The Vagaries of the scottish weather

Weather wise here in our upland piece of central Scotland we know we aren't out of the bad weather woods until mid May onwards. We have had snow in May and foot deep snow in April before. The last two to three week's weather has been exceptionally warm and sunny for this time of year here. See here and here and it was glorious while it lasted, we're not complaining, BBQ's, trips to the beach, paddling, eating out on the patio, it was great. Now in a few days the temperature has dropped by at least 10C and back to minus temps at night. I thought I was done with the greenhouse heater for this year, but it has been back on the past few nights. 

Today, not only is it cold, we've had snow, wind, hail, rain, sleet and sun.

A bleak outlook over the back garden

Snow covered Daffodils

The birds were hanging onto the peanuts in the gusts of wind

Pulsatilla vulgaris

View from the greenhouse this morning

Of course it is inconvenient from a gardening point of view as I can't get anything done outside, and won't this week as the forecast is to stay wet and cold. But it is damaging too, as you can see from the photos of the bean seedlings below. They are now has beans! They were hardening off in the unheated greenhouse after being potted up at the weekend. I knew it would be cold the last couple of nights but didn't anticipate it being cold enough to do that much damage. I moved them into the heated greenhouse yesterday, but for some that is too late. Fortunately I have another batch of a different runner bean coming  on in the heated greenhouse, so all is not lost. But it is frustrating to lose plants you've nurtured and look forward to planting out and picking a harvest from.

Frosted dwarf beans

Frosted runner beans

How the beans looked at the weekend

Of course late winter weather damage isn't confined to tender plants in the greenhouse. Blossom, be it ornamental or on fruit trees can be frosted resulting in no fruit for that year, young growing tips n plants can be killed off, slowing the plant down for the season or year if it is a slow grower. I haven't seen any major damage on the out door plants here, so fingers crossed the beans are the only casualty. Looking at the five day forecast the temperatures are to stay low during the day and night, and the rain / sleet is to continue. So we will sit tight, and do the waiting game again until the temperature is on the rise again. It's back to catching up on indoor chores, photo editing and preparing for my first course this weekend. While I write this the sun has been out, shining in the study window, but I see a big bank of dark heavy cloud making its way towards us from the south west.........