Morning all,
Nice day down here on Saturday, had a very pleasant run around taking a 7-0 thrashing from Chichester, sun was out and not too cold. But today is not so nice, very damp and chilly out there so no outdoor heroics from me that’s for sure. Just contemplating an afternoon’s shelf construction in the new lab store, which is at long last, now nearing completion. The heating works in there so I should get a nice, long and cosy, undisturbed run at it and perhaps tomorrow clear out all the lab stock which is cluttering up despatch. Very pleased with the reuse of materials in the new store, we managed to construct a big new racking system for micro-prop media storage and a couple of shelving units out of the old materials we dismantled in the old cold store. It might look a bit second hand and took a bit of adjusting and constructing but it does the job. The cold room is now complete with the replaced chiller unit running well and helping to heat up the rest of the store too. As the chiller cools it removes heat from the cold room it would normally vent the excess heat outside, but we have vented it to stay inside to reduce the heat demand in the main store. As we only use the chiller in the winter there is no real issue with producing too much heat in there at other times of the year when it could get too warm. We have also set up the cold room to be able to run in the summer at 21C, so converting it into a growth room and getting more use out of the unit and hopefully more return from our investment. We only need a couple more log cabins and we could also double up as a winter wonderland attraction at Christmas.
2017 Catalogue and prices
By now I would normally have sent out our 2017 catalogue and price list but I have to apologise for a slight delay. It’s all my fault, I may have got a bit over ambitious with a few catalogue changes for the coming season. Rather than sending out a simple paper version I have opted to produce an online flipbook into which I can put images of almost all the plants we produce so you can see how the plants eventually flower etc. In theory this would save a lot of time setting out the paper version and printing it off as well as being more sustainable by using fewer materials. Needless to say this hasn’t gone perhaps quite as smoothly as hoped, such are my skills as the company IT manager, but we are now very close to finishing and you should be able to see something very soon.
We have started sending out a few 2017 orders already so you will need to bear in mind that our prices have all increased by 5p a pot to help cover the myriad of increasing costs following the Living Wage changes, oil price rises and exchange rate fall out.
Availability highlights
We have a few winter performers on offer and if anyone would like to make up a smaller order we will do our best to get it to you asap. Ideally a 15 tray minimum is best but we could stretch to 12 trays if you are fairly local or we are passing by. The Hellebores are coming on well and a few are ready to roll. Helleborus niger Advent Star is a very early flowering form and has plenty of flower and bud showing already, so don’t miss out on that one. We have a great new range of orientalis with several colours and forms (singles, doubles and spotted). We have already spotted the occasional bud, so hopeful of some good sales to come there, They are certainly looking strong at the moment.
The ever popular Erysimum Bowles Mauve are already in bud, it will be a while before the colour shows but the plants are strong, hardy and bushy. The other varieties look good too, but it should be a few weeks before bud appears on those. The Pulmonaria are coming one well with a little bud beginning to appear on a few. Blue Ensign is the most forward and the variegated Opal is looking smart. Our own saved seed of local wild primrose from the farm wood are looking chunky and not far off flowering, the odd bud has opened already.
Ajuga have attractive evergreen foliage and look good through the cooler months, we have a good range ready now. The other varieties we have listed are looking green and full of promise, many staying evergreen despite the cold. Although some plants may look sad for a while after a hard frost, they soon perk up again if left to recover in their own time. Ideally they benefit from a bit of protection from the harshest conditions to keep up the good looks, but try to avoid too much warmth.
Wooden box collections
We have been collected up lots of wooden trays in recent weeks, so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations.
Have a good year and week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Monday 16 January 2017
Monday 9 January 2017
Small and Hairy
Morning all,
Nearly back into the swing of things after a nice break. It was a bit of a nippy week for the return to work and staff numbers were a bit low with a combination of extended breaks, cold weather days off, winter bugs and jury service but we still seemed to get through lots of bits and pieces, including a few small but highly valued orders.
The new lab store and cold room are soaking up the hours at the moment as we try and get it fully operational. The cock up (not mine this time!) of fitting a freezer unit (-15 to -25C) rather than a chiller (+6C to -10C) to the cold room was rectified on Friday although it still isn’t actually running yet. It should get commissioned on Monday with luck and then we are off, all guns blazing. I have already completed the shelving and LED installation in the cold room and quite a bit of plant stock has been moved in. Next is the racking for the 56 crates of media storage to assemble. (The media is agar jelly poured into the little grow tubs and kept for a few days to check no contaminants are growing in it), It is just 120 pieces of metal angle salvaged from the old dismantled store which I’m hoping will naturally all fit nicely together. After that there are just the other storage fittings to go and we can move in all the other dry stock which is stacked in the growth room and despatch. At this point we should then have enough space for a week or two to fit the remaining new LED lights in the growth room and clear despatch ready to sell some plants. Then there is just the drainage system to develop, acid store to upgrade, track- ways to resurface, gravel weed suppressant to lay and, oh yes nearly forgot, all the plants to cut back and tidy ready for the Spring sales. I always look forward to the quiet winter period to recover from the pressures of a long sales season!
Our little 3.5t van has now clocked up over 270,000 miles and is need of a little rest so we are shortly to put it into semi- retirement and get a new version. I have been researching all the new models which is really tricky as many of the manufacturers share chassis’s and engines making picking out the best for what we need, a real challenge. Happily I can say that it appears that they are all improving their performance as each year passes and after seeing a report on diesel cars earlier in the week the reason this is so is that they are governed by more stringent rules than their domestic equivalents. It’s something to do with the way emissions are tested and it turns out that commercial vehicles have to be much cleaner burning than the cars by a huge amount, as they are tested in real world conditions rather than in a lab. We have a small diesel car ourselves and I now feel total misled into making what we thought at the time was an environmentally responsible purchase, but there you go, so much for believing the big boys.
Availability highlights
We have a few winter performers on offer and if anyone would like to make up a smaller order we will do our best to get it to you asap. Ideally a 15 tray minimum is best but we could stretch to 12 trays if you are fairly local or we are passing by. The Hellebores are coming on well and a few are ready to roll. Helleborus niger Advent Star is a very early flowering form and has plenty of flower and bud showing already, so don’t miss out on that one. We have a great new range of orientalis with several colours and forms (singles, doubles and spotted). We have already spotted the occasional bud, so hopeful of some good sales to come there, They are certainly looking strong at the moment.
The ever popular Erysimum Bowles Mauve are already in bud, it will be a while before the colour shows but the plants are strong, hardy and bushy. The other varieties look good too, but it should be a few weeks before bud appears on those. The Pulmonaria are coming one well with a little bud beginning to appear on a few. Blue Ensign is the most forward and the variegated Opal is looking smart.
Our own saved seed of local wild primrose from the farm wood are looking chunky and not far off flowering, the odd bud has opened already. Ajuga have attractive evergreen foliage and look good through the cooler months, we have a good range ready now. The other varieties we have listed are looking green and full of promise, many staying evergreen despite the cold. Although some plants may look sad for a while after a hard frost, they soon perk up again if left to recover in their own time. Ideally they benefit from a bit of protection from the harshest conditions to keep up the good looks, but try to avoid too much warmth.
Wooden box collections
We have been collected up lots of wooden trays in recent weeks, so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations.
Have a good year and week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Nearly back into the swing of things after a nice break. It was a bit of a nippy week for the return to work and staff numbers were a bit low with a combination of extended breaks, cold weather days off, winter bugs and jury service but we still seemed to get through lots of bits and pieces, including a few small but highly valued orders.
The new lab store and cold room are soaking up the hours at the moment as we try and get it fully operational. The cock up (not mine this time!) of fitting a freezer unit (-15 to -25C) rather than a chiller (+6C to -10C) to the cold room was rectified on Friday although it still isn’t actually running yet. It should get commissioned on Monday with luck and then we are off, all guns blazing. I have already completed the shelving and LED installation in the cold room and quite a bit of plant stock has been moved in. Next is the racking for the 56 crates of media storage to assemble. (The media is agar jelly poured into the little grow tubs and kept for a few days to check no contaminants are growing in it), It is just 120 pieces of metal angle salvaged from the old dismantled store which I’m hoping will naturally all fit nicely together. After that there are just the other storage fittings to go and we can move in all the other dry stock which is stacked in the growth room and despatch. At this point we should then have enough space for a week or two to fit the remaining new LED lights in the growth room and clear despatch ready to sell some plants. Then there is just the drainage system to develop, acid store to upgrade, track- ways to resurface, gravel weed suppressant to lay and, oh yes nearly forgot, all the plants to cut back and tidy ready for the Spring sales. I always look forward to the quiet winter period to recover from the pressures of a long sales season!
Our little 3.5t van has now clocked up over 270,000 miles and is need of a little rest so we are shortly to put it into semi- retirement and get a new version. I have been researching all the new models which is really tricky as many of the manufacturers share chassis’s and engines making picking out the best for what we need, a real challenge. Happily I can say that it appears that they are all improving their performance as each year passes and after seeing a report on diesel cars earlier in the week the reason this is so is that they are governed by more stringent rules than their domestic equivalents. It’s something to do with the way emissions are tested and it turns out that commercial vehicles have to be much cleaner burning than the cars by a huge amount, as they are tested in real world conditions rather than in a lab. We have a small diesel car ourselves and I now feel total misled into making what we thought at the time was an environmentally responsible purchase, but there you go, so much for believing the big boys.
Availability highlights
We have a few winter performers on offer and if anyone would like to make up a smaller order we will do our best to get it to you asap. Ideally a 15 tray minimum is best but we could stretch to 12 trays if you are fairly local or we are passing by. The Hellebores are coming on well and a few are ready to roll. Helleborus niger Advent Star is a very early flowering form and has plenty of flower and bud showing already, so don’t miss out on that one. We have a great new range of orientalis with several colours and forms (singles, doubles and spotted). We have already spotted the occasional bud, so hopeful of some good sales to come there, They are certainly looking strong at the moment.
The ever popular Erysimum Bowles Mauve are already in bud, it will be a while before the colour shows but the plants are strong, hardy and bushy. The other varieties look good too, but it should be a few weeks before bud appears on those. The Pulmonaria are coming one well with a little bud beginning to appear on a few. Blue Ensign is the most forward and the variegated Opal is looking smart.
Our own saved seed of local wild primrose from the farm wood are looking chunky and not far off flowering, the odd bud has opened already. Ajuga have attractive evergreen foliage and look good through the cooler months, we have a good range ready now. The other varieties we have listed are looking green and full of promise, many staying evergreen despite the cold. Although some plants may look sad for a while after a hard frost, they soon perk up again if left to recover in their own time. Ideally they benefit from a bit of protection from the harshest conditions to keep up the good looks, but try to avoid too much warmth.
Wooden box collections
We have been collected up lots of wooden trays in recent weeks, so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations.
Have a good year and week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Friday 6 January 2017
Hairy New Year to all
Morning all,
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas break, fully refreshed and ready to roll in 2017.
I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear we had a great time, the usual huge Turkey (and nut roast) lunch with lots of family down on the farm and plenty of games to follow. Also squeezed in the annual friends and family hockey day (15 a side) a couple of days later, then all back for lunch and more games. Luckily a only simple chilli and baked potatoes to cater for. Nearly all the leftovers are gone now other than the vastly over portioned veg chilli which we have been eating up over the last three days, that’s a lot of beans! The last of it is now in the freezer for emergency use later when the wind eases off.
Managed to slip down to the nursery several times to press on with the new wooden insulated lab store. The cold room in, it was fitted on the Tuesday before Christmas but unfortunately they mistakenly installed a freezer unit rather than a chiller (-15C rather than +4C) so they are back in the new year to swap over. Meanwhile I have managed to refit most of the shelving and LED lights in it ready for the plants and even part filled it with stock to make some space in the growth room. Very pleased with the result so far. Quite excited that not only is the new store far more energy efficient, but more versatile too. When it is not in use as a cold-room in the winter months we can adjust the heating/cooling to use it as an extra growth room in the summer. In the winter the chiller unit deposits its waste heat into the rest of the store to save a little on the heating input. The rest of the store is temperature controlled so we can store a lot more of the agar media ready for micro- propagation which saves room in the main growth room and gives us the chance to weed out any contaminated agar should any contaminants start to grow in it before it is planted up.
We got the first phase of the new nursery drainage network laid before the break which should mean less tunnel flooding and a safer work environment now that the previous open ditch arrangements are all filled in. A slightly frustrating job as it was really hard work to put in and then we buried it all so not much to show for all that toil!
The new structure we erected over the lab work and growth room has worked a treat, no more leak complaints and everything is looking nice and dry. Another big job but at least we can see it, even if it doesn’t contribute a huge amount to the margins, something that just had to be done.
Managed to fit in the Christmas decoration installation late on Christmas eve. I’m afraid we don’t add much to the coffers of the local decor sellers, my homemade chains have been going for years and still plenty of life in them yet. Started on the beer a little too early, should have decorated first. In my rush climbing on and off the chair I dismounted slightly off balance and stepped onto the paper chain pile causing some major flattening of the decorative family heirloom, still it could have been worse I could have crushed me baubles.
Availability highlights
We have a few winter performers on offer and if anyone would like to make up a smaller order we will do our best to get it to you asap. Ideally a 15 tray minimum is best but we could stretch to 12 trays if you are fairly local or we are passing by. The Hellebores are coming on well and a few are ready to roll. Helleborus niger Advent Star is a very early flowering form and has plenty of flower and bud showing already, so don’t miss out on that one. We have a great new range of orientalis with several colours and forms (singles, doubles and spotted). We have already spotted the occasional bud, so hopeful of some good sales to come there, They are certainly looking strong at the moment.
The ever popular Erysimum Bowles Mauve are already in bud, it will be a while before the colour shows but the plants are strong, hardy and bushy. The other varieties look good too, but it should be a few weeks before bud appears on those. The Pulmonaria are coming one well with a little bud beginning to appear on a few. Blue Ensign is the most forward and the variegated Opal is looking smart.
Our own saved seed of local wild primrose from the farm wood are looking chunky and not far off flowering, the odd bud has opened already. Ajuga have attractive evergreen foliage and look good through the cooler months, we have a good range ready now. The other varieties we have listed are looking green and full of promise, many staying evergreen despite the cold. Although they may look sad for a while after a hard frost, they perk up again if left to recover in their own time. Ideally they benefit from a bit of protection from the harshest conditions to keep up the good looks, but try to avoid too much warmth. Wooden box collections
We have been collected up lots of wooden trays in recent weeks, so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations.
Have a good year and week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas break, fully refreshed and ready to roll in 2017.
I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear we had a great time, the usual huge Turkey (and nut roast) lunch with lots of family down on the farm and plenty of games to follow. Also squeezed in the annual friends and family hockey day (15 a side) a couple of days later, then all back for lunch and more games. Luckily a only simple chilli and baked potatoes to cater for. Nearly all the leftovers are gone now other than the vastly over portioned veg chilli which we have been eating up over the last three days, that’s a lot of beans! The last of it is now in the freezer for emergency use later when the wind eases off.
Managed to slip down to the nursery several times to press on with the new wooden insulated lab store. The cold room in, it was fitted on the Tuesday before Christmas but unfortunately they mistakenly installed a freezer unit rather than a chiller (-15C rather than +4C) so they are back in the new year to swap over. Meanwhile I have managed to refit most of the shelving and LED lights in it ready for the plants and even part filled it with stock to make some space in the growth room. Very pleased with the result so far. Quite excited that not only is the new store far more energy efficient, but more versatile too. When it is not in use as a cold-room in the winter months we can adjust the heating/cooling to use it as an extra growth room in the summer. In the winter the chiller unit deposits its waste heat into the rest of the store to save a little on the heating input. The rest of the store is temperature controlled so we can store a lot more of the agar media ready for micro- propagation which saves room in the main growth room and gives us the chance to weed out any contaminated agar should any contaminants start to grow in it before it is planted up.
We got the first phase of the new nursery drainage network laid before the break which should mean less tunnel flooding and a safer work environment now that the previous open ditch arrangements are all filled in. A slightly frustrating job as it was really hard work to put in and then we buried it all so not much to show for all that toil!
The new structure we erected over the lab work and growth room has worked a treat, no more leak complaints and everything is looking nice and dry. Another big job but at least we can see it, even if it doesn’t contribute a huge amount to the margins, something that just had to be done.
Managed to fit in the Christmas decoration installation late on Christmas eve. I’m afraid we don’t add much to the coffers of the local decor sellers, my homemade chains have been going for years and still plenty of life in them yet. Started on the beer a little too early, should have decorated first. In my rush climbing on and off the chair I dismounted slightly off balance and stepped onto the paper chain pile causing some major flattening of the decorative family heirloom, still it could have been worse I could have crushed me baubles.
Availability highlights
We have a few winter performers on offer and if anyone would like to make up a smaller order we will do our best to get it to you asap. Ideally a 15 tray minimum is best but we could stretch to 12 trays if you are fairly local or we are passing by. The Hellebores are coming on well and a few are ready to roll. Helleborus niger Advent Star is a very early flowering form and has plenty of flower and bud showing already, so don’t miss out on that one. We have a great new range of orientalis with several colours and forms (singles, doubles and spotted). We have already spotted the occasional bud, so hopeful of some good sales to come there, They are certainly looking strong at the moment.
The ever popular Erysimum Bowles Mauve are already in bud, it will be a while before the colour shows but the plants are strong, hardy and bushy. The other varieties look good too, but it should be a few weeks before bud appears on those. The Pulmonaria are coming one well with a little bud beginning to appear on a few. Blue Ensign is the most forward and the variegated Opal is looking smart.
Our own saved seed of local wild primrose from the farm wood are looking chunky and not far off flowering, the odd bud has opened already. Ajuga have attractive evergreen foliage and look good through the cooler months, we have a good range ready now. The other varieties we have listed are looking green and full of promise, many staying evergreen despite the cold. Although they may look sad for a while after a hard frost, they perk up again if left to recover in their own time. Ideally they benefit from a bit of protection from the harshest conditions to keep up the good looks, but try to avoid too much warmth. Wooden box collections
We have been collected up lots of wooden trays in recent weeks, so if you have any needing collection just drop us an email and we will add you to the list of destinations.
Have a good year and week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.
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