Sacha wrote:

Are you expecting frost in your area?

265m above sea-level here in Shropshire Hills. Frosts are a certainty
over the winter. (Ice on the roads etc.)

Are the things you're proposing to
buy grown 'hard', i.e. outdoors, or are they grown under cover or in
greenhouses/tunnels? And by under cover I mean, even so much as a
pergola-type arrangement.

Some things at the nursery are outdoors and some things, though quite
developed, are in polytunnels.

If they're grown 'hard' and are of a reasonable
size and if your ground is still quite warm, they should be fine.

The ground I'm planting is drainfield close to the septic tank, so
there's a degree of underground warmth and moisture beneath the ground
at all times. So it sounds like this might be OK for plants grown
"hard" at the nursery.

But
personally, I wouldn't plant things that have been protected, given that the
forecast isn't exactly balmy. They won't get away any faster if the ground
is cold so you might as well wait until spring as it warms up.

Right. Thanks for this. I have been thinking that if I put them in now
they'll be bigger by the end of next summer, than if I put them in in
Spring, but you're suggesting that won't be the case - in which case I
just need to adapt to the idea of a rather bereft-looking garden over
the coming winter!

Regards,
Eddy.