Topic: Frost forecast

[Ellen K]

Max/min thermometer in polytunnel showed -0.2C, plants a tiny bit wilted but not frozen so it wasn't that cold for very long. 
Spuds took a bit of a hit under fleece but not too bad.  Hope that is the end of it for this year 

[Digeroo]

I went down to the plot about 7 am when it had warmed up quite a bit.  But there was still a complete white out.   Though things warmed up fast as the sun came from behind the trees.  Not sure the actual temperature officially  0.5C at Brize Norton at 5am.    But obviously at ground level and not protected by a little white box things were much colder. I would estimate around -2C considering the amount of ice. There was ice on anything plastic and any water on the top of compost bins was frozen solid.  Not sure whether we will escape another dose of cold tonight.

I  had managed to cover most of my strawberries so they look bonny.  I covered the potatoes with straw so they were fine too.  But there is a scene of devastation on other plots.  I covered most of a friends potatoes.   There were about six people there last night covering things and earthing up, not sure where everyone else was but they will be regretting it.

The rhubarb leaves were drooping and looked very sad, but it is made of sterner stuff and within a few minutes of the suns warmth it was back in business.

[grannyjanny]

Gosh Digeroo you did get it bad. I don't think we were affected after all. We did get the strawberries covered & will leave it overnight tonight just in case. Like yours they are looking nice & bonny.

[Digeroo]

We are a long way from the sea so tend to get bad frosts.  It is amazing how many times Raf Benson or sometimes Brize Norton is the coldest place in the country.

I have taken my covers off, but may decide to replace it for  tonight.  Though they have now amended the forecast to a minimum of 6C, so we should be ok.  The wind has changed round to the south.  My car says it 17C at the moment so it is quite hot out in the sunshine.

[taurus]

At to scrape the ice of the car at 7am this morning in Swindon.  Not far from Digeroo.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not so bad in central Birmingham, but my spuds were well frosted. Never mind, they'll soon grow back.

[Nige P]

Not so bad in central Birmingham, but my spuds were well frosted. Never mind, they'll soon grow back.

Same here down in Boldmere. Very black and limp looking spuds

Nige

[mormor]

Frost came to Denmark a day later so my potatoes looked a bit sad. But I had earthed up so only the tips look sad. Volunteer potatoes not affected - how’s that for unfair?  Strawberries and apple blossom look OK. Curious.  But I am relieved that everyone says potatoes will survive!

[Tee Gee]

Because of the relatively mild weather I have been tempted to plant out a number of things but didn't

14th May has always been my planting out date and as I have generally done everything this year roughly one week before my normal dates I am going to get on with my planting out in the incoming week

Will decide after I watch Countryfile tonight!

I have lost stuff to frosts in the first week in June in the past so its a case of "once bitten" with me now!

[artichoke]

Here in East Sussex, allotment neighbours have put out runners and courgettes into open ground over the last 7 days. My daughter in Greenwich has nagged me to deliver and plant tender seedlings. Am I a pessimist?

[squeezyjohn]

Not a pessimist - I think you're being a realist artichoke.  You "might" get away with it planting stuff out early May - but I would only do that if I had backup plants spare in case a frost comes.

I'm not far from Digeroo ... and I always treat the very end of May as the safe time for planting things out ... but even then a bit of freaky weather in June can mess things up.

[green lily]

Be very careful, May is a very tricky month...How do I know..

[galina]

Not a pessimist - I think you're being a realist artichoke.  You "might" get away with it planting stuff out early May - but I would only do that if I had backup plants spare in case a frost comes.

I'm not far from Digeroo ... and I always treat the very end of May as the safe time for planting things out ... but even then a bit of freaky weather in June can mess things up.

Too right Squeezy!  I have twice lost plants in early June and so have many others on the 'spine' of the country - where it really is much colder than near the coasts.

The first time we had a June frost I lost half the beans of a new variety I had just swapped with a gardener from Bristol.  I was so glad that 6 plants made it and saved seed from those plants.  By chance I grew their descendants when we got a June frost more recently.  I lost a number of plants but those 'survivor' beans just shrugged it off.  The seeds I have now seem to be fairly hardy.

French beans will never be able to tolerate a lot of frost, but even so, there are differences when it gets close to freezing.

Overall I think we are now seeing more late frosts than when I started gardening some 35 or so years ago.  Generally the weather has gone 'whackier'.  Do others have the same experience?  Or am I getting to the age that I remember things from decades ago with rose-tinted glasses?

 

[small]

I remember a first-week-in -June frost in Coventry 40 years ago, the nursery down the road lost all their tender bedding etc, it was a sad sight next morning. So no, I don't think it's a recent phenomenon, unlike the torrential rainstorms which I'm sure are more frequent and violent than they used to be.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I remember a frost on June 16th in the early 2000's, but then last summer and the one before both produced several June frosts. The thunderstorms are easier to judge as we get flash floods so we keep an eye on them. The first year I was on the plot - 1990 - we were flooded three times. After the third time, we got someone down from Severn Trent to advise us. He said the first two were 'ten year events', which will happen occasionally, but the third was a 'hundred year event', and unlikely to happen again. Since then, there's been some remedial work done upstream which helps a bit.

Despite that, we still get flooded every couple of years, and they're getting worse. A hundred-year event every other year needs to be reclassified!

[Ian Pearson]

The concept of 'one in one hundred (or however many) years' events can only be valid in a static situation. In a dynamic climate pattern, they are nonsense.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Of course, but at that time, we were still assuming the climate was pretty much a given.

[George the Pigman]

There is a site that will give you an idea of the first and last average date for frost in your area here.
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/main/weather1.asp

Where I live in Birmingham it's early May so I never bother putting anything out before then. I planted out some broad bean plants  just before the frost (but they are very hardy -you can overwinter them!) and my spuds didn't go in until a week before so the tops wouldn't have been up yet.
Still can be caught though! I remember a frost in early June!
How do gardeners in the Grampians ever grow anything vaguely half-hardy!

[George the Pigman]

Robert - I see you are at Chad Brook Allotments. Presumably the stream is part of the cause of the flooding.
I'm at Coney Green Drive Allotments in Northfield and we have regular flooding problems in winter being near the river Rea and on clay soil coupled with a sandstone ridge under part of the site. Some plotholders are thinking of planting rice
!!
Since its next to the main West Cost railway line you would think someone would be concerned!! Fortunately I'm on an uphill part of the site!

[Redalder]

How do gardeners in the Grampians ever grow anything vaguely half-hardy!
[/quote]

Poly tunnels, cloches and fleece! Of course in a bad winter you then have to clear the snow off the roof of the poly tunnel each morning, and I have gone out to find the safety glass on the greenhouse (installed because the ordinary glass exploded in a gale and covered the garden in shards of glass) bending under the weight of snow. The north east has quite a dry sunny climate and the days are long in summer so we got very good crops outside on a south facing plot once they got going. Cornwall, where we live now is another world.