The frost watch

[Sunflowersinthewind]

I am almost obsessed with looking at the weather app now relying to figure out when I can plant out what I have bought and what would survive in my unheated greenhouse.

I currently have inside many fuchsias, snapdragons, busy lizzies and tomato plants. Outside in greenhouse, I have seedlings of marigolds, zinnia, aster, sunflowers and some plug plants of varying perennials.

When would you be planting out any of this. I know my tomatoes have to stay in. They are not the healthiest anyway, having grown them from seed too early but I won't give up on them. Also how safe is the unheated greenhouse do you think? Temps at night are due to go down to 4 degrees but feel like 1 degree!

Also if anyone else is wondering the same questions the post here! Honestly mumsnet at the moment has been my go-to guide for gardening questions.

Where are you? Im in west of Scotland and have moved all my seedlings into my unheated greenhouse now. I'd probably also be bold enough to plant things outside if they were ready.

I have made the decision that I will plant my Dahlia, Gladioli and Foxgloves today as we have no frost forecast for the rest of April.
My sweet peas have already been put for 2 weeks lifted ooff the ground.
Tomatos and courgettes have been in the cold frame a week already and doing well. Lettuces also in the cold frame and seedlings just appearing.

I'm watching the weather app!
It's looking a bit colder overnight than it has been here, a few 3°c nights over the next few weeks.
I've got a few trays of perennials which I potted up from plug plants on Friday and left outside, plus some trays of bedding I brought yesterday.
I'm planning on making a temporary cold frame from some bricks and greenhouse glass and leaving them in that from tonight just in case.

Ooh ok, I do have dahlias upstairs in my bathroom. Tbh my house is a little crammed.

I am in Wiltshire. My garden is fairly sheltered but I am a worrier about my plants.

Maybe my seedlings will be ok in my greenhouse. I really hate the faff of bringing everything in overnight and then back out in the morning whilst also trying to get ready for work and school.

You need a cold frame!

Oh I forgot about my baby petunias that I have too.

I have too many

Does a cold frame work better than a greenhouse? It's not a proper one, it's a plastic one but its completely sealed as I made a base to keep the bastard slugs out

I'm in the Midlands and all frost seems to have stopped so I've put things out now. My only recent frost damage was on a clematis that I put in last Autumn - it has just started to produce leaves and then they were all killed off by the frost a few weeks ago. Anyone know if it will recover or will that have killed the whole plant now? I keep looking at it but it shows no sign of life.

I'm down south right on the Hampshire coast, I've planted runner beans, dwarf beans and spring onions yesterday in pots/troughs but they won't be going out until mid May. Tomatoes are still quite small and are inside sitting on top of the washing machine.

Before then they and the summer bedding I have also in the garage will go out during the day if it's nice but in again at night. This includes the dahlias I have and the cannas that haven't yet put out any buds.

I usually feel ok by the second week in May to put stuff into the garden or outside in containers, so far - and I've been doing this for years - I've not lost anything yet to frost.

If things have been indoors, they’ll need some hardening off to move into the greenhouse, or wait for a warm spell. Putting them out a week ago would have worked

Gosh thanks for this thread. West Yorkshire here.
Sweet peas have been in the ground for a week, they seem great.
Antirrhinum, nicotiana, cosmos, lettuce, rocket, marigolds seedlings now on the patio hardening off. They have been there for a few days and seem fine
I just got tired of them inside and have no cold frame/greenhouse
Some stuff still in the kitchen, leggy seedlings mostly.

I think next week I will plant out the most robust stuff in the ground 🤞
I foolishly put pots of dahlia and canna lilies against a south facing wall. Life from two of the dahlias, but I live in hope

I think I started off seedlings too early then ran out of room for them 🙄

I'm in Yorkshire and I sow things like lettuce, rocket and peas and sweet peas direct outside in March they shrug frost off. I've still got a lounge full of dahlias, tomatoes, squash, sweetcorn and sunflowers though. You could try half in your unheated greenhouse and keep half indoors and then you'll have backup and a better idea for next year. I always get impatient and Iose things by planting out during warm spells in May, so all of the above plants will just be hardened off through May but brought back in at night, then here everything's find from June onwards. It does depend on your site though as the cold wind seems to do as much damage as the frost. I find things can go out on my sheltered patio in pots several weeks earlier than on my windswept allotment. You could also add extra insulation like bubble wrap round your greenhouse. Just remember to remove it on warm sunny days.

Right, blanket over greenhouse and a little patch of cosmos I forgot about. Tiniest seedlings are brought in. I looked at the weather and it looks to me that temperatures are warming up overnight from Saturday onwards. So I will be brave and plant out some of my little perennials, my bush fuchsias and my snapdragons. Then start hardening off the rest and hope for the best.

The southern tip of Warwickshire here and all my germinated seedlings (tomatoes, flowers, veg) have been out in my unheated greenhouse since the start of the month. Dahlia tubers started in small pots in the greenhouse about a month ago. It’s cold comfort farm here 😁

It’s like the Hokey Cokey this time of year 🤣

I’m new to this and also planted up too early and been in a jungle of leggy seedlings for weeks!

I’m looking at getting a low cold frame but haven’t seen one in the flesh. Are they open at the bottom and you just sit them over your beds/pots?

I have a low cold frame. TBH it got too hot in there last week, even with the lid open and a few seedlings shriveled.

I've just bought a mini greenhouse / tall grow frame from Aldi. That's for hardening off more seedlings and for my tomatoes later.

Our last frost date - South Central Scotland - is 10 May.

I have shoved everything out but I will regret it I expect

I am a shit gardener, I really am.

I have waited and waited to do dahlias as I cba to do them inside and the packet says from May I can do thems traight outside. Have never done them before.

Just impatient, a bit (a lot!) like me 😁

BBC reckons 5 degrees and over at night here from this weekend on so mine will be getting shoved out as well!

April has been going on for at least two months, get on with it!!!

April has felt so long. Gardening really is a lesson in patience, a hard lesson for me!

I am still panicking a bit about a surprise frost in mid May or something, not helped by gardeners world who always say never put anything out until late May/June.

My dahlias will be pot bound and die by then I'm sure. I started them off in too small pots really.

Absolutely 🤣

Buy fleece.
I have a raised bed in the greenhouse which I put my plants on (or at least they are on supports on the raised bed as voles/slugs etc will eat them if they get the chance. Putting pots on a tray with a wide overhang over a box or similar seems to stop them) and I lay fleece over that. The fleece seems to stop the frost.
So I wouldn't just put small seedlngs on the shelf in the unheated greenhouse, I would put them above the soil as it seems to hold the heat more than metal shelf or the floor, or perhaps put something like cardboard under them and fleece over them, or even cover with a cardboard box overnight, and they should be ok.

Not that far away from you op and I've been growing veg and a few flowers from seed in my unheated greenhouse for a month. Most delicate ones I've put on heat mats if the weather looked like it would be particularly cold overnight, but most were okay just sitting on the shelf. Also covered some seed trays with plastic lids.

Have got tomatoes, courgettes, beans, peppers, butternut squash, coriander, rocket sweetcorn. Plus a couple of cucumbers and some dahlias, sweet peas etc. All from seed and all seedlings/plants now looking very healthy - especially the courgettes which I've potted on twice already. Also got a big trough in there planted up with salad leaves which has really taken off - too much for us to keep up with eating.

This is my first year with a greenhouse and I've discovered that stopping it getting too hot during the day is as much of a worry as it being too cold overnight! I forgot to open the windows one morning last week and went in at lunchtime to see the thermometer nudging 42 degrees C. I lost a tray of spinach seedlings which were just frazzled. Now I'm in there throughout the day moving things around to keep delicate seedlings out of direct sunlight.