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The onion plants arrived today - first class condition/packaging. My husband was delighted and will enjoy watching them grow.
I look forward to dealing with you in the future.
Liz Black, Perthshire
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The onion plants arrived today - first class condition/packaging. My husband was delighted and will enjoy watching them grow.
I look forward to dealing with you in the future.
Liz Black, Perthshire
Time To Slow - Or Perhaps Not!
How fast this year seems to have gone by; its strange because usually time seems to drag when things are difficult, yet despite being probably one of the hardest growing years on record it has just flown by.
Late September / early October sees the traditional time for the last of the major harvesting - and schools up and down the Country will be preparing to celebrate this with their harvest festivals. For those 'old hands' this has hardly been the year to celebrate the harvest; for anyone who picked up a spade for the first time this year it been a pretty thankless one - and on the various gardening forums there already such topics as 'Had Enough'.
But the reality is, yes, it has been a difficult year - but not completely impossible. Here on the nursery our tomatoes were late to start fruiting - but conversely they're still ripening now in abundance. We've had a good year for courgettes (still going), but a poor year for pumpkins and winter squashes (but probably more than we'll eat)! The onions didn't make the size and don't look like they will keep well and the spuds were a disaster; but our Sweetcorn were the best we have grown and heaviest crop - until the Pheasants found them! So its been a year of good and bad - and perhaps even exceptional.
The end of September was busy for us as we finally let our new look website go. The huge amount of work involved seems to have been worth it, judging by the positive comments we have had. In the not too distant future we will be adding the facility to create a wish list or save an order part way through - and even to create a Wedding List.
There's still one or two bits to sort out, so please bear with us as we do the finishing off - and if you do have any problems, oddities or bits not working quite as you'd expect please do contact us - as we may not have noticed them ourselves!
Considering that for the amateur October is the month when physical effort starts to reduce, for us it a really busy month as we prepare for the forthcoming autumn and bare root winter season - as well as tidy up and go through all our other plants. With a bit of luck there will be a day or two at the end of the month when the whole nursery will be tidy and organised - all at the same time"!
You should be planning where to plant and preparing the areas in readiness - and getting your orders in as soon as possible - the earlier we receive your order the 'higher up the dispatch list it will be so the earlier you will get it. Autumn and early Winter is the perfect time for planting bare root fruit for several reasons, as the still warm soil (especially this year as it is so mild) encourages the roots of trees, bushes and canes to start to grow - making establishment all the more quicker come the Spring. And come next Summer that early planting will pay off even further as that greater rooting out will mean less need for watering (but don't forget it completely).
But despite October being such a busy month for us it also sees one of our most important and enjoyable jobs of the year - judging our annual School Pumpkin Competition! Over the next few weeks Serena and I will be visiting Schools, measuring pumpkins and awarding spooky Halloween prizes for the biggest, smallest, ugliest, best carved / dressed at each school - and finding out which school has won the inter-school prize for the largest. Best of all we will hopefully hear of all the pleasure and fun the children have had growing their Pumpkins and learning the joys of 'growing their own' without even realising they were learning!