When can I plant my greenhouse plants outside?

That very much depends what sort of plants they are and weher you live. This year (2011) has seen a very early spring and summer with temperatures well above the annual average. But there still remains the risk of a late frost. If you want to plant out tender plants now you are taking a risk, especially if you are in the cooler climes of Northern England and Scotland.

However plants can only be contained in the greenhouse for so long and if they are starting to become pot bound or stressed by the warmer greenhouse conditions you need to look at your options objectively. For seed raised tender plants that are strong and healthy it is probably worth the risk, espceillay if you have other seed batches of the same plant sown and ready to follow on. Take runner beans for example, they grow so rampantly when the conditions are right that you can’t really hold them back, as long as you have a back up crop and are prepared for a crop failure if there’s a frost, it is woth it. If hoever you have spent a lot of money buying plants then you need to weigh up your losses in case of failure. Of course if there isn’t a frost you will be enjoying fresh beans weeks before your risk shy contemporaries.

Remember that even if a fresot threatens you can still protect plants from an unexpected cold snap with fleece.

For larger plants in containers, hanging baskets and specimen plants, these can be moved in and out of the greenhouse depending on the weather. Bringing them on in the greenhouse can put them weeks ahead of those grown outside and if a late frost threatens then simply move them back into the protected greenhouse environment. But you can also cover them over with fleece if a frost threatens. Hanging baskets can be protected from cool temperatures or a light frst by tying one or two carrier bags over them.

Watching the werather is a gardeernes obsession but for good reason, to get the best out of our plants, gardens and greenhouses we need to be weater savvy and ready for anything. Watch the long term forecast, learn to read the weather and take the odd risk here and there, sometimes it pays off and sometimes you lose out, but overall it always works out in the end. Don’t forget too that there is a lot to be said for sowing some crops and plants late as well as early. Plants sown during May will be ready to plant out after 4-6 weeks which in most UK areas will be well after the last frost and many sown in June will keep on cropping and flowering well into autumn and sometimes until the first frosts of winter. Push the boundaries a bit, it works some years and is often worth experimenting, just to see what your garden and greenhouse plants can tolerate.

To know more about growing plants in your greenhouses visit http://www.growhouse-greenhouses.co.uk/greenhouses.php