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.

I don't have a greenhouse so everything is out! Hoping for the best. I don't have any seedlings.

I have fleece hanging like a curtain along the middle of the greenhouse - keeps the north side a more even temp , reduces the sunlight (unshaded greenhouse) . Roof windows are on the south side roof so less draughts too.
Suits tomatoes etc

Gosh it's amazing how I care about them, and how disappointed I am when my seedlings don't do well 😔

I will learn my lessons for my dahlias next year, too small pots, put outside in said pots to freeze too early.
Tempted to grow dahlias from seed next year. There's a dahlia sale on in Sarah Raven but I am resisting so far 😂

A cold night forecast tonight. We are high up so usually get frost so remnants of seedlings that have survived will be coming back into the kitchen 🙄

I looked at tonight and its going down to 2 degrees, feels like 0!!! Aaarrgghh, will osteopermums survive? They are out in containers but I do not have available space inside anymore. I am going to risk them I think. I have some other plants out there but in the greenhouse with blanket on. Friday looks dicey too but then I think we can all relax more.

Honestly I spend such a significant amount of time thinking about this.

Have you got a box or plastic tubs (rummage your recycling bin) you can stick over the top @Sunflowersinthewind ? We had a bloody ground frost here this morning 🙄

That's a good idea. Will do that now

I’ve never had osteospermums so I don’t know about them. I planted out some calendula seedlings a couple of weeks ago into a not-sheltered bed (complete lack of space and pots) and they looked great this afternoon 🤷‍♀️

I've got all sorts in our sunroom- cosmos, geraniums, petunias(which I killed off by leaving outside for 3 nights last week and went from 40 to 10 and I think 5 if them are almost dead), Monarda, Clary, Angelica Gigas, stock, Gaura, lupins, Ammi, Yarrow, hollyhocks, snapdragons. Outside I have cornflowers, zinnias and more Angelica Gigas and sweetpeas in a cold frame and wallflowers, foxgloves and bigger again Angelica Gigas, Polemonium , larkspur and nigella and bigger Ammi in pots on a tiered stand in a sunny sheltered corner of the patio. DH is very fed up with the sunroom being unusable and I definitely want to get them outside. I am aiming for Monday but the geraniums may have to stay in.

Wow @LuluBlakey1 that's a lot, I'm jealous. My sweet peas went out weeks ago so fingers crossed they will be ok.

I have put some in pots in plastic crates- no holes- with sheets of solid clear plastic over the top(for some reason FIL had them in his garage) and they have been fine in the garden- I just lift the plastic off in the morning and leave them in the crates all day which protects them from wind too.Put the plastic cover on at night. If it is a cold day, I leave the plastic on, or the other day when it was raining heavily for an hour. I also use the log store to stand the crates in if it is cold at night. I am obsessed with this whole thing. If we have the heating on, I re-arrange the ones in the sunroom so the smallest get warmed up as well.

I am going to have a plant sale from our front gate for an animal charity 🙂

That sounds lovely Lulu ☺️

Ah how lovely Lulu, what a kind thing to do (and a good excuse for lots of sowing!).

Frost again here this morning (calendula still surviving) and FIL saying his newspaper reckons beast from the east#2 us on the way 🙄

@LuluBlakey1 - I was thinking of doing that as well, for a dog charity.

I'm not disciplined enough to discard weaker seedlings so always end up with far more veg plants than I can possibly use - particularly courgettes, peppers, tomatoes and beans.

We live rurally and lots of people have tables outside their houses with honesty boxes.

I've been wondering though if you need permission from the council to do this? Any ideas?

Lovely, lovely thread!

I'm doing the plant hokey cokey with my sown from seed plants, but have managed to move most things out of my house now. Stuff that I bought as 9cm+ plants live outside full time as they seem a bit more robust than the seedlings I've sown myself and the ones I've actually planted out are all looking healthy.

All I keep in the house full time is tomatoes, chamomile, ox-eye daisy and some truly miniscule gypsophila, erigeron karvinskianus, and campanula seedlings that I have my doubts about. Dahlias, tithonia and cosmos go out during the day but I bring them inside at night.

Ammi, sunflowers, sweetpeas, and some dahlias (that took much longer to show signs of life than the ones indoors) live in the unheated shed (with windows) and I put them outside during the day for maximum sunlight. I really want to plant my sweet peas out now - I go through this every year! The one year I did it there was a frost and they were fine, but I'd planted them earlier and they were already big and robust by now.

I have some osteospernum plants that have been outside for a couple of weeks and survived a night at minus 2, so I hope yours are ok op!

No idea. I'm just going to do it and tell our neighbours- they'll be there like a shot.

I have my bedding plants in my cold frame. They really cannot stay in the small pots anymore. I had to plant to the other day or I was going to loose them anyway.

i have seedlings that need to be harden off so I need my cold frame. So I have decided to just put mine out. So I have room in my cold frame. I’m in suffolk and it says no frost coming.

can I cover them in the ground with something if I need to?

@Paranoidandroidmarvin You can get proper cloches but I have a box full of plastic food tubs from fruit etc to use as pot trays, mini-greenhouses etc that I would use. Cardboard boxes would be fine too since it’s only overnight. Absolutely anything really. I think maybe some seedlings are tougher than they let on but I’m not willing to risk them en masse.

Tonight is the worst. Then the temperatures for near me are a lowest of 6 degrees overnight so this is it. Just one more night.

I too have to clear out room in the greenhouse for other stuff.

I am going to pot up my more established plants, like the fuchsias and snapdragons and the tiny seedlings can stay in greenhouse. Not sure if I shall brave the dahlias and sunflowers or not, but they are becoming pot bound. Might give it a week so we can see more of the forecast into May.

Excellent tip from @SockFluffInTheBath Going to save all my boxes for a bit and I have some bubble wrap too.

Good luck everyone! I shall post photos after this weekends session

Hurry up June, I dont think my nerves can take this much more!

I think my lesson for next year is to not start buying and sowing so early I will completely forget this by next year

I am a newbie gardener,

I have sunflowers, pumkins and strawberry. Our bedroom, kitchen and livingroom window all have pots and troughs on

I put some of my sunflowers out in their pots but then they were looking a bit sorry for themselves while the ones inside grew and the stalks chunked out, so i brought them back in. Im keeping them in for a couple of weeks longer.

I went far to early with my pumpkins, i planted some of those outside already, which i think will now die. The ones insise going ok, but in troughs and need more space now i feel, so who knows.

But yes, i went far too early but as you say OP, i doubt i will remember that next year

@Sunflowersinthewind see. This is my first year growing from seed. And I planted everything thinking I would get nothing. I now have so much.
but. What if next year I only plant a few and nothing comes up!

but I will be growing all my own stuff from next year. Sadly I have realised how much joy I get from growing everything myself. It’s insane.

I'm not a highly skilled/experienced gardener and whilst I have some things that are doing ok, only the cornflowers and wallflowers have really started to look like 'proper plants'.
I have lots of cosmos, which are at the fluffy leaved stage but still only 1 stem about 6-8cm tall.
I seem to have killed off 4 out of 10 of the snapdragons by re-potting them too early but they just weren't growing any bigger in the seed tray and had been there 6 weeks.They look pathetic just a couple of leaves.
The gauras are so slow to grow. I did pot them on and they are just starting to show a bit of growth and development. Same with angelica gigas.
Clary have sprouted well but I am not convinced I'll get them past this stage, same with something called 'mystery rose' which looks like a pink cornflower.
Hollyhocks are developing slowly but still just like 7 cm seedlings and I'll have to keep them until next year.
I am growing sea-holly but they are miniscule- two leaves and soooo slow- have been growing 8 weeks- should I just compost them?
Stocks and asters starting to grow on in pots but still seedling like.
The ammi seedlings look just like the yarrow seedlings - is that right?
I was ruthless with the petunias- the cold has seen to them when I left them overnight for 2 nights- too frail to be left out and am now down to 5 from about 40 but they might be ok.
I think I have been too ambitious and planted too many of too many things.
I have had a bad day with them yesterday- was ready to give up. Feel like I am not making much progress. DH told me to 'get a grip' and keep going but I must be doing something wrong. I can't get them to look like plants just big seedlings.

The ones I started last summer- just 3 of each are doing ok.

we have had light frost two days running now. This time last year we has paddling pool out! It's very annoying. I have tomato plants flowering inside, I'm hand pollinating. The greenhouse is rammed with flowers, every window full. I need good weather. I have planted out hollyhocks, some calendula and even chanced a few dahlias..all are surviving so far.

Hurry up June, I dont think my nerves can take this much more!

absobloominlutely 😁 I think the forecast is bad for tonight where we are then 6+ def overnight. I’m so impatient, I want to get stuff going outside but I know it will also be a little bit sad when the greenhouse empties out.

I went too early with some of mine as well, just impatient after the long grey winter. I plan to be more disciplined next spring but I doubt I’ll stick to it…

@Paranoidandroidmarvin i changed seed supplier after a bad show last year and sowed whole packets of things thinking I’d only get a few. I have dozens of some things 😂

@LuluBlakey1 I know what you mean about bad days, I think we get very emotionally invested in our little plant babies! Some of mine are being slow as well. I put those ones out of my immediate line of sight so they don’t annoy me and can slowly get on with it without being verbally harassed 🙄 I did chuck some non-starting verbena pods out onto the bed by the greenhouse and the blooming things are growing now, I have a little patch of them coming up!