t go as far as getting on a bike, I doubt that will happen after a traumatic introduction to road bike riding a few years ago. I got entered to ride the bike section of a team triathlon, cycling about 25 miles, but my preparation of one cycle to the pub proved inadequate and I had to have the saddle surgically removed at the end of the ride and I couldn’t sit down for a week! What happened to the nice wide springy saddles from my youth? Having thought Bradley’s sideburns were a bit naff they suddenly became quite attractive after the Olympic gold medal so I have set about paying my tribute by growing my own version. Not off to a great start as they started nicely below the ears but slightly out of balance. By the time I had taken a bit too much off one side then too much off the other I ended up with a token extension rather than a full blown tribute.
Potting for next season is bowling along although we are being much more conservative with some of the quantities we are producing after throwing away so much unsold stock this year. I know there are many others following a similar route as we simply can’t afford another year like this one and reducing production helps the cash flow and reduced the wastage risks. If next year turns out to be brilliant on the weather and sales fronts then we may miss out a bit but with margins already tight chucking away so much stuff is just unsustainable.
In such a tricky year it is tempting to think it has all been going downhill but there are lots of plus points for us here. This was the first year of output from the three wind turbines, we upgraded the irrigation pipe sizes to improve pressure and flow, we have found a great, new peat free compost which is outperforming not just the other peat free mixes we have tried but also our previous peat reduced mix and I reckon all the composts before it. We have started adding a bark topping to our new potting to reduce the liverwort and moss growth which can be unsightly and increases despatch costs. We are also topping our module composts with a finer material for the same purpose. Then there are all the production beds which are getting new covers to help speed up crop clearance and keep the beds cleaner as well as reducing the potential for slips. We have all just completed a course on Lean Management which should help us fine tune the production operations improving efficiency, reducing waste and encouraging more team work and involvement in the workplace. We have already done one project which was quite impressive and now have to apply it to a few more. Considering we are supposed to be holding back a lot seems to be still pushing us forward which is a nice feeling for everyone.
Eco News
Egg production has tailed off as the rescue chickens fell off their perches. We lost the last of the old batch earlier in the week so have got in our first full delivery of real ‘point of lay’ birds. They look really strong and very smart, a mixed bag of hybrids rather than posh breeds but reared on a small local farm so well used to people and traffic etc. No eggs yet (1 day) but hopeful that we can soon get back up to fulfilling the nursery demand.
Long eared bat roosted for a couple of days in one of the tunnels, that’s the first we have seen for probably 10 years.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 6 August 2012
Morning all,
What a spectacular success the Olympics looks like being. It’s not just the recent flush of medals which was great, but the joy and spirit before. It looks to be there at all levels from the athletes, the crowds, the volunteers, even the media seem to have dropped the usual cynicism. The BBC coverage has been great with such exhaustive content and positive commentating and interviewing. I have listened to quite a bit on the great 5Live radio channel when I have been too busy to sit and watch and they get so excited it is infectious as they dodge about from one event to another. I’m so glad it has gone so well and I hope that the positive spirit runs over when all the athletes go home, life gets a lot easier when so many pull in one direction. I suspect retail sales generally might get a bit dented over this couple of weeks as so much time is set aside to watch sports we would never normally give a second glance to. So many lovely, moving moments already, well done to everyone involved whether it is participating in some way or just supporting, it is inspirational on so many levels.
I have heard that some were particularly impressed by the American rowing fours at yesterdays medal ceremony but I have no comment to make on that.
We could certainly do with a bit of a lift on the nursery as the rubbish spring and summer weather continues to have an impact on day to day progress. It would be great to just write off the season and get stuck into a new one but we are still battling to clear up and make space for the new crops which provides constant reminders of how difficult this year has been.
It is a shame, as this summer the preparations for next year’s crops have gone really well. We have found a stonking peat free compost after some more very frustrating trials this spring, we have incorporated new top dressings on the young plant modules and the coir pots which are reducing the amount of liverwort and moss growing on the compost surface and we have now completed the first 5 weeks of our lean management training for all the permanent staff. The irrigation system is working much better after increasing the supply pipe diameter around the nursery and the LED lighting in the lab growth room is doing a great job. Let’s hope the Olympic wave will carry us through.
Eco News
One year of wind turbine generation complete, first annual service done and the longest run yet of ten weeks without any technical hitches (touch wood). Caroline got taken up one of the turbines for a look from the top and took some great pictures, she was thrilled so big thanks to the engineers for organising that. It looked very exciting from the pictures, but not really my scene, I couldn’t even watch Caroline go up let alone set foot on the ladder!
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
What a spectacular success the Olympics looks like being. It’s not just the recent flush of medals which was great, but the joy and spirit before. It looks to be there at all levels from the athletes, the crowds, the volunteers, even the media seem to have dropped the usual cynicism. The BBC coverage has been great with such exhaustive content and positive commentating and interviewing. I have listened to quite a bit on the great 5Live radio channel when I have been too busy to sit and watch and they get so excited it is infectious as they dodge about from one event to another. I’m so glad it has gone so well and I hope that the positive spirit runs over when all the athletes go home, life gets a lot easier when so many pull in one direction. I suspect retail sales generally might get a bit dented over this couple of weeks as so much time is set aside to watch sports we would never normally give a second glance to. So many lovely, moving moments already, well done to everyone involved whether it is participating in some way or just supporting, it is inspirational on so many levels.
I have heard that some were particularly impressed by the American rowing fours at yesterdays medal ceremony but I have no comment to make on that.
We could certainly do with a bit of a lift on the nursery as the rubbish spring and summer weather continues to have an impact on day to day progress. It would be great to just write off the season and get stuck into a new one but we are still battling to clear up and make space for the new crops which provides constant reminders of how difficult this year has been.
It is a shame, as this summer the preparations for next year’s crops have gone really well. We have found a stonking peat free compost after some more very frustrating trials this spring, we have incorporated new top dressings on the young plant modules and the coir pots which are reducing the amount of liverwort and moss growing on the compost surface and we have now completed the first 5 weeks of our lean management training for all the permanent staff. The irrigation system is working much better after increasing the supply pipe diameter around the nursery and the LED lighting in the lab growth room is doing a great job. Let’s hope the Olympic wave will carry us through.
Eco News
One year of wind turbine generation complete, first annual service done and the longest run yet of ten weeks without any technical hitches (touch wood). Caroline got taken up one of the turbines for a look from the top and took some great pictures, she was thrilled so big thanks to the engineers for organising that. It looked very exciting from the pictures, but not really my scene, I couldn’t even watch Caroline go up let alone set foot on the ladder!
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 23 July 2012
Morning all!
Summer next week, just in time for the farm harvest we hope. Although we don’t have much to do with all the work involved it is always a relief to see one part of the family doing well and the crops in the barns. Early days yet but there were some anxious farmers about with all this dampness over the summer so far. At least with the light chalky ground we are on they will be able to get on with it as soon as the crops are ready, assuming the rain holds off for a bit.
Although world prices of cereals have done ok in the last couple of years, the dairy farmers are not fairing so well as we have seen in the news this week. For ages now they have been pressured by the ever increasing power of the last remaining big milk companies and their main customers, the supermarkets. They were already complaining of producing at cost or below before cuts of 4p+ a litre were imposed this year, no wonder they have taken to blockading the dairies. The supermarkets blame the competitive consumer market place but I don’t see them operating at a loss. They have the power and they aren’t afraid to use it, you have to wonder what the long term cost will be of their bullying tactics to provide us with cheap stuff?
I had a trip out this week to an HDC herbaceous group meeting to see what research they are up to and to ask us how we would like them to proceed. Not usually my cup of tea but it was nice to find an excuse to meet up with other growers and also visit another nursery. After such a difficult season it was reassuring to hear of everyone else’s tales of woe and to see that our nursery doesn’t look too bad either. In a year like this it is very easy to lose confidence in lots of areas. Although the next year is going to be really tough I am feeling like it is time to take things forward again. This was timed well to fit in with our ongoing training programme in Lean Management. We have just finished week 3 and started on our first improvement project in the potting shed which already looked pretty slick but has now stepped up into another league. Not only is it much better but we can now see even more improvements to follow on in future developments. Although at first it does look a bit like we have just had a major spring clean, it does go much deeper than that. The team have come up with machine design, work process and work place organisational changes to reset how we work in that area. One of the clever bits was designing into the process the elimination, where possible of making any mess. This makes big tidying up sessions and trip hazards etc things of the past. The test will be to see if we can sustain the new practices, it certainly looks good at the moment. Over the next few weeks we will have to sort out other areas for everyone to do their own smaller group projects on, the list is already growing as everyone starts to see the potential benefits we could all gain from this.
Eco News
Only a few more days to go before the first anniversary of the starting up of the wind turbines. It looks like we are going to be slightly down on predicted output, probably about 10% down although 6.5% of that was due to turbine downtime with the initial teething stoppages we had during the first year. So to be only 2.5% out on predicted wind speeds over just one year is close enough for me. Let’s hope the next year see’s fewer stoppages as the turbines settle in and the jackdaws are kept out. The annual service is next week so hopefully they will report back that all is ok. Caroline was hoping for a trip up the tower if it wasn’t too windy but she’s not sure if the broken arm is recovered enough yet. I suspect it might have to be next year.
I can’t remember if I mentioned that we have now fitted more LED lights in the lab growth room. This will extend the trial we started 9 months ago and will start paying back their relatively high cost in saved energy and reduced cooling requirement. We now have 8 of our 114 lights as LED’s which saves approx 5kWhrs per day, not a lot but it all adds up. Had we had a better year we would fit more but cash is tight and the initial costs are high. At the moment we are replacing light units as they wear out which does help towards the cost.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Summer next week, just in time for the farm harvest we hope. Although we don’t have much to do with all the work involved it is always a relief to see one part of the family doing well and the crops in the barns. Early days yet but there were some anxious farmers about with all this dampness over the summer so far. At least with the light chalky ground we are on they will be able to get on with it as soon as the crops are ready, assuming the rain holds off for a bit.
Although world prices of cereals have done ok in the last couple of years, the dairy farmers are not fairing so well as we have seen in the news this week. For ages now they have been pressured by the ever increasing power of the last remaining big milk companies and their main customers, the supermarkets. They were already complaining of producing at cost or below before cuts of 4p+ a litre were imposed this year, no wonder they have taken to blockading the dairies. The supermarkets blame the competitive consumer market place but I don’t see them operating at a loss. They have the power and they aren’t afraid to use it, you have to wonder what the long term cost will be of their bullying tactics to provide us with cheap stuff?
I had a trip out this week to an HDC herbaceous group meeting to see what research they are up to and to ask us how we would like them to proceed. Not usually my cup of tea but it was nice to find an excuse to meet up with other growers and also visit another nursery. After such a difficult season it was reassuring to hear of everyone else’s tales of woe and to see that our nursery doesn’t look too bad either. In a year like this it is very easy to lose confidence in lots of areas. Although the next year is going to be really tough I am feeling like it is time to take things forward again. This was timed well to fit in with our ongoing training programme in Lean Management. We have just finished week 3 and started on our first improvement project in the potting shed which already looked pretty slick but has now stepped up into another league. Not only is it much better but we can now see even more improvements to follow on in future developments. Although at first it does look a bit like we have just had a major spring clean, it does go much deeper than that. The team have come up with machine design, work process and work place organisational changes to reset how we work in that area. One of the clever bits was designing into the process the elimination, where possible of making any mess. This makes big tidying up sessions and trip hazards etc things of the past. The test will be to see if we can sustain the new practices, it certainly looks good at the moment. Over the next few weeks we will have to sort out other areas for everyone to do their own smaller group projects on, the list is already growing as everyone starts to see the potential benefits we could all gain from this.
Eco News
Only a few more days to go before the first anniversary of the starting up of the wind turbines. It looks like we are going to be slightly down on predicted output, probably about 10% down although 6.5% of that was due to turbine downtime with the initial teething stoppages we had during the first year. So to be only 2.5% out on predicted wind speeds over just one year is close enough for me. Let’s hope the next year see’s fewer stoppages as the turbines settle in and the jackdaws are kept out. The annual service is next week so hopefully they will report back that all is ok. Caroline was hoping for a trip up the tower if it wasn’t too windy but she’s not sure if the broken arm is recovered enough yet. I suspect it might have to be next year.
I can’t remember if I mentioned that we have now fitted more LED lights in the lab growth room. This will extend the trial we started 9 months ago and will start paying back their relatively high cost in saved energy and reduced cooling requirement. We now have 8 of our 114 lights as LED’s which saves approx 5kWhrs per day, not a lot but it all adds up. Had we had a better year we would fit more but cash is tight and the initial costs are high. At the moment we are replacing light units as they wear out which does help towards the cost.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 16 July 2012
Morning!
There always seems to be so much stuff happening, the weeks just flash by. This week not only did we have quite a few orders to put together but managed to fit in one day’s bank preparation for the bank managers visit, another days Lean Management training for everyone, a turbine visit from one of the local villages and a night out for Caroline and I to see Adam Ant in concert.
The highlight, after Adam of course, was the bank visit and having to come clean about the difficult season and the knock on effects that will have over the coming year for us. Luckily having a specialist manager worked brilliantly, he was well aware of the extraordinary weather issues and was pleasantly surprised that we were not as badly off as some of his other customers. The preliminary figures are not pretty and will still knock us back, but it was great to hear the bank looking to the longer term, being very supportive in sorting out extra financial backing and encouraging us to look to next season and beyond rather than dwelling too long on the fallout from this season. That was great news and certainly helped on the sleeping front the following night! Phew.
Talking of looking to the future our lean management training is bowling along nicely and a few ideas are beginning to come together on how we can making little tweeks to different areas and further improve our performance. It’s great to have everyone doing it together and looking at everything with a bit of a fresh eye, it should be quite refreshing for all.
Anyway the real excitement was the Adam Ant concert last night in Basingstoke which brought back a few memories. I saw him in 1979 in Southampton just as Dog Eat Dog was in the charts and when it was mainly a punk audience. He uses two drum sets which creates such a drive and the guitarists were brilliant. Adam did his thing, although I felt he was justly slightly embarrassed by his Prince Charming phase. Overall a great rock and roll show. What is going on with audiences though? It would appear that there aren’t many who can just go and be blown away, they have to constantly hold up their phones filming the whole event. We were about half way back and all we could see was the glow of phones held aloft all around the stage. It should have been a seething mass of dancing bodies which would have created a great party atmosphere but most were stood perfectly still so that the pictures recorded didn’t jiggle! Rather than witnessing a live in-person performance they watched it on a tiny screen. Why not get a DVD and watch that? They can watch it back and show their friends recalling their night out watching the back of their phone whereas I have it in my head where it can look and sound a lot better and even improve over time! Live life, don’t just record it.
Eco News
Got our last Scottish & Southern electric bill this week before we change supplier and I suspect they read my last newsletter.
They managed to forget to refund the interim payments we have made over the last 3 months for the Triad charges that would have been charged next winter if we had stayed with them. I have had to send an email explaining the situation to my account manager for him to work out how to settle the balance as there was some debate as to whether we wouldn’t get it back until after the triad payments are declared at the end of next March! This is the company who are so proud of their customer service!
Lovely group of villagers from King Somboune came for a look at the turbines on Friday evening, all quite excited by their visit and getting up close and personal with the turbines. All very positive stuff and nice to hear that there are no rumblings of revolt among the natives.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
There always seems to be so much stuff happening, the weeks just flash by. This week not only did we have quite a few orders to put together but managed to fit in one day’s bank preparation for the bank managers visit, another days Lean Management training for everyone, a turbine visit from one of the local villages and a night out for Caroline and I to see Adam Ant in concert.
The highlight, after Adam of course, was the bank visit and having to come clean about the difficult season and the knock on effects that will have over the coming year for us. Luckily having a specialist manager worked brilliantly, he was well aware of the extraordinary weather issues and was pleasantly surprised that we were not as badly off as some of his other customers. The preliminary figures are not pretty and will still knock us back, but it was great to hear the bank looking to the longer term, being very supportive in sorting out extra financial backing and encouraging us to look to next season and beyond rather than dwelling too long on the fallout from this season. That was great news and certainly helped on the sleeping front the following night! Phew.
Talking of looking to the future our lean management training is bowling along nicely and a few ideas are beginning to come together on how we can making little tweeks to different areas and further improve our performance. It’s great to have everyone doing it together and looking at everything with a bit of a fresh eye, it should be quite refreshing for all.
Anyway the real excitement was the Adam Ant concert last night in Basingstoke which brought back a few memories. I saw him in 1979 in Southampton just as Dog Eat Dog was in the charts and when it was mainly a punk audience. He uses two drum sets which creates such a drive and the guitarists were brilliant. Adam did his thing, although I felt he was justly slightly embarrassed by his Prince Charming phase. Overall a great rock and roll show. What is going on with audiences though? It would appear that there aren’t many who can just go and be blown away, they have to constantly hold up their phones filming the whole event. We were about half way back and all we could see was the glow of phones held aloft all around the stage. It should have been a seething mass of dancing bodies which would have created a great party atmosphere but most were stood perfectly still so that the pictures recorded didn’t jiggle! Rather than witnessing a live in-person performance they watched it on a tiny screen. Why not get a DVD and watch that? They can watch it back and show their friends recalling their night out watching the back of their phone whereas I have it in my head where it can look and sound a lot better and even improve over time! Live life, don’t just record it.
Eco News
Got our last Scottish & Southern electric bill this week before we change supplier and I suspect they read my last newsletter.
They managed to forget to refund the interim payments we have made over the last 3 months for the Triad charges that would have been charged next winter if we had stayed with them. I have had to send an email explaining the situation to my account manager for him to work out how to settle the balance as there was some debate as to whether we wouldn’t get it back until after the triad payments are declared at the end of next March! This is the company who are so proud of their customer service!
Lovely group of villagers from King Somboune came for a look at the turbines on Friday evening, all quite excited by their visit and getting up close and personal with the turbines. All very positive stuff and nice to hear that there are no rumblings of revolt among the natives.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 9 July 2012
Yesterday was a bit of a wash out and today is Andy’s big day which might put the brakes on Sunday afternoon sales. Still can’t complain really can we, what a roll we are on, and I don’t mean just how many weekends in a season could be pants for selling plants! We got a men’s doubles winner yesterday, Andy in the final, the leader in the Tour de France, a nice wet Gran d Prix, England walloped the Aussies in the cricket, Southampton are in the premiership, loads of gold medals to come in the Olympics and the Queen won the Jubilee. Just so much excitement it’s such a shame about the weather, it just seems endlessly miserable for so many. We have tried to keep positive on the nursery and kept potting new stock assuming at some point things will move along a bit and we will need to find something to sell and to be fair we have kept up with last year for the last few weeks, but we had been hoping for a little more. Still we can’t do much about the weather, let’s hope the bank manager is understanding when he visits later in the week.
We’ve been looking to the future this week with the start of some Lean Management training for virtually all the crew. This spring has brought into focus how important it is going to be to run the business as efficiently and professionally as we can over the next couple of seasons to try and recover from this one year and we hope this training will help us all make a few tweaks towards that recovery. First day was fun after an early morning session on Health and Safety we progressed onto playing with Lego bricks by the afternoon which was much more my scene. I think it’s got people thinking a bit, now we just need to learn how we can apply some of what we saw into our workplace. We have got a bit of homework to do before next week but nothing too taxing, although it does involve looking at our work areas in different ways which could be refreshing.
I need to press on the morning is whizzing by and I have too much to do. 25,000 tubs and lids to count and pack for the lab, seeds to sow (do I leave these until after the bank manager has been? Might not need any plants for next year!), irrigation to sort out (yes even in this rain) and figures to conjure up for the visit (maybe the bank will be on the back foot after all the banking scandal’s of late).
Eco News
Cold wet weather probably not helping swallows and house martins. We seemed a bit short on young swallows last night in the roost but hopefully there are ok. We have certainly lost a few of the very young house martins which have fallen or been ejected from the nest although there still seems to be a reasonable amount of feeding activity going on.
Great year for slugs and snails and I am not sure the current frog and toad population is up to the task. There are plenty about but too many small ones without the stomach capacity for the size of brutes we have sliming about at the moment.
We moved our turbine FIT and export contracts this month to Good Energy from SSE. I haven’t heard a lot from either side on progress although I know the wheels are turning as I did get an email from SSE confirming a change. Because they were so proud of their customer service levels they did ask if I could let them know why we were changing. Usually I don’t bother with answering this sort of request but they caught me on a wet day and in the mood for a rant. I listed a whole host of cock-ups, inefficiencies and rip-off contracts that they dealt out last year and said if they needed some more feedback please feel free to contact me again and I will add to the list. Well they did ask. To be fair they did reply, not with any excuses but said that they would pass on my comments.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week from all at Kirtonf Farm Nurseries
We’ve been looking to the future this week with the start of some Lean Management training for virtually all the crew. This spring has brought into focus how important it is going to be to run the business as efficiently and professionally as we can over the next couple of seasons to try and recover from this one year and we hope this training will help us all make a few tweaks towards that recovery. First day was fun after an early morning session on Health and Safety we progressed onto playing with Lego bricks by the afternoon which was much more my scene. I think it’s got people thinking a bit, now we just need to learn how we can apply some of what we saw into our workplace. We have got a bit of homework to do before next week but nothing too taxing, although it does involve looking at our work areas in different ways which could be refreshing.
I need to press on the morning is whizzing by and I have too much to do. 25,000 tubs and lids to count and pack for the lab, seeds to sow (do I leave these until after the bank manager has been? Might not need any plants for next year!), irrigation to sort out (yes even in this rain) and figures to conjure up for the visit (maybe the bank will be on the back foot after all the banking scandal’s of late).
Eco News
Cold wet weather probably not helping swallows and house martins. We seemed a bit short on young swallows last night in the roost but hopefully there are ok. We have certainly lost a few of the very young house martins which have fallen or been ejected from the nest although there still seems to be a reasonable amount of feeding activity going on.
Great year for slugs and snails and I am not sure the current frog and toad population is up to the task. There are plenty about but too many small ones without the stomach capacity for the size of brutes we have sliming about at the moment.
We moved our turbine FIT and export contracts this month to Good Energy from SSE. I haven’t heard a lot from either side on progress although I know the wheels are turning as I did get an email from SSE confirming a change. Because they were so proud of their customer service levels they did ask if I could let them know why we were changing. Usually I don’t bother with answering this sort of request but they caught me on a wet day and in the mood for a rant. I listed a whole host of cock-ups, inefficiencies and rip-off contracts that they dealt out last year and said if they needed some more feedback please feel free to contact me again and I will add to the list. Well they did ask. To be fair they did reply, not with any excuses but said that they would pass on my comments.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Have a good week from all at Kirtonf Farm Nurseries
Monday 2 July 2012
I can’t believe it’s July already. If we don’t let on perhaps the gardening public will still think we are coming out of winter and there is still plenty of time yet to do up the garden. I think that’s the gist of the HTA summer planting campaign, let’s hope it has some impact. Unfortunately I was just too busy earlier this week to get up to the HTA National Plant Show at Stoneleigh. I had been meaning to go, just to suss out if we ought to bite the bullet and show there. Last year we did the GAN show in Bournemouth and the Woking Show which were great for covering most of our customer area, but they are no more and we have no shows at all this year. They are usually great therapy, everyone can have a moan together or get excited about the coming season, I hope The HTA show had a positive therapeutic vibe for all those attending, I suspect there were some fairly desperate buyers and sellers after such a challenging season.
No great surprise to hear that April, May and June made the record books as the wettest for 100 years. Not to worry there is always next year, that could be even wetter!
Lots to look forward to over the next few weeks, Andy is still there, football final tonight and Olympics round the corner.
Hopefully it won’t get too hot and we will all get carried away on a wave of plant buying euphoria.
Had a very exciting week reviewing and updating some risk and fire assessments on the nursery. Sometimes it is a bit tricky knowing when to stop putting up advisory stickers etc on pinch hazards, slip and trip risks etc. On doing a bit of internet research I did find one establishment who highlighted the pinch hazard of sitting down on the toilet seat in their assessment . I did draw the line there.
Eco News
Another windy week, June was the windiest month so far in 2012, just beating January.
Baby frogs all over the place this week, have to be careful where you tread in some areas.
Swallows have fledged and quite a few house martins have hatched. Hopefully the weather is kind to them, if we get a high success rate on the fledging we will have more martins flying around the house and nursery than ever before.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
No great surprise to hear that April, May and June made the record books as the wettest for 100 years. Not to worry there is always next year, that could be even wetter!
Lots to look forward to over the next few weeks, Andy is still there, football final tonight and Olympics round the corner.
Hopefully it won’t get too hot and we will all get carried away on a wave of plant buying euphoria.
Had a very exciting week reviewing and updating some risk and fire assessments on the nursery. Sometimes it is a bit tricky knowing when to stop putting up advisory stickers etc on pinch hazards, slip and trip risks etc. On doing a bit of internet research I did find one establishment who highlighted the pinch hazard of sitting down on the toilet seat in their assessment . I did draw the line there.
Eco News
Another windy week, June was the windiest month so far in 2012, just beating January.
Baby frogs all over the place this week, have to be careful where you tread in some areas.
Swallows have fledged and quite a few house martins have hatched. Hopefully the weather is kind to them, if we get a high success rate on the fledging we will have more martins flying around the house and nursery than ever before.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 25 June 2012
Good job there are still plenty of weeks to go for summer, still time for the weather to pick up. Someone said to me this week that the long range forecast said that we are in for more of the same over the next month, so watch out for the heat-wave. There is not much we can do about the weather so no point getting too stressed out but it is affecting a lot of sectors in horticulture so don’t forget to keep supporting everyone. The soft fruit boys and girls are having huge quality problems with all the wind and rain and as usual getting little sympathy from the supermarkets but we need to keep buying their stuff or they will be in even more trouble. Make the most of purchases by eating ASAP before the quality takes a dive then pop in later in the week for another punnet. English raspberries in store now, my favourite, best eaten with cold dark chocolate, all part of my 5 a day.
Another tour party this week with a local farmers group of 50 or so for a quick look at the nursery, lab and turbines. As our weeny wind installation is still the biggest in Hampshire the novelty is yet to wear off. Followed up the tour with a hog roast BBQ on the farm, contributing nothing to my 5 a day but satisfying the meat consuming hunter in me.
Big news in the local paper last week with a plan proposed to put up 17 big turbines fairly locally, the usual fuss and panic was reported in the blurb, although during the week the overall reaction seems surprisingly positive which is nice to see. The usual knee jerk reactions where there with questions about whether the turbines would ever save enough CO2 to cover their own manufacture (ours will in just 15 months use) and when electric demand is at its highest the wind doesn’t blow (assuming the highest demand is when we have a frosty, still, high pressure system parked on top of us). Having come through our first winter and been involved in TRIAD charges which are applied to high users and generators for the 3 peak half hour consumption periods of the winter, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we generated at high rates on all three occasions with just 3kWhr consumed where our own use was slightly higher than power we generated for one of the periods. I am guessing that this is because the highest demand (always between 16.30 and 18.30 on a cold winters evening) is not just when it is cold but windy and possibly wet too. A cold wet wind will remove heat from buildings much quicker than cold alone. I must try and squeeze in a few more tours for the locals so they can get up close and personal and look at the turbines too!
Feeling very sorry for the Isle of Wight festival goers this weekend, having taken so long to get them on site, it is likely to take forever to get them off again as it has been raining again overnight. They are going to be cold, wet and very tired but hopefully having enjoyed some good times. We did our more civilised bit by attending the opening of the King Somborne music and beer festival on Friday night in the village hall. Organised by the ‘Somborne Sessions’ we have a brilliant night watching Virgil and the Accelerators who were fantastic and very loud. I bet they don’t get many gigs where members of the audience are waltzing around the floor to raucous blues rock. Had a quiet day yesterday recovering from the beer sampling of the night before, feeling nearly human today.
Caroline feeling a bit less encumbered now as her arm cast came off this week, but she is still a bit crocked as it will take a while for things to settle down and work properly again. I think there was an expectation that all would be normal when the cast came off but she still can’t get her socks on. Good job, touch wood, my back is ok otherwise we would both be naked from the ankle down! Could be worse.
Eco News
Windy week, already 25% up on June estimate with 7 days to go.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Another tour party this week with a local farmers group of 50 or so for a quick look at the nursery, lab and turbines. As our weeny wind installation is still the biggest in Hampshire the novelty is yet to wear off. Followed up the tour with a hog roast BBQ on the farm, contributing nothing to my 5 a day but satisfying the meat consuming hunter in me.
Big news in the local paper last week with a plan proposed to put up 17 big turbines fairly locally, the usual fuss and panic was reported in the blurb, although during the week the overall reaction seems surprisingly positive which is nice to see. The usual knee jerk reactions where there with questions about whether the turbines would ever save enough CO2 to cover their own manufacture (ours will in just 15 months use) and when electric demand is at its highest the wind doesn’t blow (assuming the highest demand is when we have a frosty, still, high pressure system parked on top of us). Having come through our first winter and been involved in TRIAD charges which are applied to high users and generators for the 3 peak half hour consumption periods of the winter, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we generated at high rates on all three occasions with just 3kWhr consumed where our own use was slightly higher than power we generated for one of the periods. I am guessing that this is because the highest demand (always between 16.30 and 18.30 on a cold winters evening) is not just when it is cold but windy and possibly wet too. A cold wet wind will remove heat from buildings much quicker than cold alone. I must try and squeeze in a few more tours for the locals so they can get up close and personal and look at the turbines too!
Feeling very sorry for the Isle of Wight festival goers this weekend, having taken so long to get them on site, it is likely to take forever to get them off again as it has been raining again overnight. They are going to be cold, wet and very tired but hopefully having enjoyed some good times. We did our more civilised bit by attending the opening of the King Somborne music and beer festival on Friday night in the village hall. Organised by the ‘Somborne Sessions’ we have a brilliant night watching Virgil and the Accelerators who were fantastic and very loud. I bet they don’t get many gigs where members of the audience are waltzing around the floor to raucous blues rock. Had a quiet day yesterday recovering from the beer sampling of the night before, feeling nearly human today.
Caroline feeling a bit less encumbered now as her arm cast came off this week, but she is still a bit crocked as it will take a while for things to settle down and work properly again. I think there was an expectation that all would be normal when the cast came off but she still can’t get her socks on. Good job, touch wood, my back is ok otherwise we would both be naked from the ankle down! Could be worse.
Eco News
Windy week, already 25% up on June estimate with 7 days to go.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Monday 18 June 2012
Another tough week on the weather front. A couple of nice days and some not so good for getting those plants sold. After weeks of hoping for a recovery to save the spring sales forecasts we have just about given up on much claw back now, we will just have to do the best we can for the rest of the summer and knuckle down to making next year a more productive one. Luckily we have already made quite a few savings to help the cash flow, lower electric and water bills, less labour used and reduced production and distribution costs by selling and producing less. We have scaled back many of the ideas we had been hoping to implement this summer to help on production efficiencies as we just haven’t the cash to see it all through now but there are still a few projects we will pursue.
One sad event this year will be dropping out of Investors in People which has come up for its regular review this winter. Although we do like the piece of paper saying how sensibly we look after each other here, we just can’t really afford such a costly rubber stamp at this time. I’ve never been very good at following rules and o ther peoples ‘standards’ anyway, I like the freedom to do what I feel is right, getting recognition for going in an approved direction was nice for everyone but we can do just as well without it. We already have our next plan in place for making more of our working day with a series of workshops for everyone here on Lean Management. This is something we have implemented in parts for a while into our production processes but not something we have supplied training on for everyone. The tricky bit for implementing many updated ideas into an establish workplace is getting everyone thinking along the same lines and we have never had the spare dosh to afford a course for everyone. However we have been offered this for free under a government funded training initiative for NVQ’s, it just costs us the time off production which we will hopefully make back. All the work is done on site and will be very practical and relevant so not too scary for anyone. One great thing at the moment is the awareness of everyone here to the difficult year we are all having so we have a good positive approach to this all round, let’s see how we all feel after the introduction to the course which is being given in over the next couple of weeks.
I had my quarterly therapy session at our NBIS (Nursery Business Insolvency Scheme, I mean Improvement), everyone has seen a shocker of a spring, although one or two have done ok if their main season was early enough. We had a good session with lots of positive input although there was no free money available at the end to share out which was a shame because that’s what we could all do with!
A group from the local WI came round for a turbine trip on Friday, a fantastic breezy day and a lovely tour. I surprised myself (but not others) at how long I could waffle on for on anything remotely connected to our three little generators. They were all blown away by it all (pun intended) and left behind a perfect WI memento of cake, scones and jam of which there is unfortunately none left for staff coffee on Monday!
Eco News
I’ve been doing a bit of predator redistribution this morning, hovering up a few of the tiny frogs that have started to emerge from the pond. I’m sure it won’t make a huge difference to anything really but just thought it might save a few getting picked off before they made it into the tunnels. I never get over how tiny they are when they first come out yet how far they can jump for their size. I’m easily impressed. There are still plenty of tadpoles in there so we look like getting quite a good crop this year, they must love this weather, good job some things are benefiting.
Turbines passed their June estimate today (17th) so will make up a bit by the month end on the quiet February and March periods.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
One sad event this year will be dropping out of Investors in People which has come up for its regular review this winter. Although we do like the piece of paper saying how sensibly we look after each other here, we just can’t really afford such a costly rubber stamp at this time. I’ve never been very good at following rules and o ther peoples ‘standards’ anyway, I like the freedom to do what I feel is right, getting recognition for going in an approved direction was nice for everyone but we can do just as well without it. We already have our next plan in place for making more of our working day with a series of workshops for everyone here on Lean Management. This is something we have implemented in parts for a while into our production processes but not something we have supplied training on for everyone. The tricky bit for implementing many updated ideas into an establish workplace is getting everyone thinking along the same lines and we have never had the spare dosh to afford a course for everyone. However we have been offered this for free under a government funded training initiative for NVQ’s, it just costs us the time off production which we will hopefully make back. All the work is done on site and will be very practical and relevant so not too scary for anyone. One great thing at the moment is the awareness of everyone here to the difficult year we are all having so we have a good positive approach to this all round, let’s see how we all feel after the introduction to the course which is being given in over the next couple of weeks.
I had my quarterly therapy session at our NBIS (Nursery Business Insolvency Scheme, I mean Improvement), everyone has seen a shocker of a spring, although one or two have done ok if their main season was early enough. We had a good session with lots of positive input although there was no free money available at the end to share out which was a shame because that’s what we could all do with!
A group from the local WI came round for a turbine trip on Friday, a fantastic breezy day and a lovely tour. I surprised myself (but not others) at how long I could waffle on for on anything remotely connected to our three little generators. They were all blown away by it all (pun intended) and left behind a perfect WI memento of cake, scones and jam of which there is unfortunately none left for staff coffee on Monday!
Eco News
I’ve been doing a bit of predator redistribution this morning, hovering up a few of the tiny frogs that have started to emerge from the pond. I’m sure it won’t make a huge difference to anything really but just thought it might save a few getting picked off before they made it into the tunnels. I never get over how tiny they are when they first come out yet how far they can jump for their size. I’m easily impressed. There are still plenty of tadpoles in there so we look like getting quite a good crop this year, they must love this weather, good job some things are benefiting.
Turbines passed their June estimate today (17th) so will make up a bit by the month end on the quiet February and March periods.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address.
Monday 11 June 2012
Plenty of weather again this week. Very strong winds for a couple of days did push the turbines around well but did rip a lot of leaves from the poplar windbreak. June is one of the three quietest months for wind on average but we had our second windiest day of the year followed by the fifth, not that I’m getting obsessive about recording these things! Luckily we seemed to miss the worst of the rain although it was hardly perfect gardening weather. Hopefully the holiday mood carried people into a buying frenzy although we are passed hoping to recover from the disappointing spring. We can just move on from this moment hoping that the weather is kinder and the positive atmosphere of the Jubilee and the Olympic touch relay keeps building through the summer.
Even the Euro football has got off to an entertaining start although we have to wait until Monday to see our boys do their thing. I was quite impressed that our chaps have been mixing a bit more with their local environment and even doing some serious historical visits with their trip to Auschwitz. I’m not sure how it will affect their playing but it can be a very valuable experience to see a bit of recent dramatic history to make anyone appreciate how lucky we are to be living in these times, despite all the current issues. Those footballers certainly live in a bonkers world but then most of us live in quite a limited environment really. Nothing wrong with that, especially if you are getting what you need out of it.
We support quite a few local fetes through the summer each year but this week saw a first with the cancellation of one, in advance, due to the high winds and poor weekend forecast. I suspect that the big marquee they use couldn’t be safely put up in Friday’s winds, so no weather-proof cover to help out over the two day event. I have also heard that generally fete donations from contributors are harder to come by this summer with the tough times, which is understandable although I suspect our plant donations/offers are a bit bigger with our reduced sales providing extra suitable fete stock. At least someone is benefiting from our misfortune. Besides we will often get a lovely response from the organisers too which makes us feel good, and we all just want to be loved really! Who needs money? That reminds me, we have had a request this week to make an appointment to see the bank manager to review the season, oops.
Eco News
Lots of power produced from the turbines this week and next week looks ok for a bit more, but hopefully for sales not too much. We have Sparsholt WI coming to have a look at them on Friday, the forecast looks ok for wind for the moment I just hope it’s not too wet.
Huge numbers of fledgling birds all over the place this week, sparrows, tits, starlings, wagtails, finches, jackdaws. The native hedge we planted around the nursery 12 years ago is awash with tweeting and looks a picture as the dog rose is just beginning to bloom. It’s a shame we can’t make a living out of growing a lovely hedge. Last winter we planted a few islands of native hedging at some of the tunnel ends where we could fit them in and where they were a bit of a distance to the big hedge.
These should provide overwintering sites for some of our predators we introduce into the tunnels although it will be a year or two before they are a decent size. They are growing away well at the moment.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Even the Euro football has got off to an entertaining start although we have to wait until Monday to see our boys do their thing. I was quite impressed that our chaps have been mixing a bit more with their local environment and even doing some serious historical visits with their trip to Auschwitz. I’m not sure how it will affect their playing but it can be a very valuable experience to see a bit of recent dramatic history to make anyone appreciate how lucky we are to be living in these times, despite all the current issues. Those footballers certainly live in a bonkers world but then most of us live in quite a limited environment really. Nothing wrong with that, especially if you are getting what you need out of it.
We support quite a few local fetes through the summer each year but this week saw a first with the cancellation of one, in advance, due to the high winds and poor weekend forecast. I suspect that the big marquee they use couldn’t be safely put up in Friday’s winds, so no weather-proof cover to help out over the two day event. I have also heard that generally fete donations from contributors are harder to come by this summer with the tough times, which is understandable although I suspect our plant donations/offers are a bit bigger with our reduced sales providing extra suitable fete stock. At least someone is benefiting from our misfortune. Besides we will often get a lovely response from the organisers too which makes us feel good, and we all just want to be loved really! Who needs money? That reminds me, we have had a request this week to make an appointment to see the bank manager to review the season, oops.
Eco News
Lots of power produced from the turbines this week and next week looks ok for a bit more, but hopefully for sales not too much. We have Sparsholt WI coming to have a look at them on Friday, the forecast looks ok for wind for the moment I just hope it’s not too wet.
Huge numbers of fledgling birds all over the place this week, sparrows, tits, starlings, wagtails, finches, jackdaws. The native hedge we planted around the nursery 12 years ago is awash with tweeting and looks a picture as the dog rose is just beginning to bloom. It’s a shame we can’t make a living out of growing a lovely hedge. Last winter we planted a few islands of native hedging at some of the tunnel ends where we could fit them in and where they were a bit of a distance to the big hedge.
These should provide overwintering sites for some of our predators we introduce into the tunnels although it will be a year or two before they are a decent size. They are growing away well at the moment.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sunday 3 June 2012
Morning all,
Happy Jubilee to all.
Managed to squeeze in a fantastic street party and barn dance yesterday evening after a hectic day doing yet more improvements to the irrigation plumbing. It was held in Strawberry Lane, Up Somborne just down the road, where we tucked into a hog roast and jelly and ice cream. Delicious. Kept warm and wore off some of the calories at the barn dance which was very jolly. Never quite sure about barn dances myself but once you start it is great laugh, just don’t take anything too seriously!
Bit cool & showery today but not as bad as predicted. I hope Queeny gets some dry spells for her turn on the river this afternoon. With a bit of luck she will enjoy it all as much as she did her day at the races yesterday. I bet she’s looking forward to the concert on Monday, she can’t even slip away early as there are all those beacons to light afterwards. It’s great to see such a positive reaction to it all, let’s hope it keeps gaining momentum throughout the summer with all the fab summer events going on and spills over into a bit of garden purchasing as well.
I got my left handed jubilee hair cut yesterday. My Boris Johnson look was getting hard to manage but a quick whizz over with the clippers did the trick. Luckily my sight is failing and I can’t see round the back but there were not too many ‘whoops’ during the exercise so I don’t feel any more self conscious than usual.
Nursery life continues to bowl along, loads to do and lots of orders to send out. This coming week is going to be interesting with only 3 proper working days in it. We are going to have a small crew in on Tuesday to make a start on things but depending on how things go we may need to extend deliveries over into Saturday if demand is high. Having such a long weekend is very disorientating, I feel like I can get lots done as there are so few distractions , but there is no getting away from the fact that having 20 people not on site for two days makes a dent on the list of achievements likely to be completed this week.
I’m doing a delivery to Eden on Monday so looking forward to that now I have discovered the wonders of their ace bakery. I hope they are baking on the bank holiday. After the last trip we overdosed on breads and scones all week. I will try not to get carried away this time, although I all ready have some other bread orders to add to our own. Great bread and a nice beer, doesn’t take much to please me. Good job, after the career choice I made and after this spring I may have to forgo the beer.
Eco News
Turbines are all going again, touch wood. The engineers arrived on Wednesday as planned in near perfect conditions for taking down the tower and replacing the broken part. Everything was back up and plugged in by the end of the day and the wind picked up instantly to test it out.
Latest batch of bio-controls came in this week. At least the weather is now a bit more insect friendly to help get them get established and keep on top of many of the pests.
One pest we have had trouble with this year is pigeons. They seem to have taken a fancy to the foliage of several plants. Aquilegia, phlox and wild rocket seem particularly popular, over a couple of days they come in and strip off the foliage. It took a while to identify the culprits, we suspected mice and rabbits first but we have now nailed the blame on the pigeon. Now we will have to work on a strategy to combat them.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Happy Jubilee to all.
Managed to squeeze in a fantastic street party and barn dance yesterday evening after a hectic day doing yet more improvements to the irrigation plumbing. It was held in Strawberry Lane, Up Somborne just down the road, where we tucked into a hog roast and jelly and ice cream. Delicious. Kept warm and wore off some of the calories at the barn dance which was very jolly. Never quite sure about barn dances myself but once you start it is great laugh, just don’t take anything too seriously!
Bit cool & showery today but not as bad as predicted. I hope Queeny gets some dry spells for her turn on the river this afternoon. With a bit of luck she will enjoy it all as much as she did her day at the races yesterday. I bet she’s looking forward to the concert on Monday, she can’t even slip away early as there are all those beacons to light afterwards. It’s great to see such a positive reaction to it all, let’s hope it keeps gaining momentum throughout the summer with all the fab summer events going on and spills over into a bit of garden purchasing as well.
I got my left handed jubilee hair cut yesterday. My Boris Johnson look was getting hard to manage but a quick whizz over with the clippers did the trick. Luckily my sight is failing and I can’t see round the back but there were not too many ‘whoops’ during the exercise so I don’t feel any more self conscious than usual.
Nursery life continues to bowl along, loads to do and lots of orders to send out. This coming week is going to be interesting with only 3 proper working days in it. We are going to have a small crew in on Tuesday to make a start on things but depending on how things go we may need to extend deliveries over into Saturday if demand is high. Having such a long weekend is very disorientating, I feel like I can get lots done as there are so few distractions , but there is no getting away from the fact that having 20 people not on site for two days makes a dent on the list of achievements likely to be completed this week.
I’m doing a delivery to Eden on Monday so looking forward to that now I have discovered the wonders of their ace bakery. I hope they are baking on the bank holiday. After the last trip we overdosed on breads and scones all week. I will try not to get carried away this time, although I all ready have some other bread orders to add to our own. Great bread and a nice beer, doesn’t take much to please me. Good job, after the career choice I made and after this spring I may have to forgo the beer.
Eco News
Turbines are all going again, touch wood. The engineers arrived on Wednesday as planned in near perfect conditions for taking down the tower and replacing the broken part. Everything was back up and plugged in by the end of the day and the wind picked up instantly to test it out.
Latest batch of bio-controls came in this week. At least the weather is now a bit more insect friendly to help get them get established and keep on top of many of the pests.
One pest we have had trouble with this year is pigeons. They seem to have taken a fancy to the foliage of several plants. Aquilegia, phlox and wild rocket seem particularly popular, over a couple of days they come in and strip off the foliage. It took a while to identify the culprits, we suspected mice and rabbits first but we have now nailed the blame on the pigeon. Now we will have to work on a strategy to combat them.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sunday 20 May 2012
At last a little bit of more spring like weather, it was a lovely day here today, great for the Sparsholt College next door to have their annual countryside day. Tomorrow looks less joyful but they are promising warmer weather again next week so let’s hope we all build up a bit of momentum on the sales front.
Sometimes it is tempting to pretend everything is ok, to put up a brave front and try not to give the impression of poor performance and panic, but this spring has been a shocker and it is the same for lots of horticulture based businesses so we are not alone. There is not a lot we can do with such a poor run of weather other than face up to things and get stuck in and make the best of it. It is not just the businesses that suffer but the employees too. We are not a well paid industry generally and the loss of all the spring overtime will be quite a hit to many, good job we enjoy what we do so much! A good friend of ours with a small local retail outlet has faced up to the troubled spring with a full on advertising programme this week with the headlines ‘Horticulture in Crisis, help out by getting down here and buying some plants’. Stunningly upfront and honest is our Roger and it may well work. I can’t wait for his ice cream parlour to open, a yummy complimentary outlet to his great tea room and craft centre.
So here we are at a moment in time, the past few weeks are behind us and the future is ahead. Getting upset or cross about what has happened isn’t going to help and can make things a lot worse. The knock on effect of a grumpy outlook only knocks back everyone else around you when they are probably only a short step from grumpiness themselves. I try to pick on a few positives to get my brain pumping out the right hormones and get me out of bed and off to a good start. If I make it upright from the bed without putting my back out, the turbines are turning when I draw back the curtains, the tea bag goes straight in the cup from the other side of the table, I pour the juice in the glass and not on the cereal, the cat hasn’t pooped in the tray, life’s full of little plusses when you look.
I did a bit of NLP training a few years ago and one of the exercises I had to do was to list a few things I had done that I was proud of or pleased with, big or tiny, from today or from the distant past, it didn’t matter. As I was unprepared for the question it took a while to think of much to write down and just as I got into a flow he stopped me. I then had to get a notebook to keep by my bed and each night I was to write one positive or groovy thing I had done. After a year or two you would have a book full of ace facts and whenever you woke up in the morning feeling a little down then you could turn to the book and it helps you remember lots of good stuff about yourself. It’s just chemistry really, the brain releases different chemicals when stimulated by good stuff, it can act like a switch and turn the start of the day from going down to going up. It worked for me, I just have to catch sight of the note book (I got one with quite a distinctive cover) by the bed, the hair stand up on the back of my neck and I get a boost. Now I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, I never actually got round to writing anything in the book, but an empty notebook still works as a trigger for better thoughts for me.
Great pictures from Cornwall this morning of the Olympic torch relay, it’s lovely to see people get so excited about carrying a small gas canister 300m. I hope the positive mood keeps growing, the jubilee isn’t far away and there will be lots to cheer about all summer long. Hurrah. I see the first torch went on Ebay today for £3,250. Bargain.
Eco News
Cold weather has slowed up the biological controls a bit, we have just released our third input of a wide range of predators and my beetle breeding bucket seems to contain quite a lot of life, whether it is all the right sort I’m not all together sure. I will keep up the weekly feeding and we will see if they keep the pest numbers down.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Sometimes it is tempting to pretend everything is ok, to put up a brave front and try not to give the impression of poor performance and panic, but this spring has been a shocker and it is the same for lots of horticulture based businesses so we are not alone. There is not a lot we can do with such a poor run of weather other than face up to things and get stuck in and make the best of it. It is not just the businesses that suffer but the employees too. We are not a well paid industry generally and the loss of all the spring overtime will be quite a hit to many, good job we enjoy what we do so much! A good friend of ours with a small local retail outlet has faced up to the troubled spring with a full on advertising programme this week with the headlines ‘Horticulture in Crisis, help out by getting down here and buying some plants’. Stunningly upfront and honest is our Roger and it may well work. I can’t wait for his ice cream parlour to open, a yummy complimentary outlet to his great tea room and craft centre.
So here we are at a moment in time, the past few weeks are behind us and the future is ahead. Getting upset or cross about what has happened isn’t going to help and can make things a lot worse. The knock on effect of a grumpy outlook only knocks back everyone else around you when they are probably only a short step from grumpiness themselves. I try to pick on a few positives to get my brain pumping out the right hormones and get me out of bed and off to a good start. If I make it upright from the bed without putting my back out, the turbines are turning when I draw back the curtains, the tea bag goes straight in the cup from the other side of the table, I pour the juice in the glass and not on the cereal, the cat hasn’t pooped in the tray, life’s full of little plusses when you look.
I did a bit of NLP training a few years ago and one of the exercises I had to do was to list a few things I had done that I was proud of or pleased with, big or tiny, from today or from the distant past, it didn’t matter. As I was unprepared for the question it took a while to think of much to write down and just as I got into a flow he stopped me. I then had to get a notebook to keep by my bed and each night I was to write one positive or groovy thing I had done. After a year or two you would have a book full of ace facts and whenever you woke up in the morning feeling a little down then you could turn to the book and it helps you remember lots of good stuff about yourself. It’s just chemistry really, the brain releases different chemicals when stimulated by good stuff, it can act like a switch and turn the start of the day from going down to going up. It worked for me, I just have to catch sight of the note book (I got one with quite a distinctive cover) by the bed, the hair stand up on the back of my neck and I get a boost. Now I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, I never actually got round to writing anything in the book, but an empty notebook still works as a trigger for better thoughts for me.
Great pictures from Cornwall this morning of the Olympic torch relay, it’s lovely to see people get so excited about carrying a small gas canister 300m. I hope the positive mood keeps growing, the jubilee isn’t far away and there will be lots to cheer about all summer long. Hurrah. I see the first torch went on Ebay today for £3,250. Bargain.
Eco News
Cold weather has slowed up the biological controls a bit, we have just released our third input of a wide range of predators and my beetle breeding bucket seems to contain quite a lot of life, whether it is all the right sort I’m not all together sure. I will keep up the weekly feeding and we will see if they keep the pest numbers down.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Monday 14 May 2012
At last a lovely sunny weekend, still a nip in the air this morning but lovely gardening weather. Let’s hope this gets things moving after the poor run of weather most of us have suffered from. I keep catching bits on the news that horticulture is suffering so we may get a small sympathy vote to help us along the way. It’s at times like this that you hold on to any little signs of hope you can see, after all it can’t get any worse can it? Last week was boosted by the great thank you card we got from the local school, the thought of a nice long bank holiday weekend, and the prospect of the turbine man getting all three going in unison on Wednesday.
Had a lovely break, literally. Spent half of Sunday in casualty after Caroline took a tumble in a garden where we were delivering a big cat pen as a favour to a local cat charity. A change of route for carrying a bulky part across the patio and a failure to complete a valid manual handling assessment of the new path, resulted in a fairly innocuous backward sit down and the appearance of a second elbow near the wrist, ouch. No mention yet of the fact that I was pushing on the other end of the load! Anyway, she was patched up on Sunday in time to complete the VAT return in the afternoon and returned on Monday to have it ‘realigned’. This involved a strong dose of ketamine and a team of staff to pull it straight and rematch up the bone ends. It all went really well and the post pull x-rays showed a really good result. Back this Monday for a full cast now the swelling has subsided. She has coped really well although it is only when you become slightly disabled that you realise how much you need all your bits to work well to cope with ‘normal’ life. I am now a dab hand at pulling on socks, slicing up and carrying stuff. Things are taking a bit longer especially as it was her right arm, but she gets there in the end and a couple of extra hours at work means she still manages to get through most of the jobs! Apparently doing things with your left hand improves brain activity and helps stave off senility, if only I had known earlier.
The engineer’s turbine visit went well too. He recalibrated the anemometer on the troublesome third turbine and that seems to have sorted that out at last, but during his inspection of the turbine nearest the house he found a fault which has meant he had to turn it off while they sort out a repair. No word yet on how long this will take but they are trying to rush it through. At least with having three, when one goes down we are still generating from the others but it is frustrating. I wondered whether to suggest that the problem might be in the cables to all three being just too short. When they repair one they pull the cable a bit and it pulls the plug out of the other, which is why only two out of three ever seem to run. I know a lot about turbines me.
Eco News
After years of having an artificial house martins nest on the house which was used every year by house sparrows nesting on top of, it is currently occupied by its first pair of house martins, hurrah.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Had a lovely break, literally. Spent half of Sunday in casualty after Caroline took a tumble in a garden where we were delivering a big cat pen as a favour to a local cat charity. A change of route for carrying a bulky part across the patio and a failure to complete a valid manual handling assessment of the new path, resulted in a fairly innocuous backward sit down and the appearance of a second elbow near the wrist, ouch. No mention yet of the fact that I was pushing on the other end of the load! Anyway, she was patched up on Sunday in time to complete the VAT return in the afternoon and returned on Monday to have it ‘realigned’. This involved a strong dose of ketamine and a team of staff to pull it straight and rematch up the bone ends. It all went really well and the post pull x-rays showed a really good result. Back this Monday for a full cast now the swelling has subsided. She has coped really well although it is only when you become slightly disabled that you realise how much you need all your bits to work well to cope with ‘normal’ life. I am now a dab hand at pulling on socks, slicing up and carrying stuff. Things are taking a bit longer especially as it was her right arm, but she gets there in the end and a couple of extra hours at work means she still manages to get through most of the jobs! Apparently doing things with your left hand improves brain activity and helps stave off senility, if only I had known earlier.
The engineer’s turbine visit went well too. He recalibrated the anemometer on the troublesome third turbine and that seems to have sorted that out at last, but during his inspection of the turbine nearest the house he found a fault which has meant he had to turn it off while they sort out a repair. No word yet on how long this will take but they are trying to rush it through. At least with having three, when one goes down we are still generating from the others but it is frustrating. I wondered whether to suggest that the problem might be in the cables to all three being just too short. When they repair one they pull the cable a bit and it pulls the plug out of the other, which is why only two out of three ever seem to run. I know a lot about turbines me.
Eco News
After years of having an artificial house martins nest on the house which was used every year by house sparrows nesting on top of, it is currently occupied by its first pair of house martins, hurrah.
If you need a fax list please let us know, pick it up from the website or alternately send an email address. Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
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