The eastern Borders are drier than the Atlantic west, with Charterhall giving the lowland reading.
There is a lot of high ground here too, and it is frosty. On the tops, air frost comes on more than 90 days a year. The upland figures use Eskdalemuir as the nearest analogue.
Where this covers
- TD Galashiels, Hawick, Kelso and the Borders towns
Frost dates for the Scottish Borders
- Lowland (Tweed valley; under ~150m): last frost early May, first autumn frost late October, safe to plant out mid-to-late May.
- Upland (Lammermuirs, Cheviot fringe; above ~150m): last frost mid-to-late May, first autumn frost late September, safe to plant out early June.
Dates are rounded to the nearest half month, from named Met Office stations (1991-2020 averages). Lowland means under about 150m; upland is above that.
| Garden | Last spring frost | First autumn frost | Safe to plant out | Season | Station | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lowland | early May | late October | mid-to-late May | ~175 days | Charterhall | high |
| upland | mid-to-late May | late September | early June | ~130 days | Eskdalemuir (242m) | medium |
Upland: Nearest upland analogue. Met Office Eastern Scotland report corroborates the pattern: air frost exceeds 90 days/yr over the Lammermuir Hills against under 40 on the Fife coast.
What this means for growing here
Sow and plant out to these dates rather than a UK calendar, and remember they are regional averages. Your own plot can run two to four weeks later in a frost pocket, or earlier against a warm wall. If your garden is above about 150m, use the upland figures; below that, the lowland ones. The Planting Calendar turns these into a month-by-month plan.
When to plant out tender crops here
Frost-tender crops go outside only once the safe planting-out date has passed, about two weeks after the last frost: mid-to-late May on low ground and the coast, early June on high ground in the Scottish Borders. That applies to tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, sweetcorn, peppers, chillies and aubergines grown outdoors. That date is the earliest they can go out, not a promise they will ripen: on high ground the whole frost-free season is only about 130 days, so a greenhouse, polytunnel or cloches are the safer bet there.
Rain, sun and soil
Charterhall gets about 1,530 hours of sunshine a year, more than Edinburgh (about 1,450) or Inverness (about 1,250), with a July mean daily maximum of 19.5°C and a modest 746mm of rain on about 138 days. The catch is frost: about 48 air-frost days a year against about 43 at Edinburgh, and January nights averaging 0.9°C against 1.7°C there, so the sunny summers follow a hard winter.
The higher ground belongs to the Southern Uplands, dominated by peat and peaty soils, especially on their wetter western sides.
Articles for gardens in the Scottish Borders
- Scotland's East/West Rainfall Divide: A Garden-Planning Framework
- Frost Pockets vs Suntraps
- Shelter Belt Planting for Exposed Coastal and Island Gardens
- Top 5 Crops for Exposed, Windy Gardens
- Protecting Garden Plants from Frost: What Actually Works
Sources
- Met Office: location-specific long-term averages: the 1991-2020 air-frost day counts behind the frost dates, last verified 2026-07-15
- Met Office: Charterhall, 1991-2020 averages: rainfall, rain days, sunshine, air-frost days and July and January temperatures for this region (read 17 October 2026)
- Met Office: Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden No 2, 1991-2020 averages: figures used for comparison (read 17 October 2026)
- Met Office: Inverness, 1991-2020 averages: figures used for comparison (read 17 October 2026)
- Met Office: Eastern Scotland climate: air-frost days and the length of the frost-free season on the high ground
- Derivation method: GrowScotland's own. We treat a month as carrying meaningful frost risk when it averages at least half an air-frost day, take the last such month in spring and the first in autumn, and express each as a half-month band.