Frost on the way!

[Garden Manager]

Well i suppose it was inevitable reall though would have liked a bit longer 'frost free' after such a mild October.Still, cant have everything can you?

Unfortunately the mild weather has lured me into a false sense of security. i am in no way ready for cold weather in the garden, (greenhouse not cleaned and ready to protect stuff etc) so may have a rush job on the next couple of days, so i dont risk loosing things i want to keep overwinter.

Just wish i knew how bad the frosts will be. A few light autumn frosts will be no problem, but anything like the cold snap we has mid November last year, and it could be a problem.

Saddest thing is the garden is still looking quite good. A few sharp frosts will soon put an end to that. I remember last years 'November winter'  put a stop to most things still flowering so there was very little flower colour in the garden come December, when in past years many 'summer' flowers have kept going well into december.

heres hoping for th best and expecting the worst.

Still the upside will be nice bright sunny (if cold) days which is an improvement on recent grey, dull ones.

[Garden Manager]

[Robert_Brenchley]

They're only forcasting lows of about -1 centigrade for Birmingham at the moment, so I'm doubtful whether I'll get any frost at all, I'm in the middle of a heat island.

[Garden Manager]

Depending on which forecast you listened to we were either getting a freeze up (zero or below) or just a colder than recent night. This means a range of between about 4c and 0c for south dorset. Just poppd my head out the door, no sign of freezing so looks like we'll be OK. Not that frost really bothers me its just when i am not ready for it that i'd rather it didnt happen!

What do you mean by a 'heat island' Robert? I am guessing this is the opposite of a frost pocket?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Large urban areas like Birmingham heat up several degrees above the surrounding countryside, due to a combination of heat production, increased heat absorbtion and reduced cooling from evaporation. I've just been teaching it in 'A'-level Environmental Science.

[tim]

Why didn't I see this yesterday?? Would have saved much anguish!!

See 'nice'nspicy'.

[RSJK]

Slight frost here in Tamworth this morning, another one forecast for tonight

[glow777]

frost here today - bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

oh well onto the parsnips

[wahaj]

yea....it did creep up on us a bit didn't it after such a warm october?

i'm not ready either either and i'm panicing. I've got 2 tonnes of manure to still shift....about 7 bare root bushes to plant, some plants to move, loads and loads of bulbs into put into the ground, and a greenhouse to finish building.

I haven't prepared anything for the winter yet....i'd barely finished dealing with the end of the summer lol.

i've also got several plants that need to be put into the ground so it's all a bit of a panic in the garden right now.

I'm a bit sad about the fact that my passiflora contance elliot seems to have started to wilt....my passilfora eden has lost pretty much all it's leaves even though it's meant to keep them on over winter....and most of my passiflora edulis seedlings in my mini greenhouse have wilted....i believe all affected by the frost.

in my area there's a 100% chance over every day of this week of air frost...and part of most days of ground frost.