Frosts - have they finished?

[workhorse]

When can we expect frosts to stop. I have things in the greenhouse that I need to plant out. Things like Cosmos and Sunflowers amongst others.

[gardenplot]

First and last frost dates for towns and cities in the UK and USA

Mine is Mid-May

[Seahorse]

I should think you'll be *almost* safe in Essex by now.

This site gives 'late April' as last frost for your area:

Gardening and weather - first and last frost dates in the UK, Australia and USA

edit - gardenplot can type faster than me

[workhorse]

Thank you Gardenplot and Seahorse. It looks like to great minds with a single thought.

As it says on the box - late April, but how do they know. Is it all to do with the suns position in the sky?

[Snadger]

When can we expect frosts to stop. I have things in the greenhouse that I need to plant out. Things like Cosmos and Sunflowers amongst others.

Cosmos and Sunflowers are both HARDY annuals and as long as they are hardened off properly there shouldn't be a problem!

[Cutecumber]

Workhorse - last frost dates are based on averages and are only a guide. There are no guarantees. You need to check the weather forecast daily if you have tender plants that might needing moving or covering.

[Norm]

Up here in't frozen north, we had a frost last night. Good job nowt's planted out!

[wellie]

Whilst I'm a great believer in the fact that the weather can change 'at the drop of a tart's drawers' or 'with the wind', if your crops are planted outside your back door, you have a ruddy good chance of protecting them at a moment's notice if you happen to see that a frost is suddenly forecast on your local news at 6pm or later, of an evening, when you hadn't previously known that. If your allotment is half an hour's drive away or more, you're least likely to want to change out of your PJ's and put your teddy down, drive to The Lottie, sling fleece over everything and then drive home again. In my humble opinion.

Last year, given that my vegetables are grown outside our back door, I got away with Blue Bloody Murder, whilst my elderly neighbour (86ish), who also grows outside HIS back door, and believes that there IS still going to be a frost in the first week of June (and yes - there CAN be, so that's dead confusing all newbies now....) so he didn't plant any of his stuff out till early to mid June, and wondered why his crops didn't do that well...because they'd all come on so well in their modules/pots, that by the time he finally put them outside, they were all pot-bound (ie. all their roots were so congested in the bottom of the pots, and the plants were so starved of nutrients, that they all struggled to get going again in the open ground later), but it's all about good old Common Sense to me.

If you've protected the soil with a cloche/mulch early enough, and can maintain that warmth (even with a frost) you're safe to plant your seed/seedlings out.
If you're not able to do that, then it's better not to plant out until the weather is more locally predictable, but be kind to your seedlings in modules and pots by liquid feeding them until you CAN plant them out, as most multipurpose composts only have four weeks' worth of nutrients in them.
I hope this helps a little.

[Storm]

the ever mild winters mean that in my very sheltered garden, even some annuals carry on through the winter now and carry on growing again in summer! my marigolds simply refuse to die!!

[JennieAtkinson]

Wellies made a good point about plants getting potbound so when you do put them out they just don't get on well.

As I can't put anything out until at least the first week of June (as much for the cold winds as the potential for frost), I have to adjust my sowing times accordingly, or use root trainers to give a couple of extra weeks, or just plant things on in ever bigger pots.

[JennieAtkinson]

First and last frost dates for towns and cities in the UK and USA

Mine is Mid-May

I see none of the Scottish Islands (ie Shetland Orkney or Western Isles) are included!