Thanks, I had my suspicions that it was a particularily hard winter. The
lady opposite said as much apparently we got our frosts early. I have only
been here a 14 months, from Croydon. Not sure when the frosts start and end
here.

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 8/6/06 17:44, in article , "doobydoobydo"
wrote:

I know I am getting in early here as summer has just started
but..........

I have pots in the garden some being plastic. They contain a mix of
geranium/pelagonium, nemesia amelie (beautiful plant specially againt the
silver leafed dianthus and red pelagonium/geranium) ,verbena,
dianthus/carnation, lilys, osteospermums, lithodora (heavenly blue),
marguerites, ganzia's.

I know you are lucky if pelagonium survive the winter (one of mine did
from
six) and one osterpermum survived from four, nemesia, survived fine as
did
the Lilys. Verbena died, ganzia's died, the rest of the above plant I
have
are new this year.

I have a path next to the house I can keep them on, a dark garage or a
shady
wendy house or sorry summer house. There are 23 of them so quite a few
to
protect.

I don't really know what cloches and poly tunnels are used for. I live
on
the south coast, Felpham, about 150 yards from the sea. I hope thats all
you need to know to possibly answer my question, which is, if you haven't
already gathered from the subject, 'How do I protect these from frost.'


Living so close to the sea must give you quite a degree of protection. I
think last winter was exceptionally hard for lots of peoples' gardens.
But
buy some horticultural fleece and gather your plants together, and cover
them with the fleece, pinning it down at the corners with stones. Don't
give them any water that isn't provided by nature and if you can, raise
them
up a bit on bricks or something so that they drain in winter.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(email address on website)