Mother nature tricked me - frost!❄

Good morning. Its a beautiful morning up here in the North East of England.

I checked my weather app before bed last night and it said lows of 1, so I went to bed. Woke up this morning to a covering of frost!

I know the strawberry and blueberry plants are hardy enough, but I have pots, carrots, beets and spring onion in containers on my patio. Will they be ruined? Currently they basking in the glorious morning sunshine - I am blessed with a south facing rear garden.

I am a newbie in the garden - so please help.

 

Nothing has 'poked' through the compost. Everything still covered - so I should be ok?

 

Should be, I'm much further south and near the coast but we always expect some frost until about the middle of May.

 

In Scotland frost is always expected unfortunately. I have carrots, beetroot, broccoli and spinach which have been outside through all sorts of weather even snow. May have lost some but I always grow more than I need for the weather and/or birds, slugs, snails .... Let us no what has survived

 

I'm a bit of a weather-watcher (hubby says addict!) so a thought....
Your forecast was for above 0c, but you had a frost. Make a note! Look around for a weather station near you that also recorded a frost for last night (wunderground uses lots of private weather reports, so should be a few within your area). It may be that you are in a little frost pocket, so the regional forecast is not accurate for you.
For example, there is a private weather station reporting to wunderground with 1km of my home, but it is in the middle of terraced housing. We are exposed, on the side of a hill, and no housing nearby, another private weather station 3km away, but with similar exposure, gives me better figures -ie nearer to what we get here. The local "forecast" is based on an official weather station 7km nearer to Brussels. I know that 2c there = 0c or -1c here.
Hope that helps you be ready for the next time!

 

You should be ok, potatoes and beets seem pretty hardy.

 

I've had -3 (might have been -4) deg C in the first week of June that killed everything to 2 plants in inside coldframes with blankets over the lights.

I don't plant anything outside before June unless I'm prepared to lose it or keep running to and fro covering up, removing covers in the morning, drying out covers when it's rained on them.

But it all depends on your location. My frost pocket edge of village plot is always several degrees below temps in the nearby town, and it always seems colder in the middle of the country.

 

You can get frost on the ground with temps of +3C.
Its called a ground frost,

But it often still happens on things above ground level.
A bit like when the car windscreen is frozen but the side windows are wet.
Seems to occur more on horizontal surfaces like shed roofs etc., than vertical ones.