[slow_worm]

Just put my sweetcorn in...am I mad?  The plant were outgrowing the pots...so am praying it wont drop too cool where we are - its mild but clear tonight...and forecast is for more sun and warm temperatures

[peapod]

Sorry Slow worm

Im impatient too (just direct sown my French beans), and have only just sown my SC...far too early for me! Sow some for standybys and hopefully you will have the best of both worlds if you have room 

[muntjac]

get a few plastic pop bottles and cut the top off close as you can . slip them over your plants ,support with a few small canes till all danger has passed ,,, "werks for me"

[peapod]

Munty...lovely to see you and Aggy lately 

[Kleftiwallah]

Mine's been in a few days.   Cold weather.  .  .  let the beggers suffer !      Cheers,   Tony.

[Wombat18]

I lost all mine in the May frost last year, so I am a bit more cautious this year.  They have a bit of growing to do in the cold frame, so I'll give them at least a couple more weeks.

[slow_worm]

I quickly erected a makeshift cover with canes hoops and some enviromesh I had in the shed - mainly to stop the cats walking on them - will this give any cold protection do you think?  I may try and protect with the bottles Munty as u suggest when I am down again later in the week.  Our last frosts here are usually end April - but after being caught in Snow in April 2008...who knows what might happen

[Yorkie]

Environmesh won't provide any real protection.  You could try fleece but that's not a guarantee.  Even if it doesn't get frosty, low temperatures will cause them to sulk.

[slow_worm]

We've got minimums of 12 deg C over nxt few days...so not below 10 deg C, so they should be OK.  No Cold North Easterlies please and no hail!!

[Kristen]

May 12th last year, near Rowlands Castle, -1.6C

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=I90580690&day=12&year=2010&month=5&graphspan=day

You would have got away with it the previous couple of years, but 29th May 2007 would have caught you out.

Fingers crossed!

[Rangerkris]

May 12th last year, near Rowlands Castle, -1.6C

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=I90580690&day=12&year=2010&month=5&graphspan=day

You would have got away with it the previous couple of years, but 29th May 2007 would have caught you out.

Fingers crossed!

To be honest that would have caught lots and lots and lot of people out.

[Kristen]

Easy to get cvarried away in a mild Spring The Cherry blossom (and other Spring blossom) has been like I can never remember it this year.

But my advice is to do some-and-some. I'm feeling a bit of a twit for not planting some things early this year ...

Maybe 2-in-3 years you will get away with it, and if so its worth a punt, so long as you have backups. I tend not to plant out anything until 1st June, which is the opposite extreme.

This year I planted 10 of the fastest maturing First Early spuds a fortnight earlier than the rest. I doubt we can eat 10 plant's worth of harvest in a fortnight, so hopefully I've got the balance right. I put 10 Pink Fir Apple in too, because they are rarely ready before the end of August and I like to have some for Bar-B-Q lunches. But perhaps I should do a batch of early Courgettes, Runners, Sweetcorn etc early.

I also think growing one or two Tomatoes for the greenhouse in January, and putting them under lights if need be, would be worth doing too. I grow 15 greenhouse tomato plants in total, and I could never house them indoors if started early, but just a couple would be fine, and even if they were leggy the others would be there to carry the main crop.

My Winter Squash take all Summer to make any fruit, which I then store for the winter, so I don't see any gain starting them early.

But I ain't going to start the whole lot early, as I have done in previous years, and then spent hours and hours trying to keep the frost off them faffing about with fleece, grass clippings and all sorts, to only have stalled plants that then sulked and took ages to get going again ...

But maybe I'm just too cautious

[JayG]

Trouble is that up until the last 2 years we had got used to mild winters and also last frost dates (and first frost dates) which "stuck to the plan", which together made us believe we could easily over-winter plants of borderline hardiness and plan our tender crop sowing and planting out with quite a high degree of confidence.

The confidence has evaporated with the last two relatively severe winters and last year's very late frost (well, mine has anyway!) but what hasn't changed is that our main growing season for tender crops is really only 4 months in most of the UK.

I agree with Kristen; if you know what you're doing it's a good idea to try and "pinch a bit" on timings but the bigger the gamble you take the more important it is you have a "plan B", and you have to remember that with cold conditions "what doesn't actually kill your plants will quite likely make them sulk" so you end up gaining little or nothing from the risks you took.

[simonwatson]

Like others, I lost all my sweetcorn in May last year. I didn't have backups but managed to grow some in containers in the greenhouse, but that was it. I know better this time and am not going to be fooled by this currently mild spring.

[slow_worm]

I will start a few more off as standby plants seems the current opinion... can always pass them onto someone if I don't need them... will be keeping an eye on the min temps at night - will let you know how I go.  If you see Minus temps on the weather maps in the next few weeks over Hampshire and IOW please shout in case I missed them!