Tuesday 29 August 2017

Hairy Holidays

Morning all,
Thundering tractors this morning as the farm are harvesting the field of very dark looking wheat behind the nursery. At least they are getting a few fine days now to get a good run going and grab the last few remaining fields which must be some sort of relief. The dodgy August weather has brought about a few extra challenges too. Apparently it has been perfect conditions for bindweed growth and the combination of this and the late cutting has produced green patches in some fields where the bindweed has climbed the stems of the wheat resulting in clogged up combines and very frustrated farmers. Looks like their weekend is sorted anyway, no worries about getting caught up in any holiday traffic which might be some sort of thin silver lining.
We have just hosted our NBIS nursery group meeting, with a tour of all our new kit we invested in during the winter and a review of all things horticultural, oh yes, and lunch at the pub. It was really refreshing to recap on all the changes over the last few months with, the new LED’s in the growth room, new lab cold store and media storage building (posh wooden shed), new mess room (another posh wooden shed), improved drainage works, new acid store, updated air con in the lab work room, new van and the new roof structure put up over the leaking lab buildings. Over the manic main selling and production season it’s easy to forget all the advances we made so a meeting like this can be a great opportunity to take a step back and see things a bit more clearly. Sharing a few worries and experiences with fellow sufferers always seems to produce a positive outcome, even if a lot of the content is potentially a bit negative (exchange rates, pesticide and imported disease issues, labour availability and ever increasing costs, Brexit worries, the list goes on (and on)). A problem shared is a problem halved and all that, it certainly keeps your feet on the ground and makes you grateful for what you have. I think the secret of the success of our group is that we are not afraid to be open and sometimes brutally honest, but above all not afraid to laugh at ourselves. The release of tension after a good laugh among friends beats most things.
I know many of you will be tied up with a busy bank holiday weekend, at least the weather looks like being ok for most of you. I hope you all have a good one without too much hassle, I’m still hoping for an afternoon at CrawleyFest to soak up some music and beer and if I can get up in time, slip away on our annual summer cruise/holiday (day trip to the Isle of Wight). Can’t wait.
I’m just hoping I can keep my back intact long enough to enjoy it all. The anticipation of a new mattress to help things along has evaporated with some very dodgy mornings, to the point where assistance has been required to get my socks on. A weekly evening yoga session has definitely helped with general bendiness and relaxation (I hesitate now to say ‘wellbeing’) although I do struggle with breathing through my feet and those other tricky skills I am supposed to pick up. I’m much more of a practical skills sort of chap, you should see (or maybe not) how in a matter of just a couple of steps I can drop boxers to the floor, step out with one foot, flick them up with the toes on the other, catch and deposit them in the laundry basket in a single movement. It promotes my feelings of accomplishment nearly as much as getting the tea bag in the mug from the other side of the table on route to the fridge. It’s the simple things that give back the most.

Availability highlights
There is a fresh batch of Erigeron karvenskianus on line again with bud showing and first flowers now opening. We have never had this as a late summer line before but last year our trial plant in the garden flowered almost till Christmas and has flowered again nonstop since about April. We don’t have many, I just wanted to try it out.
Fresh batches of the ever popular Achillea coming on nicely with new flowers shoots appearing. There are a few nice short Nepeta Six Hills in bud at the moment. The dinky little Junior Walker has shoot back after a trim to make nice bushy plants with another flower flush due in a week or two.
The short blue Campanula carpatica is in bud again after an earlier trim, we have white too but not so much bud on these yet. Lots of the Asters are busting a gut to get into bud, The mildew free Ashvi, Asmo, Asram, Starshine and Eleven Purple now have well developed bud and the odd open flower. Lady in Blue, Jenny and Starlight have loads of bud developing. We have a fantastic crop of Ajuga in range of leaf colours just bursting to get into the garden. Fresh batches of Euphorbia are looking nice in a range of foliage colours. Bright variegated leaves of the short tufted grass Carex Evergold are looking very neat and smart.
Just a few Hemerocallis Big Time Happy left, with a fresh batch of flower buds now on show. This recent introduction is a repeat flowering variety with nice big flowers, producing colour over a much longer season than most varieties.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Monday 21 August 2017

Hairy Nuts

Morning all,

Feeling slightly autumnal now with the cooler evenings drawing in, but we could still get a warm end to the summer, there is always hope. There are plenty of pointers to summers wane though, the blackberries are ripening and earlier in the week we had a pull and my nuts to get them in before the pesky squirrels get the lot. It’s a great little crop, they keep for months, are really tasty and good for you, but enough work in the cracking to slow down consumption to sustainable levels. More than can be said for the apples and blackberries which went straight into a crumble to be consumed all week with the accompanying ice cream. The combined effect of also having a couple of birthdays with associated massive cake supply has been disastrous on the waistline but it’s so difficult to resist. I am wondering if the fact that I am preparing the dessert course may be my downfall. Not only do I get a bit heavy handed on portion control but my theory that if I have an extra mouthful straight from the bowl avoiding the dish it doesn’t count may not be working. I was thinking along the lines of ‘does a tree falling in a forest make a noise if there is no one there to hear it?’ Surely if no one sees my indulgence it can’t count.
We have our last nursery tour of the summer coming up. We are hosting our NBIS (nursery business improvement scheme) group for one of our quarterly meetings. We might have to whizz around to have a bit of a tidy up so we don’t look too dishevelled. It’s quite tricky at this time of year as we finish off the summer crops and clean up ready to get the spring crops potted, it all gets a bit chaotic with some tunnels looking like a bomb has hit and others looking clean, orderly and full of fresh stock, I will just have to steer them in the right direction. Luckily they have all been here before and will know how it is as we juggle staff levels, costs and work demands, most nurseries are all the same. We have a load of new stuff to show off since their last visit which should be fun. all the new LED lights, new lab media room and cold store, new mess room, drainage improvements and I can enthral them with my wind turbine and energy saving graphs as well as all our Green Impact prizes. I might knock up a nice cardboard badge to promote my status as National Green Impact Environmental Hero of 2017 I’m sure they will ridicule me endlessly for that, but then that’s what friends are for!
Don’t forget the Bank Holiday coming up, we are working up to trying for a possible day off with a couple of attractive local options on offer. Crawleyfest (our closest village) looks promising with much sustenance with live music, and possibly getting the passports out for a daytrip to the Isle of Wight. We’ll see, We love living life on the edge!

Availability highlights
There is a fresh batch of Erigeron karvenskianus on line again with bud showing, although not in colour just yet. We have never had this as a late summer line before but last year our trial plant in the garden flowered almost till Christmas and has flowered again nonstop since about April. We don’t have many, I just wanted to try it out. There are a few nice short Nepeta Six Hills in bud at the moment. The dinky little Junior Walker has been trimmed again to make nice bushy plants with another flower flush due in a week or two.
The short blue Campanula carpatica is in bud again after an earlier trim, we have white too but not so much bud on these yet. Lots of the Asters are busting a gut to get into bud, The mildew free Ashvi, Asmo, Asram, Starshine and Eleven Purple now have well developed bud and the odd open flower. Best crop ever so don’t miss out. Lady in Blue, Jenny and Starlight have loads of bud developing.
The gold foliaged Tradescantia is carrying it’s contrasting blue flowers nicely, it seem to go on forever this variety.We have a fantastic crop of Ajuga in range of leaf colours just bursting to get into the garden. The Hosta range is looking good again with a recent fresh summer growth spurt making a smart display. Sage Hot Lips has proved very popular again and we have a fresh batch of short trimmed plants with fresh bud on show. Dinky Erodium varieties are back again, low growing and flowering for ages.Fresh batches of Euphorbia are looking nice in a range of foliage colours
Fresh young plants of the very compact Coreopsis Illico are back on the list with fresh bud appearing, proving to be a popular new line for this year. Bright variegated leaves of the short tufted grass Carex Evergold are looking very neat and smart.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Monday 14 August 2017

Hairy Rush

Morning all,
It’s a beautiful summers day here and the combines are slogging away after another up and down week on the farm. On a day like this it is hard to believe what a shocker of a day we had on Wednesday, wall to wall rain and very cool and real downer. A stroke of inspiration hit the local farmers here and they gave up all hope of achieving anything practical on the day and decamped for lunch at a local hostelry to drown in each other’s sorrows. A nice bit of ‘all in the same boat’ camaraderie did no harm and I’m sure it was a very jolly affair, after all we all know how positive farmers usually are, It even seemed to pick the weather up a bit, some gentle breezes to dry things out and a gap in the downpours has meant a return to the usual hassle of combine breakdowns and long hours but at least things are moving in the right direction.
Meanwhile we are having our own challenges on the nursery with a little bit of becoming the victims of our own success. On the main nursery we are struggling to keep on top of combining a long season of sales and deliveries, tunnel clearance, potting and pricking out, the week is just too short and it is already half way through August. The cool damp autumnal feeling mornings are a bit early and adding to the panic that there is not too much summer left and we need to get on. You would think after 33 years doing this we would have got the hang of it by now and to be fair we always get there in the end, one way or another. On top of all this the micropropagation unit we also run here is swamped with advanced long term orders, which seems bizarre as we keep getting told that microprop production in the UK is just too expensive. Last winter we invested quite a lot in cost and carbon saving LED lights, a new media store and cold room, a structure to cover the increasingly leaky workroom and growth room and a more effective aircon unit in the workroom which was all going to be the last hurrah to see the lab through the next few years. Now we are suddenly employing and training two new staff members in there and thinking about how we can squeeze more out this tiny unit by possibly reorganising the facilities again. If we could just have a week of time standing still to gather ourselves that would be great but hey ho such is life, in the odd moment of calm (just after Wednesday night yoga when the beer and crisps come out) we count ourselves lucky that our products are so popular and we have such a lovely bunch of eager customers.
Had a tough Sunday last weekend, didn’t fit in as many nursery hours as usual, after a fantastic party on the Saturday night, sore legs and sore head, I must have bumped it on something. A brilliant reminder of the benefits of getting a group of old friends together in a relaxed environment, providing a bit of sustenance and music and letting go a bit, or a lot. Luckily we were all too old to be recording it all on our phones so no incriminating or embarrassing evidence has come to light yet, we should do it again soon. Life is too short, must make the most of it.

Availability highlights
Signs of high summer are here with the last few Crocosmia now in bud and showing colour. The gold of George Davidson is always popular, as is the lovely red/orange big bloomed Babylon. There are a few nice short Nepeta Six Hills and Walkers Low in bud at the moment. The dinky little Junior Walker has just been trimmed again to get another flower flush in a week or two.We still have a few of the pretty Rhodanthemum Marakesh looking good with a fresh batch of bud coming. We have a great range of mini garden Chrysanthemums in bud. Disappearing fast. Naturally very bushy (no pinching required), they will produce masses of flower from now until the frosts (these are not fully hardy plants so will not always survive a winter outside).
We have a few Campanula Pritchards Variety coming back into bud and flower after an earlier trim. Several of the Asters are busting a gut to get into bud, Flora’s Delight is the first to actually show colour, the others are not far behind. The mildew free Asmo, Asram, Starshine and Eleven Purple now have well developed bud and the odd open flower. Best crop ever so don’t miss out. Lady in Blue and Starlight are both looking very smart with loads of bud developing. We have a fantastic crop of Ajuga in range of leaf colours just bursting to get into the garden. Sage Hot Lips has proved very popular again and we have a fresh batch of short trimmed plants with fresh bud on show. Dinky Erodium varieties are back again, low growing and flowering for ages.
Fresh batches of Euphorbia are looking nice in a range of foliage colours. Fresh young plants of the very compact Coreopsis Illico are back on the list with fresh bud appearing, proving to be a popular new line for this year. Bright variegated leaves of the short tufted grass Carex Evergold are looking very neat and smart.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.

Sunday 6 August 2017

Waxing Hairy

Morning all,

What a great win by Mo last night, it had us cheering him on in a great race. I love an uplifting feel good experience and that was certainly one to file away in the memory to draw on in times of need.
A slightly quieter week last week allowed us to get properly stuck into the potting and with no machine breakdowns plus a couple of extra bodies we rattled through some of the backlog that had built up. It is difficult to believe we are already potting big batches for next spring sales already when this season still is still rolling on. Let’s hope we can keep up the momentum over the next few weeks, it’s going to be tricky with the usual summer holiday interruptions and the amount of tunnel tidying we will have to do in preparation, but after years of practice I know it will all get done in the end so no point getting too tense about it. Having an hour or two extra available in the week has helped me catch up with a few maintenance issues which is always satisfying, I still haven’t manage to get out and replace the perforated work trousers and now it has been pointed out that my two ‘best, pairs are similarly affected. That’s the price you pay for sticking to your favourites and not getting out much.
Meanwhile I have been shorn by Caroline to tidy me up a bit and sorted out my failing hearing. A fabulous investment in some drops and a syringe kit has brought me back to some form of normality and created a couple of new tea lights for Christmas! Reduce, reuse, recycle.
The run of unsettled weather has been frustrating on the farm with harvest stuttering along between the bands of rain and showers. At least the breeze has kept up which helps dry things off quickly and they have done better than expected today with the showers mostly slipping us by. I can hear, thanks to my new aural powers, the grain trailers rumbling up and down the road which should hopefully mean some more relaxed party goers later tonight.
Thankfully the new potting machine drive belt and new chain arrived last week so Sunday should be the perfect opportunity to get them fitted without interrupting production, I’m just hoping I don’t get too ‘overtired’ tonight and sleep in too late. A few friends are giving a big party to celebrate their shared 25th wedding anniversaries with the promise of a lift there and back, plenty of refreshment and a live band, and we are both looking forward to that. It’s a ‘black tie’ do but luckily those trousers are intact so I won’t be embarrassing myself in that department, although there will be loads of dad dancing going on judging by the overwhelming numbers of aging attendees. I’d better get the watering finished so I can go and scrub up in readiness, wish me luck.

Availability highlights
Signs of high summer are here with the last few Crocosmia now in bud and showing colour. The gold of George Davidson is always popular, as is the lovely red/orange big bloomed Babylon. Star of the East actually has the biggest individual orange flowers of all the ones I’ve seen, a stunner.
There are a few nice short Nepeta Six Hills and Walkers Low in bud at the moment. The dinky little Junior Walker has just been trimmed again to get another flower flush in a week or two. We still have a few of the pretty Rhodanthemum Casablanca and Marakesh looking good with a fresh batch of bud on show. We have a great range of mini garden Chrysanthemums in bud. Naturally very bushy (no pinching required), they will produce masses of flower from now until the frosts (these are not fully hardy plants so will not always survive a winter outside). Several of the Asters are busting a gut to get into bud, Flora’s Delight is the first to actually show colour, the others are not far behind. The mildew free Asmo, Asram and Eleven Purple now have well developed bud and the odd open flower. Best crop ever so don’t miss out. Lady in Blue and Starlight are both looking very smart with loads of bud developing.
We have a fantastic crop of Ajuga in range of leaf colours just bursting to get into the garden.  A small fresh batch of the pink Armeria are now producing plenty of bud, neat and pretty. A fresh batch of the lovely Anthemis Sauce Hollandaise is short and bushy with bud showing. Just a few left. Buds and flowers are in abundance on the very popular Sage Hot Lips. Dinky Erodium varieties are back again, low growing and flowering for ages. Flower stems and bud are appearing on many of the Japanese Anemones already. Strong and bushy, the hardy Fuchsia range is doing its thing. Loads of colour. There are fresh batches of Achillea Terracotta and Red Velvet in bud and flower.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.


Tuesday 1 August 2017

Hairy potting joy

Morning all,

The weather is a tad disappointing although at least the gardens will be benefiting. More changeable stuff around next week too which is better for my sanity although frustrating for the farm who are desperate to get stuck into harvest for more than a few hours at a time.
Last week’s village flower show went well despite the showers, and takings were better than expected, other than the ice cream stand and bouncy castle which did understandingly suffer in the prevailing conditions. The new stands set up this year seemed to be a real hit, a BBQ offering and a beer tent were able to warm the insides and drown the sorrows without depressing trade in the tea room, so happy stallholders in both sweet and savoury camps.
We had another poor group suffer a tour of the nursery this week, a gang of mostly ex fruit growers from Sussex who were great fun to show round. There is nothing quite like the coming together of a group of long suffering growers, from whatever sector, to make the most of an afternoons walk and talk. They seemed pleased with their afternoon out and for me it’s always nice to entertain another understanding and sympathetic audience.
The strong nursery sales have kept us really busy and the list of potting to get done has got longer, so slight panic beginning to set in on the production front. Luckily Friday was all clear of distractions and at 8.00 we tucked into our first full day on the machine for months. At 8.30 the dreaded call came over the radio, ‘Derek can you come and take a look at the potting machine?’ Not a fault we had seen before, motors running but all motion stopped. What fun. After two hours clearing out the compost and inspecting all obvious seizure points we came to a decision all we ‘masters of the hammer’ dread, we would have to call someone who actually knows what they are doing for some help. After lengthy discussion with said person we were instructed to take off the main motor and the ‘variater’ (controls the speed) so we could check that the gearshaft would manually turn without crunching and hopefully illuminate the most expensive repair option. With renewed motivation we went back to the machine only to find several of the bolts we would need to undo completely unreachable as they were so close to the machine body. Ace. Despite the expert advice not to take the ‘variater’ apart because we would need 15 hands to get it back together again, we went for it. With some trepidation I undid the cover and pulled it off, expecting all hell to break loose as it fell apart, but our expert had remembered a different variater than the one we had and no pile of cogs descended, just a lot of dirt and debris. It turned out to be a fairly simple belt driven unit with an adjustable pulley that changed the speed. Off came the bottom pulley and belt so we could test the gearbox and thankfully all was smooth and crunchless. We noticed the top adjustable pulley was stuck in one position and the belt quite worn, could this be the answer. A little judicial gentle persuasion got the pulley sliding on its shaft again and we put it all back together hoping for the best. Great rejoicing when everything moved again if only for about 10 seconds when it seized up again. This time we knew instantly the problem, we had loosened the lift conveyer earlier to free things up and it had jumped the cogs on the drive. An easy, if not embarrassing, mistake and a doddle to put right. Just 5 hours after apparent disaster we were up and running, immensely satisfying, but now even more to pot. A new belt has been ordered and next week’s potting target has been raised. Onward and upward.

Availability highlights
Despite the damp in the air, signs of high summer are here with most of the Crocosmia now in bud. The gold of George Davidson is always popular, as is the lovely red/orange big bloomed Babylon. Star of the East actually has the biggest individual orange flowers of all the ones I’ve seen, a stunner and we have just a few of the striking bicolour Harlequin. We have a great range of mini garden Chrysanthemums in bud. Naturally very bushy (no pinching required), they will produce masses of flower from now until the frosts (these are not fully hardy plants so will not always survive a winter outside).
Several of the Asters are busting a gut to get into bud, Flora’s Delight is the first to actually show colour, the others are not far behind. Best crop ever so don’t miss out. Lady in Blue and Starlight looking very smart with loads of bud developing. We have a fantastic crop of Ajuga in range of leaf colours just bursting to get into the garden. A small fresh batch of the pink Armeria are now producing plenty of bud, neat and pretty. A fresh batch of the lovely Anthemis Sauce Hollandaise is short and bushy with bud showing. Just a few left. Buds and flowers are in abundance on the very popular Sage Hot Lips. Dinky Erodium varieties are back again, low growing and flowering for ages.
Flower stems and bud are appearing on many of the Japanese Anemones already. The ever popular Dianthus are in bud and flower. Just a few varieties left. Strong and bushy, the hardy Fuchsia range is doing its thing. Loads of colour. There are fresh batches of Achillea Terracotta in bud and flower with some fresh stock of Red Velvet looking very strong.
Have a good week from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries.