What on earth happened to Spring???

[Kaiya]

What's that saying about not sowing/planting things until you can sit on the soil with your bare bottom?

[marcofez]

Weather!!!
Just keep checking whats going on in your part of the world and long range forecasts and act accordingly. Some years you'll get started early and others later!

[StaryD]

Vixen, I would wait till the snow is gone and then place cloches or black plastic on the ground to help the soil warm up so you can plant out earlier than having to wait until the soil warms up on its own.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I am just thankful I live here in Nottm. I have just spoken with the B in L who lives in Buxton Derby's and they are completely cut off, expecting they may be able to travel tomorrow.

Potty

[NettyUK]

Just tried that. Not a good idea... Froze to the soil

[BUFFS]

i am going to wait for the snow to warm up before i put me tatties out....bbbrrrrrrrrr...nuff said

[Zenithtb]

Dunno what everyone's on about - tomatoes have been in the ground outside for weeks.... *Shuffles off*

[Likac66]

Afraid that snow in March and April is not uncommon.
These nice brisk easterly winds occur every year at this time, they tend to cause snow as well every year.

Don't know where you are, but 2 days of perpetual snowfall and 8inches laying on my back lawn in Derby is pretty damned uncommon for the end of March. Snow flurries I'll give you, but not inches of it. I had to be pushed all the way up my drive in the car today - something that I have NEVER had to do, not just this winter, but any winter we have lived here. (17yrs) The snow we have had in the last 24 hours is some of the heaviest I have seen here.

I think the OP was asking some fairly innocent questions in a lighthearted way and your response seemed a little harsh to me.

[Feral007]

Yes, the Jackie French method of telling if the ground is warm enough to plant your tomatoes is if you can sit on the ground without your Reg Grundies. Of course, I take that advice with a grain of salt, since I put more clothes on as the weather warms up, here in snake country.

I like her sense of humour on things. Vixen I don't know what your weather is like (except cold) but a lot of packets seem to have little relevance to the areas here. Even Cold Climate advice doesn't cover us. And that term 'After the last frost' Oh for goodness sakes - how do you tell which one is the last one? We've been known to have a frost and even a flurry of snow in midsummer just because it feels like it. And baking heat the next day.
I don't even think saying 'Use your common sense" helps, there doesn't seem to be anything sensible about the weather either.

So I'm no help! Nothing new there

[SarzWix]

We live on a little island in the NORTH Atlantic, we do not get meditterean weather, we never have and never will. Moscow is at 55 degrees North, Newcastle is at 55 degrees North. On that basis what we have is very mild.

[drunkgardener]

I guess we are going back to late starting springs. we just got used to warm and early spring cycle.

[ancee]

Vixen it's ok - you can blame me! I'll take ALL the blame In a moment of madness two weeks ago, I put away all of my winter woollies and filled my wardrobe with Summer clothes! ..... We have a foot of snow this morning, have not been able to leave the estate for two days for black ice, driving to work tomorrow willl be awful. Looking out I'm wondering... is it too early too start my christmas shopping.....?????

[PyreneesPlot]

Well its spring here. How do I know? We had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon - in 30 minutes the temperature dropped from 20 to 6, we had 40mm of rain/hail and the rivers quadrupled in depth and flash flooded. It was quite frightening.

We've just spent the morning collecting our drive from the road (we are on a steep slope) and putting it back in the great holes made by the torrenting water. Its 20 degrees again today...

Oh, and its due to snow later in the week.

[Feral007]

LOL PP - sounds like our drive. I need to go down and get some of it and put it back into the canyons starting at this end. And we haven't even had much rain yet!
Good luck on getting spring happening.

[Vixen218]

Likac66 where in Derbyshire are you... We are in Sudbury.

We currently have 3" of snow and ice underneath that arhhhh...
I am lucky as I only work on the road next along tomorrow but my father in law has to go to brum and back on Tuesday so that we can work on tue, wed and early thurs...

Am really not happy at the moment as my only greenhouse, a plastic walk in one, has collapsed under the weight of the snow and I can't afford another one let alone a proper one... Will have to germinate in the utility and goodness knows what I am going to do about all the plants I had planned to go in the greenhouse

Might try the black plastic approach to warm the ground up though xxxx