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

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

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

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