hi folks the temp dropped northwest uk 5c or 6c already at night and the day temp no sun
the hot house getting no sun at the moment and no humidity at all, put tub temp higher
so far i now got a total 44 plants in my dining/lounge and spare bedroom windowsill full,so is the porch and kitchen windowsill/landing and no space
i gone out and got stacking boxes they pack flat least i can use them yearly
im going to pack them up today, they will go on kitchen veranda next to the banana tree till end october have to move them in house
anyone else got cold weather problems this early?
good news some strep are at last showing buds get the flower photos as soon as they open for you

We usually go well into October before worrying about frost (yikes, eleven days to October!) but I will be taking a few plants in soon to work.

Here in Florida we're still having night temperatures of 77ºF (25ºC) so thankfully nothing has to be moved inside and I'm hoping winter will be mild enough that I don't have to worry about trying to find space inside the house for more plants!

I do wish the daytime temps would cool off a bit; we're still hanging around 90ºF (32.2ºC) during the day, very hot and humid!

Here in South Texas, I'm luckily not having to worry about any of that yet. Pretty much the same as Lin currently. Night time lows around 78 and daytime highs around 92 every day.

I heard recently that all of the U.S. will have a warmer than average autumn ... and here I was waiting patiently for cooler weather!

I am perfectly fine with that. I hate the cold. I love when we have abnormally warm winters.

@rosieann99,
I am so sorry you are being pushed to close up summer so early. Is this earlier than normal? Maybe it is just a short cool down and things will heat back up. When we get a early cool off and I know it is not going to last I cover my plants with sheets at night and remove in the morning.

I am all for a warmer than usual winter but I want 60s for Fall and please give me a white Christmas. The next day I want 60s temp again. A girl can dream.

hi everyone been busy most of the day got them into boxes, still in the veranda, they are all 1st year plants they mostly begonia canes,rexs and coleus
dont know what temp they can go down to. We dont normally have very cold winters but 5 years ago it went down to -8c here and thick snow and ice for weeks and scotland -17c but that extreme I hope! the rest of the garden is open just the hot house area closed up, all my indoor humidy plants.
i have a cottage garden good hardy plants and shrubs
you have really high temperature in your zones, it must be lovely, the cold and damp not good for my arthritis , i love gardening so i get out there and look after my plants daily. In winter when the garden is closed up i do lots of knitting
at the moment japanese anemone are lovely (they come from next door garden crept under the fence )
ive got red and yellow dahlias and birds are back to feed, saw some goldfinches today on the feeder cat nearly got the squirrel from the wood (only nearly ) anybody got too many squirrels

I have to many squirrels, groundhogs, deer, you name it I have to many of them. I plant and pray every day that they will be there in the next day. I spray, sprinkle, cover and everything imaginable to garden.

Coleus are the most tender of all that you have named. They cannot take anything lower than 10c and that has to only be for a few hours at night.

hi you sound as if you got alot of work keeping animals out of your garden, it must be nice to see them at first but not after a while
we live by a wood and half a mile from dockland we do get rats sometimes last year they on the bird table :grumbling:
have you got any photos of the animals in your gardens would nice to see what you are up against
there very little wildlife in uk towns except the odd fox, mostly birds and squirrels who dig up my bulbs normally yellow crocus favorite on the menu

Squirrels are so cute, NOT. Little varmits eat every bulb I ever planted. Deer, a bear, coyotes and cougars, and a bald eagle on the roof, chased off by the crows I feed every winter. What a sight that was. And something new. Not sure if it is a dove or pigeon, I just know it talks in tha co cooo, non stop right near our bedroom window. Hope our winter is mild and the rains only come after the whole world is fast asleep.

hi what a sight to see are you not frighten by all these animals gosh i would be. Do you get lots of snow and ice we used to but not any more weather patterns have changed every, global warming. Its been 25c this summer we never go over 20c Things are different now autumn is rain damp and cold and floodsaround uk getting worse yearly
daffs out in january, flowers out in march that should be out in may.
i seriously wonder what the weather people are not telling us
squirrels got into our attic a few years ago ripped up everything all important papers etc
brian put mesh on all the eaves under the roof keep them out and its worked :thumbsup:
we have problems at the caravan as well its on a farm site in north wales we not far from a barn, get rats, mice and shrews all the time.
brian had to mesh under the floor and back of every vent. Didnt fancy waking up to that lot in the caravan !!
bye for now janet

You never go over 20C? What is that like?
I'll trade you a Texas summer of 37C to 42C, Janet.

hi james winter is 0c to 6c if we are lucky, summer 17c to 20c and couple of days 25c
if you go to end of cornwall its 5c warmer so nice
i think you would be to cold here it can rain for 4 months in winter, cold bitter winds from the sea front and get waves coming over the sea wall, i live by the sea but there no harbour just a wall looking on to irish sea and see liverpool
if you look down the river mersey
we do get sea fogs but hardly any snow, you never take off your jacket even in summer unless its real good day with no wind
i very much doubt i could take 42c been to france had holiday 36c that was hot enough!

Janet, it sounds like you have issues with different critters in some areas of the UK too. We have lots of animals here, some that can cause damage to our gardens and our homes if they gain access. Florida is a haven for all sorts of animals.

We have lots of Squirrels that raid our bird feeders. One year they were even stealing the sunflower heads from my plants and carrying them up onto a tree branch to eat the seeds. We've been fortunate that Squirrels have never gained access to our attic but a neighbor once had a lot of damage when they chewed through the eaves and got into her attic.



Folks who live near the water here in Florida, often see Alligators and have to be very careful if they have small children and pets! This Alligator decided to go into a neighbors yard one day and a trapper had to be called ... the gator took off back into the water but the trapper caught it.


We have lots of little lizards where I live too and I like having them around because they eat bugs! Very large Iguanas and other lizards are found in the southern part of Florida but I hope they don't end up moving farther north in the state!



We have frogs and toads around too ... not usually a problem but we now have the invasive Cuban Tree Frog that is said to eat anything it can fit into it's mouth and it's eating all of our little native tree frogs:


We have lots of Raccoons who are nocturnal critters and they are opportunists ... if any seed remains in the feeders they will clean them out ... they are known to destroy feeders to get to the seed. This first photo is a raccoon in a pine tree in my yard and the second was a young one beneath a feeder at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge office. Cute critters but a nuisance sometimes:


We have many different types of turtles here too and thankfully they don't do damage to the garden. Some turtles are found in the water while others are strictly land tortoises. The Gopher Tortoise is a threatened species here and laws forbid human contact with them or their burrows but we humans do stop our vehicles in the road to help them get to the other side. These first two photos are of small Gopher tortoises in my yard and my sisters yard and the last one is a Florida Box Turtle in my backyard. I'd read that they like bananas so I went and got it a banana to eat.


The Armadillo is one many in the southern part of the U.S. knows of. They eat grubs and worms beneath the soil and they can really do some damage digging up your lawn! We have a young couple whose property backs up to ours and they have Armadillos living beneath their porch. We don't use chemicals on our lawn because we have dogs that like to eat the grass so we do have the occasional visit from an Armadillo:


Eeek, we have lots of Snakes too, both venomous and non-venomous. I do not like snakes at all, they really scare me but I know they are all a part of nature. This is a non-venomous Black Racer Snake and a non-venemous Banded Water Snake:


Thank goodness I've never had Wild Pigs on my property but many people in the southern part of the U.S. (and possibly other areas too) have these things around and they really can destroy a garden as they root for grubs and whatever else it is they eat. This photo was taken a few years ago at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge:

hi my son looked at your fantastic photos he said you got your own zoo
you must need to be watching all the time, lily beetle our biggest problem makes me feel silly complaining, mind you we got the rats mice and foxes once had a adder go past my sandels, and no socks, on that gave me a fright i can tell you that was in devon in a field on our holidays
cant believe the photos how do you cope in the garden
the alligator in your neighbour garden good gracious what do you grow in your garden how hot is it in winter
the rain really bad tonight batters the plants
i live on a sandstone plateau on top of a hill not troubled by flooding, but the houses walls crack, area of possible subsidance for letting me share your photos janet
ps bad news to today my son just been told he's a diabetic going to change his life as he loves diving