"Sacha" wrote in message
On 2010-08-27 09:14:55 +0100, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given said:
"Sacha" wrote in message
On 2010-08-26 14:31:50 +0100, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given said:
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
Avocado can grow in frosty areas but they need good frost protection
when
young. They grow in to quite large trees eventually so need space so
sacrifical trees as protection is worth thinking about. The following
cite may help. It is about one of Australia's gardening experts (but
of
the alternative variety so what she tries, and can manage to grow,
often
goes against conventional wisdom). She lives in an area where it can
get
down to -9C at worst but would regularly get to -4C:
http://www.jackiefrench.com/groves.html
Here is a series of pics of the garden of the author I mentioned above
with
a pic of an avocado with fruit. I do know that the area she lives in
gets
as cold as she claims it does.
http://www.jackiefrench.com/garden.html
In Australia? This is UK.rec.gardening!
Plants don't know the difference between the UK and a cold climate area
of
Oz. There are many plants that grow in the UK that I can't grow because
it's too cold here.
And there are many plants that we can grow here from Oz and NZ which won't
grow 3 miles away. That doesn't mean an Avocado tree *will* survive
outdoors in UK but it *might* for ever or for 2 years and then get knocked
down by a bad winter. Our problem this winter was not just cold but
*prolonged* cold. Many things will take a brief period of frost but not
several days. Cornwall, one of the very mildest areas of UK normally,
has had two bad winters in succession both in terms of temps and the
length of time those low temps hung around. IIRC some areas went to -11C.
Only yesterday someone asked my husband if a plant would come through the
winter and he said "only if you can tell me what this winter will be
like"!
So how different to your climate is Exeter's?
In Cornwall last year it went
to -11C in some areas and that's the balmy south west. ;-( We can grow
stuff here that will take down to -5C but not for prolonged periods of
icy
days *and* nights.
Yes and you were complaining about the weather because it was worse than
normal. The max and min winter temps in Exeter are about the same as
where
that Author lives if Wikipedia can be relied upon.
Exeter is probably warmer than here, being a city. We're a few miles only
from Dartmoor but rarely get the snow or ice they can get there.
England's climate is just too unpredictable and too varied over small
distances to be absolutely sure of anything with regard to winter or
summer weather. I just talked to someone in Chepstow, two hours drive
from here, who is chasing wasps away while we have a pale grey and boring
cloud cover. About two weeks ago temperatures varied by about 10 degrees
C within two days.
Well recalling the time we drove from Kings Cross station to Betwys-y-Coed
and it took 4 hours, 2 hours from you would halfway across the country.
It'd take me 2 days to get halfway across the country. You can just imagine
what it's like here in Oz. We look at the chart of what's happening in the
Tropics and wonder what the heack we're doing living where it's 6 months of
winter, hard frost for most of that time and where there has been snow on
Christmas day when it should be stinking hot.
Anyway I still think it's worth a try to grow it outside. It certainly
isn't going to do anything in a conservatory except take up space.