First & Last Frost Date by UK Postcode 2026

The last spring air frost ranges from 10 February on the north Cornish coast to 5 June at Dalwhinnie in the Highlands — and on the Isles of Scilly most years bring no spring frost at all. Enter your postcode below for your own district’s figures, from Met Office HadUK-Grid 5 km gridded observations, 1991–2020.

UK Frost Dates by Region

Every figure below is the median across that region’s postcode districts, calculated from Met Office HadUK-Grid 5 km gridded observations for 1991–2020. The “safe” column is the date by which the last frost had passed in nine years out of ten — that is the one to plan around. Regional medians hide a lot of variation, so use the postcode box above for your own figure.

Want month-by-month planting advice for your area? See our interactive planting calendar, build a per-crop plan with the Sow-Window Planner, see the ready-made frost dates and sowing windows for your city (Bristol, London, Manchester, Glasgow and more), or browse the monthly guides: March, April, May, June, July.

Has the Last Frost Passed in 2026?

All figures come from Met Office HadUK-Grid 5 km gridded observations, 1991–2020, released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. A regional median is not your garden: within a single region the typical last frost can vary by six weeks or more, which is what the postcode box is for. Always check the forecast before planting out tender crops.

When Is the Last Frost in the UK?

So the tomatoes are hardening off on the windowsill and you’re trying to guess when it’s safe to put them out. Here’s the honest UK answer.

By Gary Hodson · 15+ years UK gardening experience · Rates cross-referenced against RHS, Met Office and UK industry standards · Last reviewed 3 August 2026

The last frost date is the single date that decides most of your April and May gardening. Plant tender seedlings out a week too early and one clear night at 0 °C will flatten the lot: courgettes, French beans, dahlias, basil, the entire windowsill propagator in one go. Hold back two weeks too long and you lose the best of the growing season, the tomatoes don’t ripen before autumn, and the runner beans never climb past the top of the canes. Every UK gardener loses at least one batch of seedlings to this in their first three years, because the supermarket bedding plants go on sale in April and the weather on the drive home feels generous.

The calculator at the top of this page takes the guesswork out. Enter your postcode or region and it returns the average last spring frost and the first autumn frost for your area, based on 30-year Met Office climate data. The rest of this guide is the context that makes those two dates trustworthy, particularly around microclimate effects that can shift the real date in your garden by two to three weeks in either direction from the regional average.

How the last frost date is actually calculated

The date the calculator shows isn’t a forecast and it isn’t a guarantee. It is drawn from 30 years of Met Office HadUK-Grid observations — a 5 km national grid interpolated from the Met Office station network — for the grid square your postcode district sits in. The calculator shows you both the typical date and the date by which the frost had passed in nine years out of ten. In the remaining year in ten, a late cold snap can still drop temperatures to 0 °C or below after the “safe” date. 2021 was a classic example. Checking the Met Office grid for that month, air frost hit the Midlands on the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th of May, with the 2nd the hardest — 322 of the 600 5 km cells across the Birmingham–Nottingham–Leicester belt fell to or below 0 °C, bottoming out at −1.7 °C. That is late enough to take out early potato shoots and apple blossom in a part of the country that rarely sees May frost at all.

The practical rule most UK gardeners settle on after a few losses: treat the calculator date as the earliest sensible planting-out date for tender crops, then check the 10-day forecast before you commit. If there’s a cold clear night in the forecast, hold back another week. Tender perennials you’ve kept alive indoors over winter are worth more than two weeks of growing season. Don’t gamble on the average when the forecast tells you the specific week isn’t average.

Microclimate — your garden isn’t the regional average

The date the calculator gives you comes from a 5 km grid square, built by the Met Office from standardised weather stations and interpolated across the country. It describes an average 5 km of countryside. Your garden almost certainly isn’t that. The microclimate of the space you’re actually planting in can shift the real frost date by two or three weeks from the regional figure, and it’s worth knowing which direction yours pushes before you plan the season.

Warmer than regional average: south-facing walled gardens, small urban back gardens surrounded by buildings, anywhere within half a mile of the coast, and suburban pockets sheltered from the prevailing wind. These can see the last frost a fortnight earlier than the postcode figure. Colder than regional average: any garden in a valley or dip where cold air pools overnight (classic “frost pocket” territory: even a five-metre dip in a flat garden makes a measurable difference), gardens above 150 m altitude, north-facing slopes, and rural sites with no built-up shelter. These can run two weeks later than the postcode figure. If you’ve been gardening the same plot for a few seasons, your own record of when frost actually stopped each year is more reliable than any calculator. Write it on the back of the shed door.

Frost protection when you’ve planted early — fleece, cloche, or cold frame

Three tools cover 95 percent of UK frost protection, and they don’t do the same job. Horticultural fleece is the cheapest and most flexible: heavier-grade horticultural fleece gives around 2°C of protection (RHS), which is enough for most late-April frost risks on bedding and veg beds. Drape it loose over the plants, weigh the edges with bricks, and take it off during the day so pollinators can reach flowers. Good for: rows of lettuce, brassicas, bedding, potato shoots pushing through. Not great for: individual tender plants in pots, because the fabric touches the leaves and conducts cold straight to them.

Cloches (individual bell jars, plastic tunnels, or cut-down clear plastic bottles over single plants) give 2 to 4 °C of protection and create a small greenhouse effect during the day. Good for: individual tender transplants (courgettes, squashes, tomato plants in the ground), newly-sown direct seed. Not great for: whole beds (you’d need dozens) or plants that will outgrow the cloche in a week. Cold frames (a glazed box on the ground) are the step up, giving 4 to 6 °C of protection and enough headroom for hardening off seedlings for a fortnight before they go out properly. A cold frame is the single most useful frost-protection tool for anyone raising seedlings from seed, and it earns its shed space fast.

The reverse problem — first autumn frost and last-chance crops

The calculator gives you a second date as well: the first autumn frost. That’s the point at which tender growth outside will be cut down overnight: dahlias blackened, basil collapsed, courgette plants turned to mush. Knowing the date a month ahead is what lets you plan the end of the growing season rather than lose things to it. Four jobs sit on the first-frost date in most UK gardens.

Two to three weeks before first frost: lift tender perennials (dahlias, cannas, begonias) for winter storage, cut basil for pesto rather than losing it to the first cold night, harvest green tomatoes to ripen indoors on a windowsill. The week before first frost: bring containers of tender plants (pelargoniums, fuchsias) under cover. A cold greenhouse or a sheltered porch is enough. Two weeks before first frost is also the hard stop for sowing autumn salads and overwintering onion sets, because after that the ground is too cold for reliable germination, and you’re better off waiting for spring. Match these jobs to your specific first-frost date above, and check our planting calendar or the May planting guide for what to sow and plant through the rest of the season once the late-frost risk has passed.

Understanding Frost Types

Not all frosts are the same. Knowing the difference helps you decide how much protection your plants actually need.

Air frost vs ground frost

An air frost occurs when the air temperature at at least 1 metre above the ground drops below 0°C. A ground frost happens when the soil surface reaches 0°C, even if the air above is warmer. Ground frosts are far more common and can catch gardeners off guard. The BBC Weather may say 2°C, but your seedlings at ground level could still be frosted.

Light frost vs hard frost

A light frost (−1°C to 0°C) will damage tender annuals and soft new growth but won’t harm established hardy plants. A hard frost (below −4°C) can kill even semi-hardy plants and damage overwintering vegetables. The frost dates in our calculator are based on air frost records.

Radiation frost vs advection frost

Radiation frost forms on clear, calm nights when heat radiates away from the ground. These are the classic spring frosts that catch gardeners out. Advection frost is brought by cold air masses moving in from the east or north and can last days. Radiation frosts are predictable (check the evening forecast for clear skies); advection frosts arrive with weather systems.

Frost Pockets & Microclimates

Your garden’s actual frost dates may differ significantly from the regional average. Understanding microclimates is the key to extending your growing season.

What is a frost pocket?

Cold air is heavier than warm air and flows downhill like water. A frost pocket is any low-lying area where cold air collects and can’t drain away: valley floors, dips in the garden, areas blocked by walls or fences. Plants in frost pockets can experience frost 2–4 weeks later in spring and earlier in autumn than plants just metres away on higher ground.

Warm microclimates

A south-facing wall absorbs heat during the day and radiates it at night, creating a warm microclimate that can shift your frost dates by 2–3 weeks. Urban gardens benefit from the heat island effect: inner London rarely freezes before January. Coastal areas are moderated by the sea and stay frost-free longer than inland areas at the same latitude.

How to identify frost-prone spots

• Watch where dew or frost forms first on cold mornings, as these are the coldest spots
• Low points in the garden where cold air pools are always the last to warm up
• North-facing slopes and areas shaded from morning sun stay cold longest
• Gaps in hedges or fences can funnel cold air into otherwise sheltered areas

How to Protect Plants from Frost

Even after your region’s average last frost date, late cold snaps can still catch you out. Here’s how to protect your plants.

1. Horticultural fleece

Drape horticultural fleece over tender plants when frost is forecast. It traps a layer of insulating air and can protect down to −3°C. Remove during the day to allow light and ventilation. Fleece is cheap and reusable for years.

2. Cloches and cold frames

Individual cloches protect individual plants, while cold frames shelter trays of seedlings. Both work by trapping daytime warmth. Prop them open on sunny days to prevent overheating.

3. Water the soil in the evening

Moist soil holds more heat than dry soil and releases it slowly overnight. Watering in the evening before a frost can raise the soil surface temperature by 1–2°C, enough to save seedlings from a light frost.

4. Harden off seedlings properly

Before transplanting indoor-raised seedlings outdoors, harden them off for 7–10 days. Start by placing them outside for 2 hours in a sheltered spot, increasing daily. By the end of the week they should cope with overnight temperatures above 5°C. Use our grass seed calculator to plan lawn repairs after winter damage.

Climate Change & UK Frost Dates

UK frost dates are shifting. Met Office analysis of the Central England Temperature record found the thermal growing season averaged 280 days over 2006–2015 — 29 days longer than the 1961–1990 average (Met Office, reported by Carbon Brief). That record covers central England — roughly the triangle between London, Bristol and Lancashire — so it is not a UK-wide figure. Spring is arriving earlier and autumn lingering longer.

However, this doesn’t mean frost risk has disappeared. The “Beast from the East” in March 2018 brought hard frost and snow to southern England weeks after many gardeners had started planting out. Late cold snaps from Scandinavian or Russian air masses remain a threat through to May in most areas.

The safest approach: use the frost dates in our calculator as your baseline, then watch the 5-day BBC Weather or Met Office forecast — or check our garden weather forecast for an estimated frost risk tonight — before committing tender plants to the ground. If you need to calculate soil quantities for your growing project, try our compost calculator or topsoil calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Understanding Frost in the UK

My grandad built a bridge over his garden pond by hand, a smaller version of the kind he built for a living. The carp underneath it lived through every kind of UK weather, but the year a late-April frost killed the rhubarb crowns, my nan still talked about it three decades later. The lesson I took: a regional average tells you when the rhubarb usually survives. The forecast tells you when it actually will. That’s why this calculator uses 30 years of Met Office climate data rather than a guess, and why it sits alongside a monthly frost-risk chart rather than a single date. Understanding the different types of frost, and what actually drives them, is what turns that data into a decision you can act on.

Ground frost vs air frost

The Met Office distinguishes between two types of frost, and the difference matters enormously for gardeners. An air frost is recorded when the air temperature at a height of at least 1 metre above the ground drops below 0°C (Met Office definition). A ground frost occurs when the temperature at the soil surface falls below 0°C, even if the air temperature at chest height remains above freezing. In practice, ground frosts are far more common than air frosts.

This distinction matters because your seedlings, newly planted plug plants, and low-growing salad crops sit at or near ground level, not at the 1-metre measuring height. On a still, clear night the ground temperature can be 5–8°C colder than the air above it. So when the BBC Weather forecast says “2°C overnight,” the ground around your young courgette plants could easily be at −3°C or below. Always treat forecasts of 4°C or lower as a frost warning for vulnerable plants at ground level.

Radiation frost vs advection frost

Radiation frosts are the classic spring frosts that catch gardeners out year after year. They form on calm, clear nights when heat radiates upward from the ground into the atmosphere with nothing (no cloud cover, no wind) to trap it. The ground cools rapidly, the air directly above it chills, and by dawn your plants are coated in ice crystals. Radiation frosts are highly localised. One part of your garden may be frosted while another, sheltered by a wall or tree canopy, stays frost-free. They are also predictable: if the evening forecast shows clear skies, light winds and temperatures dropping below 4°C, expect a radiation frost.

Advection frosts are a different beast entirely. These occur when large masses of cold air sweep in from the Arctic, Scandinavia or Russia. The infamous “Beast from the East” events are advection frosts. They can last for days, bring temperatures well below −10°C, and affect the entire country regardless of local microclimates. Unlike radiation frosts, they arrive with wind, which makes them even more damaging as wind chill strips moisture from plant tissues. Thankfully, advection frosts are rare in late spring, but they can occur as late as April.

How altitude, coast and urban areas affect frost dates

Three factors shift your local frost dates more than anything else: altitude, proximity to the coast and the urban heat island effect.

• Altitude: As a general rule, temperature drops by roughly 0.6°C for every 100 metres of elevation gain. A garden at 200 metres above sea level is typically 1.2°C colder overnight than one at sea level in the same area. This can shift your last frost date by 2–3 weeks. Gardeners in the Pennines, the Welsh uplands and the Scottish hills should add at least a fortnight to the regional frost date averages.
• Coastal influence: The sea acts as a massive thermal store, warming slowly in spring and cooling slowly in autumn. Coastal gardens benefit from this buffering effect: the last frost arrives earlier and the first frost comes later compared to inland areas at the same latitude. Cornwall’s south coast, the Gower Peninsula, and parts of the Northumberland coast are all significantly milder than their inland counterparts. Falmouth and the Lizard peninsula are among the mildest mainland UK climates and rarely see air frost.
• Urban heat island: Built-up areas generate and trap heat from buildings, roads, traffic and central heating. Inner London, central Manchester and central Birmingham are typically 2–4°C warmer overnight than surrounding rural areas. This means inner London’s last frost date is often early March, while gardens in the Surrey Hills just 30 miles south may not see their last frost until late April.

Typical frost dates by UK region

The table below summarises average frost dates across the UK. Use these as starting points, then adjust for your altitude, coastal proximity and whether you garden in an urban or rural setting.

Regional rows (South East through Scottish Highlands) are median figures from Met Office HadUK-Grid 5 km gridded observations, 1991–2020. Inner London (EC1), Cornwall coast (TR), and South Wales coast (SA, CF) are district-level figures from the same dataset. Altitude-zone estimates (Pennines 300m+) are indicative.

How to Protect Plants from Frost — Step by Step

Frost protection is not about panicking every time the temperature drops. It is about knowing which plants need cover, choosing the right method and having your materials ready before you need them. Here is my practical guide, ranked from the simplest measures to the most involved.

Step 1: Know what needs protecting

Not everything in your garden is at risk. Hardy perennials, established shrubs and most trees will shrug off a typical UK frost without any help. The plants that need your attention are tender annuals (tomatoes, courgettes, runner beans, dahlias, begonias), recently transplanted seedlings of any type, tender perennials in pots (pelargoniums, fuchsias, agapanthus), and exotic plants (tree ferns, banana plants, olive trees in northern areas). If you are unsure, check the RHS hardiness rating: anything rated H3 or below needs winter or frost protection in most UK areas.

Step 2: Horticultural fleece (the gardener’s best friend)

A single layer of 30gsm horticultural fleece provides around 2°C of frost protection (RHS). For most spring frosts in southern and central England, that is enough. When the forecast shows temperatures dropping below −3°C, use a double layer for around 4°C of protection. Drape the fleece loosely over plants (do not wrap tightly, as trapped moisture can freeze and cause more damage), and peg or weigh down the edges with stones so it does not blow off. Remove during the day to allow sunlight and airflow.

A 10-metre roll of 30gsm fleece costs around £8–£12 and lasts 3–4 seasons with careful handling. For larger beds and vegetable plots, buy a wider roll (1.5m or 2m wide) and cut to size. I keep two rolls in the shed at all times from March through to late May.

Step 3: Cloches for individual plants

If you only have a handful of plants to protect (newly planted tomatoes, a young courgette or a melon), individual cloches are ideal. Victorian bell cloches look beautiful, but cut-off plastic bottles work just as well in a pinch. Place the cloche over the plant in the late afternoon and remove it mid-morning once the air warms. On sunny days, even in spring, temperatures inside a cloche can soar above 30°C, so you must ventilate.

Step 4: Cold frames for seedlings

A cold frame is essentially a bottomless box with a transparent lid. It traps solar heat during the day and releases it slowly overnight, providing 3–5°C of frost protection depending on the design. Cold frames are perfect for hardening off seedlings in April and May. Position them facing south, prop the lid open by 10cm on sunny days (above 15°C), and close it before sunset. A simple wooden cold frame with a polycarbonate lid costs £30–£60 and will last years.

Step 5: Mulch the crowns of tender perennials

For borderline-hardy plants that stay in the ground over winter (dahlias left in situ, agapanthus, ginger lilies, crocosmia), apply a thick layer of mulch over the crown once the foliage has died back. A 10–15cm layer of bark chippings, straw or well-rotted compost insulates the roots from the worst of the cold. Even if the top growth is killed by frost, the crown and roots remain protected and will reshoot in spring. I use our mulch calculator to work out exactly how much bark I need for the job.

Step 6: Move containers to sheltered spots

Container plants are far more vulnerable to frost than plants in the ground, because the roots are exposed to cold air on all sides rather than being insulated by surrounding soil. When frost is forecast, move pots against a south-facing or west-facing wall, cluster them together (so they share warmth), and wrap the pots themselves in bubble wrap or hessian to insulate the roots. The plant top can be covered with fleece. Raise terracotta pots off the ground with pot feet to prevent waterlogging and cracking.

Step 7: Water the soil before a frost

This sounds counterintuitive, but watering the soil in the late afternoon before a frost night actually helps. Moist soil has a higher thermal mass than dry soil and radiates more stored heat overnight. This can raise the air temperature at ground level by 1–2°C, often the difference between a damaging frost and a near-miss. Do not water the foliage, only the soil surface.

What to Do After a Late Frost

You woke up to find your garden white with frost in mid-May. The tomato transplants are blackened, the potato shoots have collapsed, and the dahlia foliage looks like wet tissue paper. Before you despair, take a breath. Many plants are tougher than they look, and a single frost rarely means total loss.

Assessing the damage

Do not rush to cut anything back immediately. Wait 24–48 hours for the full extent of the damage to become clear. Frost-damaged tissue will turn black, mushy or translucent, but it can take a day or two for the damage to show on woody stems and thicker growth. Water frosted plants gently in the morning to slow the thaw, as rapid thawing in direct sunlight causes more cell damage than a gradual warm-up in shade.

Plants that usually recover

• Potatoes: The top growth may be blackened, but the tubers underground are unharmed. New shoots will emerge within 7–14 days. Earth up the new growth for extra protection.
• Established perennials: Hostas, hardy geraniums, delphiniums and most herbaceous perennials will regrow from the crown even if the top growth is destroyed. The root system is well-insulated by the surrounding soil.
• Fruit trees and bushes: Frosted blossom will not set fruit, but the tree itself is unharmed. You may lose this year’s crop on affected branches but the tree will fruit normally the following year.
• Roses: Frosted new growth and buds look devastating, but roses are remarkably resilient. New buds will break from lower nodes within 2–3 weeks.
• Lawns: Grass turns white with frost but recovers fully once temperatures rise. No action needed.

Plants that probably will not recover

• Tender annuals: Tomato transplants, courgettes, runner beans, French beans and basil are almost always killed outright by frost. These plants have no woody tissue and no below-ground reserves. You will need to re-sow or buy replacement plants.
• Bedding plants: Petunias, impatiens, begonias and lobelia recently planted out are unlikely to survive a hard frost. Replace them.
• Newly germinated seedlings: Very young seedlings of any type, even hardy ones, are vulnerable because they have not yet developed the cell structures that resist freezing.

How to prune frost-damaged growth

The golden rule is: wait until you see new growth emerging before you prune. This might mean waiting 3–4 weeks. Cutting back too early can expose the next layer of buds to a subsequent frost, and you may cut back more than necessary because you cannot yet see where the live tissue starts. Once new shoots appear, prune back to just above the highest live bud or leaf. Use sharp, clean secateurs and make angled cuts to shed rainwater.

For evergreen shrubs (pittosporum, hebe, ceanothus), resist the urge to tidy them up in spring. Wait until late May or even June to be sure no further frosts are coming, then prune back to healthy green growth. These plants often look dreadful for weeks after a frost but recover well with patience.

Frost-Hardy vs Frost-Tender Plants

The Royal Horticultural Society uses a hardiness rating system from H1 (tender, needs heated glass) to H7 (hardy in the harshest UK conditions). Understanding these ratings helps you decide which plants need protection, which can stay outdoors year-round, and which are simply not suited to your area without serious intervention.

The table below lists common UK garden plants with their RHS hardiness rating, the minimum temperature they tolerate, and whether they need frost protection in a typical UK winter.

For a full month-by-month guide to what you can safely sow and plant, see our interactive planting calendar, which adjusts recommendations based on your region.

More Frost Questions Answered

Last Frost Date by Postcode UK — City-by-City Guide

Below is a guide to last spring and first autumn frost dates for UK cities and towns, organised by postcode area. Every figure is the median across that postcode area’s districts, calculated from Met Office HadUK-Grid 5 km gridded observations, 1991–2020. Your exact garden may differ depending on altitude, shelter and proximity to the coast. Use the calculator above to check your specific postcode prefix.

Southern England (Postcodes: BN, BR, CR, DA, GU, KT, RG, RH, SM, SO, SP, TN, TW)

Planting advice for southern England: You can safely plant out tender seedlings (tomatoes, courgettes, runner beans) from mid-April in sheltered coastal gardens and from late April inland. Sow hardy crops in March under fleece and direct-sow outdoors from April. The growing season across these postcode areas runs 188–217 days on the table above, so you can succession-sow salads well into September.

London & Home Counties (Postcodes: E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, WC, EN, HA, IG, RM, UB)

Planting advice for London: The urban heat island gives London gardeners a huge advantage. Central London rarely freezes after mid-March, making it one of the earliest planting zones in the UK. You can plant out tomatoes from late April and grow Mediterranean herbs like basil outdoors from May through to October. Balcony and rooftop gardens in inner London benefit from extra radiated heat from buildings.

South West England (Postcodes: BA, BS, DT, EX, GL, PL, TA, TQ, TR)

Planting advice for the South West: Cornwall and south Devon benefit from the Gulf Stream, making them the mildest parts of mainland Britain. Exotic plants like agapanthus, echiums and even palm trees survive outdoors year-round in coastal Cornwall. Start sowing outdoors in March. Inland areas like Gloucestershire and north Somerset are 2–3 weeks later, so wait until late April for tender crops. Use our planting calendar to plan your sowing schedule.

Midlands (Postcodes: B, CV, DE, DY, LE, NG, NN, ST, WR, WS, WV)

Planting advice for the Midlands: The Midlands sits in the middle of the UK frost spectrum. Do not rush to plant out tender crops before early May, because late frosts in April catch people out every year. Hardy vegetables like broad beans, peas and onion sets can go in from March. Use our compost calculator to work out how much compost you need for spring bed preparation. The shorter growing season (198–207 days on the table above) means choosing faster-maturing varieties of tomatoes and squash.

Northern England & the North West (Postcodes: BD, DH, DL, DN, HD, HG, HU, HX, L, LS, M, NE, S, SR, TS, WF, WN, YO)

Planting advice for northern England: Wait until mid-May before planting out tomatoes, courgettes and runner beans in most northern areas. Liverpool and the Lancashire coast are milder thanks to the Irish Sea, but the Pennine towns (Sheffield, Huddersfield, Burnley) are significantly colder due to altitude. Focus on cold-hardy crops: broad beans, peas, leeks, kale, calabrese and root vegetables all thrive in the north. For lawn repairs after winter damage, use our grass seed calculator to get the right quantity.

Wales (Postcodes: CF, LD, LL, NP, SA, SY)

Planting advice for Wales: Coastal Wales (Gower, Pembrokeshire, Anglesey) is remarkably mild, with growing seasons rivalling southern England. Inland and upland Wales (Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia) is a different story: treat these areas like northern England and wait until mid-May for tender crops. The Welsh valleys can be frost pockets where cold air pools between the hills.

Scotland (Postcodes: AB, DD, DG, EH, FK, G, IV, KA, KW, KY, ML, PA, PH, TD)

Planting advice for Scotland: Edinburgh and Glasgow have surprisingly long growing seasons for their latitude — 192 and 194 days across the EH and G postcode areas in the table above, and longer still in the city centres themselves, where EH1 reaches 210 days and G1 215 — thanks to their coastal and urban positions. The real challenge is the Highlands, where the growing season drops to 140–150 days. Highland gardeners should focus on fast-maturing varieties: ‘Tumbling Tom’ tomatoes, ‘Courgette Defender’ and quick salad leaves like rocket and lettuce. Start everything indoors in March and do not transplant until late May. Our planting calendar helps you make the most of a short season.

Northern Ireland (Postcodes: BT)

Northern Ireland is region-level, not postcode-level. The postcode-district boundaries this tool uses cover Great Britain only, so there is no BT-by-BT breakdown. The figures above are the median across all 617 Met Office HadUK-Grid 5 km land cells in Northern Ireland — real observations, just at a coarser scale than the rest of the page. Planting advice: the Atlantic influence keeps the coast mild, while inland ground around Lough Neagh and the Sperrins is colder and more frost-prone. Sow outdoors from early April on the coast and hold inland sowings until late April. Northern Ireland’s reliable rainfall means watering is rarely an issue, but drainage matters, so raise beds slightly to prevent waterlogging in heavy soils.

What to Plant After Your Last Frost

Once your last frost date has passed, you can plant out all the tender crops you have been nurturing indoors. Here is a quick-reference guide to what goes in when, relative to your local frost date.

2 weeks before last frost

• Direct sow outdoors: broad beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, radish, spring onions, carrots (under fleece in cold areas)
• Plant out: onion sets, shallot sets, garlic (if not already in from autumn)

On your last frost date

• Direct sow: beetroot, Swiss chard, kale, calabrese, turnips
• Plant out (hardened off): brassica transplants, leek seedlings

1–2 weeks after last frost

• Plant out: tomatoes, courgettes, squash, runner beans, French beans, sweetcorn, cucumbers
• Direct sow: French beans, runner beans (soil needs to be 12°C+)

3–4 weeks after last frost

• Plant out: peppers, chillies, aubergines, melons (in a greenhouse or polytunnel in most UK areas)
• Tender herbs: basil can go outdoors once night temperatures stay above 10°C

For a full month-by-month breakdown tailored to your region, see our interactive planting calendar or browse the individual monthly guides: March, April, May, June, July.

Frost Protection: Where to Buy

Protect tender plants from late frosts with these popular UK frost protection essentials.

Links above are affiliate links to Gardening Naturally, a UK organic gardening supplier we use ourselves. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Prices checked August 2026 and may change.