I am fairly high up in Lancashire and we sometimes get a prolonged frosty spell. When that happens i do put ready made fleece plant bags over certain pots. A Castor Oil plant is a good example of a plant that will survive prolonged frosts if planted in the ground but i have three of them in pots and lost one a few years back when it was something like -10dg for a week or so every night. So i watch the forecast and cover them up if necessary. I have a couple of new Salvias in pots this year and will probably cover them given the same conditions. I have found that It helps considerably if you place pots next to a house wall, and also in a group next to each other in Winter.
I do hope that we will get a normal winter. We used to live in Maidenhead for 9 years and the winter 2009/2010 was harsh for English conditions (no snow plough?) and everything was covered with 5 cm ice from the melting snow over the day and freezing cold during the night.
But it’s very relieving that you don’t do much despite a little bit cover eventually. I was surprised too what had survived in May.
One thing is sure: hard frost and snow cover for a fortnight and no slugs and snails in the same year 😀 Even I have to say that since Arit’s GW report about slugs and snails I leave them doing and I have not one single rotten leave. They literally eat all the stuff.
Thanks a lot for encouraging comments. I love that saying about November cold and the rest is mug and mud. Didn’t know that 👍
Frost , ice and snow doesn't deter the slugs and snails here unfortunately!
2009/2010 was quite a severe winter here. Central belt had several feet of snow, for the first time since about the mid 80s. We're used to seeing snow ploughs out, but we don't get as much snow now as we used to get. Slightly more extreme further north though Even in what I would call a mild winter, we would have around 50 or 60 frosts or more.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
That’s too cold for me. I went to England the first time in 2003, March. I left Berlin with minus 8, and landed in the Cotswold with 14 degrees and sunshine. That’s my country,I said and thanks goodness, my company was looking for a German back than in 2007. England saved my life in many ways👍
We had in Wiltshire in February and March a lot of snow and it took the snails and slugs 2 years to recover from that.
It just depends what you're used to @Simone_in_Wiltshire. I don't find sub zero temps much of a problem, especially if it's drier [the wet, cold is far worse] but the heat we've had this year is the killer for me. We're not designed for that!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
1963,minus 20 the sea froze, pictures of me and my late mum in the garden, snow was higher than me.is there any such thing as a "normal' winter.2018, the Beast from the East,we had temperature of minus 12 which my neighbours who had lived here,same bungalow since 1965 had not known in that period
I know @Nanny Beach that winter from programme on telly. I wasn’t born back than, but my mum said that she wasn’t able to get my sister in a pram up the hill to the kindergarten. So much snow.
I see myself shovelling the snow each morning in February 1979. Berlin had morel than 1.5 meters snow walls. Awful. Let’s hope we don’t get that again. I wouldn’t know what do do with all that snow nowadays. We have only a small backyard 10 by 10 meters.
@Fairygirl I have always said, 1/3 of the Brits must come from the Inuits, because they call 17 degrees a heatwave 😀 When I arrived in England in 2007, I was seriously irritated seeing people in February walking around in short trousers and t-shirts and sauna sandals and we had minus 5 and snow in Maidenhead! The temperature in the south are just perfect for me. Not too hot, not too cold.
17 is about perfect for me Many parts of Scotland have far more in common with Scandinavia, than with the more southern parts of the UK. If you look at a map, you can see the similarity in latitude with many areas. The Cairngorms are essentially Arctic tundra
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We really aren't geared to it in this country,bit of snow on the line, trains stop. Roads not gritted. Never stopped me or hubby getting to work. 1986,or 87, I worked at a hospital in a village in Sussex, not a long way from home,about 15 miles,but through windy hilly country lanes. I got to work. The snow had drifted,just enough room for me
I knew a lot of people wouldn't get in,it took me hours. I got onto the ward, the staff clapped,cheered then told me I was mad. People who lived a couple of miles away didn't attempt to walk in. Remember digging my car out of the car park,in my last job. If it was icey or snowy,I came home after the night shift down the A23 instead of the rural roads
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I have found that It helps considerably if you place pots next to a house wall, and also in a group next to each other in Winter.
Even I have to say that since Arit’s GW report about slugs and snails I leave them doing and I have not one single rotten leave. They literally eat all the stuff.
I ♥ my garden.
2009/2010 was quite a severe winter here. Central belt had several feet of snow, for the first time since about the mid 80s. We're used to seeing snow ploughs out, but we don't get as much snow now as we used to get. Slightly more extreme further north though
Even in what I would call a mild winter, we would have around 50 or 60 frosts or more.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I ♥ my garden.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I ♥ my garden.
When I arrived in England in 2007, I was seriously irritated seeing people in February walking around in short trousers and t-shirts and sauna sandals and we had minus 5 and snow in Maidenhead!
The temperature in the south are just perfect for me. Not too hot, not too cold.
I ♥ my garden.
Many parts of Scotland have far more in common with Scandinavia, than with the more southern parts of the UK. If you look at a map, you can see the similarity in latitude with many areas.
The Cairngorms are essentially Arctic tundra
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...