Hardening off, and the frost that wasn't forecast
Every year someone at the gate says the same thing: nothing tender goes out before the middle of May. Every year I think I know better. This year I nearly did.
The courgettes, squash and two trays of French beans had been going out to the cold frame in the morning and back into the porch at night for three weeks. Last Wednesday the forecast said seven degrees overnight, so I left them out. At six the next morning the car windscreen was white.
What survived
Everything in the cold frame with the lid down was fine. The beans I'd moved to the open bench to make room lost their top leaves; about half of them have since pushed out new growth from the base. The squash didn't notice at all, which says more about squash than about me.
The fleece is now folded in the shed where I can find it, not in the loft. The lesson isn't really about the date. A clear sky and no wind on a May night will beat a forecast every time.
Everything tender is now waiting in the porch until the weekend of the 24th, and I'm not arguing with the man at the gate any more.