What a funny old week we have had, its warm but those torrential rain showers are taking its toll on our summer mood and for any like us who work in the great outdoors it’s not been fun at all. It has been good for growth though, at this time of year we usually start to grade our trees and hedging plants for Autumn and Winter sales but this year we are going to wait a little while longer as we may get some good growth over the next couple of weeks. You will also see in your own gardens the hedges and plants are still growing strong in the Autumn although do be careful if you are thinking of cutting them back at this time of year exactly when you do that as some may be left too vulnerable going into the roller months. I will concentrate on that fully next week to give you a full breakdown of what should be cut and when.

We are already looking towards the Autumn and this week a full stock take was taken of our field productions to ensure that enough stock is ready to be lifted in October and November for the Autumn and Winter sales, we grow as much of this stock as we believe we need although the last couple of years we have had to supplement when we run out, its like all things a balancing act and preempting what will be popular in three years time (the average time between sowing and lifting) is a real tasking that’s another job we do at this time of year. We analyse what trends we believe will coming in and what might be going out and attempt to look at the economical factors too.

We are still growing on over fifty acres in production in Caragh and that has been increasing over recent years, we grow all our hedging plants, a large selection of trees and some larger shrubs and we also have a good base of shapes and specimens growing and Patrick our production manager has his work cut out keeping everything in shape but he does it with such care and skill to keep some of the shapes looking just right as they grow nicely and we have a good crop ready to come out this year. We have recently purchased two bonsai specimens on the nursery, one in the shape of a horse and rider and the other in the shape of a rugby player passing the ball – who I am sure you will see plenty of as we approach the Ruby World Cup in September, we are in countdown in our house and the excitement and quoting of stats is brewing!

I am, I confess, looking forward to the going back to school next week. The summer seems to have flown and we have, this year, crammed a lot into it but I am looking forward to getting back to a quiet house and some routine and my work has been mounting up a little over the summer so I am keen to get back to the normality of the school year and catching up.