Morning all,

Merry Christmas to all. Just got back from the grocery shop and it looks like all hell is breaking loose already. We tend to go in early in the morning and have the shop to ourselves which is just right, but no such luck this morning. Doesn’t everyone else realise that this is our shop and this is our time for a quiet wander round. Lashed out on a packet of crisps and a small pack of smoked salmon as a Christmas treat, so that’s us all set up for the festive break.

Not brilliantly festive weather at the moment and more wind and rain forecast for the coming week, still at least it gets it out of the way before the spring and pushes up the turbine output.

We started consumption of the nursery cake early this year as we are a bit thin on the ground at the moment but we seem to have cleared up most of it already, delicious stuff. The decorations are back up and looking suitably traditionally tacky and well loved, another great recycling success.

Life on the nursery goes on with some great work cutting back the summer grown stock, preparing for the upcoming spring and getting some essential maintenance sorted. Greg has spent most of the last couple of weeks doing some vital but invisible work re-securing the tunnel covers. We had noticed over the last couple of months that in the strong winds the tunnel covers have not been splitting but the mounting rails have been detaching from the tunnel sides instead. This is a new issue for us and turned out to be due to the screws rusting away. I have invested in a large number of replacement screws and Greg has been removing the old ones one at a time and slipping in a new one. Sounds simple enough but with almost 3km of tunnel sides to secure and 8,000+ screws to get through it takes a while. All the oldest fixings are done now and it’s a shame the visible results are not more impressive for the effort put in, but at least I can sleep in relative peace now as the gales batter the nursery. Don’t we seem to be getting a lot of particularly strong weather systems at the moment?

Shortest day today so the evenings will be drawing out tomorrow which means spring is not too far away, hurrah. We are having a big push on the production of stock in bud or flower in 2014 and hopefully the 90+ extra lines in the catalogue will help us fill those shelves with exciting, colourful and quick selling stock. We are off to a great start with the Snakehead Fritillaries this spring. We had given up on these over the last couple of seasons after mega mouse attacks had completely destroyed the crops before they even emerged, but so far we have outwitted the rodents by keeping the pots on trolleys until they emerge and getting on top of the population with a rigorous trapping regime over the whole nursery. There are still a few about but the weekly capture rate has dropped to low single figures which is brilliant.

If you would like to see a quick preview of the new 2014 catalogue try the following link which takes you to a downloadable version or visit our website which has the up to date version;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gm72fckfp2f2wbm/herbaceous%26herb%20catalogue%202014%20Oct%2013%20full%20DL%20no%20pr.pdf

Short of something to do? Image links for the ultimate in recycled design;

Kirton Christmas tree Mk1  https://www.dropbox.com/s/we5uvz0jf00iw0v/tree%20mk1.JPG

Kirton Christmas tree Mk2, (pre new lights)  https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvk5lx2y2tt4k9i/tree%20mk2.JPG

Fab new upcycled wood-store  https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2of4jokfgx0mzj/Woodstore%202013%201.jpg

Ok, time to go and brave the crowds again to get my little bit of special shopping done. It’s a bit early I know, Christmas Eve is still a couple of days away but I’m just hoping they haven’t sold out of hoover bags yet. She’s a lucky girl.

Have a great break and hope to hear from you all in the New Year.

Morning all,

Christmas time nearly upon us. We already have a couple of staff already off on their Christmas break which is slightly scary. Luckily Caroline says she doesn’t want anything much for Christmas so just the tree to put up and we are there. Everyone is off to the farm for a big family Christmas lunch so not too many sprouts to peel either. My homemade tree, conjured up from an old wooden venetian blind and a length of 2by2, is still going strong. Just been checking back on the photos and it dates from 2007 when it took over from the shorter lived Mk1 version. Mk1 involved screwing deciduous branches to my 2by2 but storage breakages usually meant a time consuming rebuild each festive season. I have updated the lights to leds but other than that the Mk2 is just as perfect as was then. Not much profit from me from all the Christmas decoration promotions I’m afraid but it still makes a distinct impression on any Christmas visitors!

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks with the financial results back from the accountants which were unsurprising in their content after two springs on the bounce of dodgy weather and a visit from the bank manager to discuss the results and sort out the overdraft for the next year. Luckily we do have an understanding chap who was surprisingly upbeat about all the things we have managed to do over such a tricky time. He wasn’t too worried about the figures and certainly focussed on boosting confidence rather than adding to the accumulated pressures of 2 seasons of slow sales and another cashed strapped winter. We must have pushed plenty of the right buttons so we got away with that again!

I had my interview with the Carbon Smart people last week to review the year and check up on our advances. Not a huge amount to report as we didn’t have much to invest this year, just a few replacements and upgrades to help efficiencies. The nice thing about having already done a lot of the donkey work over previous years is that we don’t have to do quite as much now to still be top performer. The great news is that we have been told we will retain our Gold certificate for 2014, I just have to wait to get the image file to update all the stationary etc.

I have been putting together the 2014 catalogue over the last few weeks but it turned out to be a bigger job than I planned. Just wanted a bit of an upgrade really, put in a bit more info, swap a few pictures about and pop in the new varieties we will be stocking (over 90 new or returning lines). I thought I might play with the paper size a bit too. All in all it turned into a marathon, but all is now complete and the hard copies will be in the post shortly. As usual it was the computer and printer challenges that hurt most, using a non standard paper size might not have been the best decision but I beat it in the end and who needs hair at my age. If you want a quick preview try the following link which takes you to a downloadable version or visit our website which will have the updated version any minute;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gm72fckfp2f2wbm/herbaceous%26herb%20catalogue%202014%20Oct%2013%20full%20DL%20no%20pr.pdf

Short of something to do? Image links;

Christmas tree Mk1  https://www.dropbox.com/s/we5uvz0jf00iw0v/tree%20mk1.JPG

Christmas tree Mk2, (pre new lights)  https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvk5lx2y2tt4k9i/tree%20mk2.JPG

Fab new upcycled wood-store  https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2of4jokfgx0mzj/Woodstore%202013%201.jpg

Must go and dust off my baubles.

  

Box returns

Lots of boxes have been successfully repatriated so thanks for the great response to the appeal I sent out for their return. I know there are still a few out there so please do let us know if you have any ready to collect and we will schedule them in for collection when we are next close by. Alternatively if there aren’t too many we may elect to pick them up on the next delivery in the up and coming spring rush!

Please feel free to continue to keep what you need to keep our stock on display, but a gathering of our boxes used for other displays would be appreciated. If you do love the display boxes and you desperately want to keep up that image for other parts of your plant area then why not consider getting in your own stock of trays. Our supplier is C. Jackson www.cjackson.co.uk/plant_trays.htm and they can make you your own plain or branded/printed trays at a very reasonable cost.

Cheers.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries 

Morning all,

Now been back on site for a week after our annual break to sunny St Ives and just trying to get back in sync with reality.

Luckily it is a very quiet time of year so not too much backlog of stuff to catch up on, in fact considering how few of the crew were in there was a huge amount of stuff done. We now have a lovely collection of empty tunnels, cleaned and spruced up all ready for the spring potting to go into, a feat we always dream of each winter but rarely achieve. In the past the demand for space for the overwintered crops or lack of hours has defeated us but with tighter control of stock levels and a decent summer things are looking a lot more sensible. After two very challenging years for everyone we are all hoping for a ‘normal’ 2014 and we are certainly better prepared for it.

St Ives was brilliant, lots of weather, walking, archaeology, waves, arty bits and birding all punctuated with visits from friends and the inevitable associated food and drink. Feeling relaxed and ready for another year but I am going to have to watch consumption levels after an 8lb gain in two weeks! Can’t understand it, I had a salad on the last day.

Although the nursery itself is now relatively quiet other pressures slipped back in place fairly quickly with discussions with the accountants to sort out the annual accounts over last week and a meeting booked with the bank manager to discuss the past season and plans for the winter and the coming season. Oh it’s so good to be back.

On the positive side the new pallet inspired wood store is up and running, and very nearly filled too. The wood burner is running more or less 24/7 now the cooler weather has arrived and for this winter it looks like we have plenty of scavenged fuel to keep it going. So, no central heating yet and hoping to keep it that way for a few weeks yet. I suspect we will have to succumb to pandering some Christmas guests but I can live with that, ‘tis the season to be jolly after all.

Busy day on Monday with the big van in for a service at 7.00 in Southampton, so a nice early start, ending up with a gig at The Joiners, again in Southampton, to see our current favourite Marcus Bonfanti. It’s all go. It’s also review time for our Carbon Smart accreditation and we are hoping to retain our Gold Certificate status although I can’t say we have spent a lot on eco projects this year with a chronic shortage of funds. One slight problem we have is that we started our journey quite a few years ago and we have done most of the things that everyone usually does at the start of these carbon initiatives and it starts to get quite hard to make continual mega strides to improve carbon performance. Hopefully it is the thought that counts and the little steps we continue to make hold equal status.

We had a Nursery Business Improvement Scheme meeting while I was away, but luckily it was at Kernock Plants in Cornwall so I was able to slip away and attend as I was actually the closest nurseryman in the group to the venue. A very impressive nursery to visit with a mega pair of woodchip boilers to heat the glasshouses. One 4 megawatt which had been installed a few years ago and a newer 1Mw one which was installed under the recent Renewable Heat Incentive. The older one had already paid for itself in saved fuel costs and the smaller one with its RHI payments was covering most of the cost of the fuel for both boilers. A very generous incentive to kick start a new market in the UK but which I doubt will hang around for long. I felt wholly inadequate with my weeny wood store in comparison to their huge stock pile of cut logs awaiting chipping and enormous chipping storage barn with moving floor holding, feeding the chips into the boilers. They could use up to 20 tonnes on really cold day! I can see why the poinsettia growers are reducing production to await the installation of this type of boiler to remove a large proportion of their costs and get their crop back into profit. Just a slight concern my end that over generous incentives can encourage inefficient energy use but I suspect that once the market gets kick started the level of help will drop away quite rapidly as it has on some of the renewable electric generation.

Box returns

Lots of boxes have been successfully repatriated so thanks for the great response to the appeal I sent out for their return. I know there are still a few out there so please do let us know if you have any ready to collect and we will schedule them in for collection when we are next close by. Alternatively if there aren’t too many we may elect to pick them up on the next delivery in the up and coming spring rush!

Please feel free to continue to keep what you need to keep our stock on display, but a gathering of our boxes used for other displays would be appreciated. If you do love the display boxes and you desperately want to keep up that image for other parts of your plant area then why not consider getting in your own stock of trays. Our supplier is C. Jackson www.cjackson.co.uk/plant_trays.htm and they can make you your own plain or branded/printed trays at a very reasonable cost.

Cheers.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Morning all,

A bit too much excitement this week although all sorted now. That breeze early on Monday was certainly a bit stiff. By the start of work the worst had passed and we could survey the damage which didn’t look too bad at first sight. We fairly quickly spotted one wind turbine had stopped with its wing tips being deployed. This is a safety feature to stall the blades if they spin a little too fast and they have a tendency to occasionally pop round if we have a power cut in windy conditions, which we did. We phoned in to report it to the maintenance company and awaited their response.

The next adventure was to find two of the tunnel covers had come adrift which always looks and sounds quite dramatic i n the wind. They are getting increasingly expensive to replace so it was a relief to see that there was a chance that we could resc ue and re-fix both sheets. Luckily the wind reduced slightly during the day and we were able to secure them again and finish patching the holes and rips on Tuesday. We had a few challenging moments through the day when the breeze returned to throw one of the sheets over our phone line but the clever use of steps and brooms we rescued it again We were lucky that we had the remains of an old roll of plastic that had been looking for a home for years. We used this to make a series of patches which were successfully secured over the worst of the perforations. Then on Wednesday we spent the day tidying up the other more minor damage and by the end of the day we were back in shape with just the three days lost. In the end a satisfying recovery.

Caroline fell back into her hero role again this week, sometimes I think she is just showing off! The turbine folk had turned out to be a bit busy so when a lull in the wind was spotted late on Monday afternoon ‘we’ decided to have a go at resetting the wing tips ourselves. We had bought the harnesses and all the climbing kit a few months ago but hadn’t actually found an excuse to try it out. We also already had a special lightweight 12ft pokey stick to reach out and push the tips back into position, so no excuse not to give it a go. As the keenest volunteer Caroline harnessed up and ascended the ladder and after the long vertical climb and a bit of pokey stick practicing, managed to get the tips reset quite easily. Hurrah. Luckily we had watched the professionals do this before so we had noted down some of the techniques involved. The two ground crew were of course very supportive and hardly mentioned the shaking knees we could feel vibrating down the little base ladder as she climbed off the main one! Quite an adrenaline rush I think. This was all very reassuring as we now don’t have to wait for the pro’s to pitch up, just for the wind to drop enough to climb safely. So far we haven’t been charged for tip resetting but as luck would have it we received a letter today to say that in future we would have to pay£150 for a reset, on top of the electric generation lost while you wait for an engineer. So I reckon that just three resets will cover the harness cost, although we will need to budget for the celebratory curry’s required if Caroline does them all.

Meanwhile back on the nursery we are still clearing up after a tricky year, although all the potting is done and the stock for next year is looking fab. We have just a few more tunnels to clear ready for the loads of spring and summer potting to come in 2014. Can’t wait. Considering how tricky things have been and the reduction in working hours, the nursery is going to be looking it’s best for years. The effects of the lean management training we did last year are still creeping along and gettin g all sorts of stuff better organised and tidier. We still have a few projects to look at over the winter to get it right but I’m really quite proud of the progress we have all made. My ‘new’ pallet inspired wood shed is a particular favourite of mine despite it not apparently meeting Kevin McCloud’s up-cycled ‘manshed’ credentials.

Box returns

Lots of boxes have been successfully repatriated so thanks for the great response to the appeal I sent out for their return. I know there are still quite a few out there so please do let us know if you have any ready to collect and we will schedule the m in for collection when we are next close by. Alternatively if there aren’t too many we may elect to pick them up on the next delivery in the up and coming spring rush!

Please feel free to continue to keep what you need to keep our stock on display, but a gathering of our box es used for other displays would be appreciated. If you do love the display boxes and you desperately want to keep up that image for other parts of your plant area then why not consider getting in your own stock of trays. Our supplier is C. Jackson www.cjackson.co.uk/plant_trays.htm and they can make you your own plain or branded/printed trays at a very reasonable cost. It is really very important we get these boxes returned or accounted for, so we can maintain a good looking and sustainable delivery and display system. Please do drop us an email to update us on the current position if you haven’t already done so. Cheers.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries