Tuesday 30 August 2016

Quick and Hairy

Morning all,
A very quick one this morning as it looks like I am getting another trip to see the Saints this afternoon, the rain has held off so far and so harvest motors on and Richard can’t make it. I’ve had a lovely Saturday morning doing one of my favourite jobs of decanting the last of the acid (for the water treatment) in the drums into one and cleaning them all out in readiness for a fresh delivery on Tuesday. At least the sun was in so only lost a couple of pounds fiddling about in all the protective kit. I always think of the Bond movie when the girl dies after being painted all over in gold, it feels like no part of me is exposed, which is the point of the kit after all!
Holiday mode has set in already, put out the recycling this morning and loaded the car with the grocery bags only to find on arrival at the supermarket that there on the back seat was the recycling. Shoot me now.
It can only get better, might have a day off tomorrow with a day trip on offer, just got to get the chores done this end first. Nursery looks organised and it doesn’t look like being too hot so should be ok for a few hours.
Hope you all have a good one if you get the chance..

Availability highlights
A few more buds appearing on a few odds and ends of fresh stock as we race towards the autumn.
We still have Erigeron karvinskianus at the moment, in bud and flower. This one blooms for an age, I’ve got one outside the back door that has been in flower since March and still smiles at me every time I shuffle past.
We cut back and potted a few more Echinacea a while ago and we now have a nice bonus crop of a couple of varieties producing a flush of bud and colour. Lovely plants but they won’t hang around long.
A widening range of Asters are appearing with more and more bud and colour showing and the rest won’t be long away. We have several new varieties, many mildew free/resistant (ageratoides and frikartii types) and we are working on some techniques for earlier flowering batches for next year. We have a fresh batch of Persicaria amplex. Taurus with bud showing but not a large number available just yet. Some of the summer potted Achillea are showing bud as they bulk up before their winter rest. There is also bud appearing on the Anthemis varieties, pretty yellow daisies. Charme is a bright new compact variety with numerous small flowers which flowers for an age.

Wooden box collections
We will be making a concerted effort to collect up a few wooden trays over the coming weeks before things get too damp and cold so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations. If you are a long way from Winchester it may be easier to stack them on a pallet and we can get a carrier to pick them up, drop us a line and we can let you know the best way. It may take a while to get round everyone as we are a bit short of drivers etc with the holidays etc but we are on the case.
from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 22 August 2016

Hairy Heros

Morning All,
Well done to all those Olympic competitors what a great medal tally and across such a wide range of sports. I’ve paid up my next season’s hockey subs so still hope for a Tokyo appearance, just need to keep taking the hormones and the transformation will be complete. What is particularly nice to see is the acknowledgement that all the support teams are getting, it takes a lot more than the individual stars to complete a successful campaign so well done to all those unsung hero’s too. Maybe we can take some inspiration along with us on the nursery harnessing that team effort, attention to detail, hard work and innovative ideas to make an exemplary success of what we do. There’s always hope.
I have to be a bit short this week as I have all the rest of the day and evening to get the nursery computers up and running again. The existing pair have been misbehaving for ages and I had bought a couple of bigger ones months ago but couldn’t face the torture of the setting up so they have sat in their boxes waiting for that big day. Well one computer limped badly this week and before it died completely and left us in the lurch I bit the bullet and started on the new installation on Friday afternoon. So here we are on Sunday with both new ones half going after the usual frustrations of nothing going simply. Email’s are working just at the moment hence getting the lists out now, just hoping that by the end of the day we are operational for the new week. I’m sure it will be fine, they are designed to be plug and play after all. Bearing in mind the above, if you do send in an order this week and don’t hear from us please do chase us up just in case you have disappeared into the ether! I’m sure you will find us full of excitement and joy.
It least it’s a holiday weekend coming up, so loads of rest and relaxation all round I’m sure. Have a good one.
Availability highlights
A few more buds appearing on a few odds and ends of fresh stock as we race towards the autumn..
Plenty of buds are showing on our mini garden Chrysanthemum range. There will be masses to follow of these non-frost hardy stunners. Tight compact plants with very dinky flowers in a great colour range.
We still have Erigeron karvinskianus at the moment, in bud and flower. This one blooms for an age, I’ve got one outside the back door that has been in flower since March and still smiles at me every time I shuffle past.
A widening range of Asters are appearing with more and more bud and colour showing and the rest won’t be long away. We have several new varieties, many mildew free/resistant (ageratoides and frikartii types) and we are working on some techniques for earlier flowering batches for next year.
We have a fresh batch of Persicaria amplex. Taurus with bud showing but not a large number available just yet. Some of the summer potted Achillea are showing bud as they bulk up before their winter rest.
There is also bud appearing on the Anthemis varieties, pretty yellow daisies. Charme is a new compact variety with numerous small flowers which flowers for an age.
Wooden box collections
We will be making a concerted effort to collect up a few wooden trays over the coming weeks before things get too damp and cold so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations. If you are a long way from Winchester it may be easier to stack them on a pallet and we can get a carrier to pick them up, drop us a line and we can let you know the best way. It may take a while to get round everyone as we are a bit short of drivers etc with the holidays etc but we are on the case.
Win some medals, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries

Monday 15 August 2016

Hairy Nose

Morning all,
Just a very quick update this week as time is getting in short supply. I missed last week’s due to severe man flu and general brain failure. If there was an Olympic event for endurance nose running I’d be among the medallists.
Well done to all the Olympic participants I feel inspired, if a little drowsy. I wasn’t sure I would get into this one with the different time zone but I’m watching all sorts of stuff I wouldn’t normally dream of. The dressage was one step too far for me but the trampoline final was great. I tried it once but my back went into spasm almost instantly which finished a promising career rather early.
Great meteor shower display last night, lots to see and always a wondrous thing to behold. I never manage to be organised for it with a chair or suitable attire, I just step out and stare. The crick in my neck kicks in after a bit and I start seeing my own stars but when the real thing flashes by the childlike excitement surges to the surface. Good job we have no neighbours to hear my own self commentary on the events unfolding before me. Who needs modern Pokemon Go to have a good time.
Bonkers week just passed by, one member of staff gone and three new ones in (well 2 new and one returning), three on holiday and one driver off on another job for a bit. Lots of orders, lots of potting and lots of tunnel clearing. A nice quiet time for me to nurture my incapacity and general bewilderment. Hoping for a quieter week coming up to recharge and get stuck into that potting.
Rushing off to see the Saints opening game, hoping to recognise a few players but I’m not sure quite who is left in the squad. Some good player and manager sales again this summer which should help the clubs bank balance, can’t wait to see if the new crew are up to it. Quality opposition today with visitors Watford so hoping for some goal action. Odds on 0-0.

Availability highlights
I’m afraid there is not a lot of stock in bud/flower this week, good sales and that lull between summer and autumn flowering stock have left us a little short, but there is still some lovely looking stock.
Plenty of buds are showing on our mini garden Chrysanthemum range. There will be masses to follow of these non frost hardy stunners. Tight compact plants with very dinky flowers in a great colour range.
We still have a few Erigeron karvinskianus at the moment, in bud and flower. This one blooms for an age.
A widening range of Asters are appearing with more and more bud and colour showing and the rest won’t be long away. We have several new varieties, many mildew free/resistant (ageratoides and frikartii types) and we are working on some techniques for earlier flowering batches for next year.
We have a fresh batch of Persicaria amplex Taurus with bud showing but not a large number available just yet.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries


Monday 1 August 2016

Hairy Display

Morning All,
Busy weekend again with a hectic start on Friday evening. Our annual artistic floral extravaganza of the King Somboune Horticultural Society Show stage display all set up after work on Friday ready for the Saturday show and afternoon dismantling. We have it down to a fine art after so many years. 13 trays of plants, a dozen wooden boxes to create a bit of extra height at the back and cleaning kit to tidy up the mess I make. It’s not something I particularly look forward to, we never have a plan just pick out what we have with some colour and fly by the seat of out pants. It always looks pretty good even if I say so myself and despite a desperate shortage of plants in full flower this year it looks fine, if perhaps a bit pink for my taste. The Erigeron karvinskianus turned out to be a brilliant filler, loads of delicate flower filling in any embarrassing gaps without dominating the display. Rewarded ourselves with a late curry and now bracing myself for the return trip to dismantle it all later. Tonight’s reward will be pub supper with the celebrating and tired show committee; we know how to live it up!
Back to some nice cooler weather now which I much prefer. The summer holidays are here which is lovely for those having one, but quite challenging for those of us left behind. We were a couple down last week, three next and five the following week. I am hopeful that we might have a couple of students in the pipeline to help bolster numbers and get us through the growing list of work to be done before the end of the summer. August on Monday, how did that happen. Caroline’s Saints season ticket has arrived, first game in a couple of weeks. That means I must be getting close to the start of the hockey season, must start my fitness programme. I think I’ll stick to the usual pre-season routine of doing sod all and just suffer for a week or two until the legs remember what they are supposed to do.
Must go and get the herb seed sowing done, I have the weekend to get them done so that should be one job ticked off. I also have the next batch of nematodes to release on any vine weevils still daring to show themselves. One of the highlights of the week was watching the ADHB video of the emergency vine weevil summit held a few weeks ago. It was pretty doom and gloom filled and I came out feeling pretty smug. After a couple years of using Met 52 (bio insecticide in the compost) which should have been controlling the beasties, we built up quite a good population and were getting quite worried. However putting on the nematodes through the irrigation has worked really well especially when we adopted the tactic of little and often. We are now applying at less than half rate every 4 weeks from April to September. We use a mix of different nematodes and apply them over everything rather than just selecting those plants that are most vulnerable. Our theory is that egg laying goes on all summer until the cold weather arrives so why not keep a constant pressure up on the pest population to gradually knock it down and likewise why just target the most vulnerable crops, that leaves other places the pest can breed and repopulate treated crops. We used to see quite a few adults in the summer as we picked up or cleared crops but over the last two years the sightings and tell tale leaf notching have reduced drastically. We’ve seen three this year, one on the nursery, two on a delivery of soft fruit from the farm garden down the road.

Availability highlights
There is a small batch of fresh Coreopsis Sunfire back on the list, short and bushy with plenty of bud coming. This year’s hardy Fuchsia’s are wonderfully bushy plants showing masses of flower and bud. Veronica bonariensis are coming into bud. The long flowering pink Geranium Mavis Simpson is romping away now, not a huge number left but full of vigour and promise. Buds are there on most and some colour showing.
The first of the buds are showing on most of our mini garden Chrysanthemum range. There will be masses to follow of these non frost hardy stunners. Tight compact plants with very dinky flowers in a great colour range. Plenty of Erigeron karvinskianus on stream now and in bud and flower. This one blooms for an age.
A widening range of Asters are appearing, bud and colour on a few and the rest won’t be long away. We have several new varieties, many mildew free/resistant (ageratoides and frikartii types) and we are working on some techniques for earlier flowering batches for next year. Meanwhile we have a fresh batch of strong Aster frikartii Monch which are just lengthening their stems in readiness for flowering.
Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries