You get to know your own area. We can have frosts at any time through March and April (we had snow on Tuesday followed by a frost yesterday) but it's cold wet ground that prevents planting out here, more than frosts.
End of May/beginning of June is the usual rule, but it depends on your height above sea level, and the nature of your own plot as much as anything. A rural, windy, open site will never be as warm as a sheltered town garden, no matter what part of the country you're in.
It also depends what plants you grow. Some are tougher than the books, and experts, state. I wouldn't be putting a banana out any time soon though!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
my banana is still fleeced in a frost free greenhouse. i aim to take the fleece off this week. It wil then be mollycoddled inside until early June. I reckon that tender stuff needs some protection until the last week in May here on the Notts/Derbys border.
I don't plant tender stuff out until the end of May/early June here in Norfolk. In this garden that includes runner beans, courgettes, sweet corn, ipoemea and any summer bedding.
Tomatoes and chillies go out even later as they need warmer temps in order to continue growing strongly.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
my banana is in the polytunnel and has put out a new leaf, with another one coming through. Way too early to stick it outside even down here in mild Devon.
quite true, although it being so windy, it's also less prone to ground frost
I think the 'last frost' data on the website is air frost, i.e. the temperature measured by a thermometer is below zero degrees. The frost gardeners worry about is ground frost, or 'grass frost' and that can still happen when the air temp is up at 4 or 5 degrees, depending on many factors including both weather related (how quickly the air temp is changing) and your ground - if you're in a valley or on the side of a hill, or near a river or close to the sea - and also if the soil is sandy or clay, dry or wet - all sorts of variables.
I'd go with Pansyface's advice and ask someone who's been gardening in your area for some years. Bearing in mind that it is in the nature of gardening to work with uncertainty, to sometimes fail when you do everything 'right' and also to unexpectedly succeed now and then.
Last edited: 23 March 2017 09:41:48
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
On the coast I go for end of May/beginning of June same as Fairy who is higher up. Even at that, we did have a heavy frost in June one year which blackened a lot of new shrub growth.
my banana is still fleeced in a frost free greenhouse. i aim to take the fleece off this week. It wil then be mollycoddled inside until early June. I reckon that tender stuff needs some protection until the last week in May here on the Notts/Derbys border.
Last frost here was July 7th a few years back. We reckon, on the East Wales/ West Midlands border that the last frost is usually end of May (if we are lucky).
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You get to know your own area. We can have frosts at any time through March and April (we had snow on Tuesday followed by a frost yesterday) but it's cold wet ground that prevents planting out here, more than frosts.
End of May/beginning of June is the usual rule, but it depends on your height above sea level, and the nature of your own plot as much as anything. A rural, windy, open site will never be as warm as a sheltered town garden, no matter what part of the country you're in.
It also depends what plants you grow. Some are tougher than the books, and experts, state. I wouldn't be putting a banana out any time soon though!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If I could accurately predict the last frost,I'd be down the bookies.
my banana is still fleeced in a frost free greenhouse. i aim to take the fleece off this week. It wil then be mollycoddled inside until early June. I reckon that tender stuff needs some protection until the last week in May here on the Notts/Derbys border.
I don't plant tender stuff out until the end of May/early June here in Norfolk. In this garden that includes runner beans, courgettes, sweet corn, ipoemea and any summer bedding.
Tomatoes and chillies go out even later as they need warmer temps in order to continue growing strongly.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
my banana is in the polytunnel and has put out a new leaf, with another one coming through. Way too early to stick it outside even down here in mild Devon.
quite true, although it being so windy, it's also less prone to ground frost
I think the 'last frost' data on the website is air frost, i.e. the temperature measured by a thermometer is below zero degrees. The frost gardeners worry about is ground frost, or 'grass frost' and that can still happen when the air temp is up at 4 or 5 degrees, depending on many factors including both weather related (how quickly the air temp is changing) and your ground - if you're in a valley or on the side of a hill, or near a river or close to the sea - and also if the soil is sandy or clay, dry or wet - all sorts of variables.
I'd go with Pansyface's advice and ask someone who's been gardening in your area for some years. Bearing in mind that it is in the nature of gardening to work with uncertainty, to sometimes fail when you do everything 'right' and also to unexpectedly succeed now and then.
Last edited: 23 March 2017 09:41:48
On the coast I go for end of May/beginning of June same as Fairy who is higher up. Even at that, we did have a heavy frost in June one year which blackened a lot of new shrub growth.
Thanks for all the feedback, the Garden Focused site reckons last week of April, should I keep my banana plant wrapped for that long?
This site recommends unwrapping at start of March...
https://www.urbanjungle.uk.com/musabasjoofaq.asp
Does anyone else have Musa Basjoo planted outdoors and when do / would you unwrap?
I was hoping to unwrap this weekend and thought I'd been over cautious by leaving it this long but now I'm not so sure...
SEE WHAT FIDGET WROTE..
DO YOU LIVE IN A CITY CENTRE?
UNLESS YOU DO, THE WEBSITE IS WAY OFF, AS HAS BEEN SAID.
Last edited: 23 March 2017 20:19:51
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
Last frost here was July 7th a few years back. We reckon, on the East Wales/ West Midlands border that the last frost is usually end of May (if we are lucky).