The little non-climbing convolvulous minor (such as Royal Ensign) can be sown much earlier....but the climbing Heavenly Blue morning glory really will be OK if you hold fire till the nights are absolutely frost-free (which, in Yorkshire, can be as late as the end of May). The suggested sowing times on seed packets often assume you are using heated germination aids and extra lighting. I have 2 main sowing periods for annuals, including veggies (apart from the perennials which are sown all over the place). March, for the hardy types (cornflowers, poppies, sweet peas (although I do a lot of these hardy things directly into the soil in autumn)agrostemma, calendula) and May for French beans, zinnia, cosmos, tagetes, dimorpotheca. ursinia. I start my tomatoes between 15th March and 1st April. I will use a cold-frame for some things (such as the dahlia tubers) but in general, I wait for annuals till the weather is good because they catch up easily.....and I hate that hardening off, bringing them in, taking them out, moving around stuff.

And if all of these fancy gadgets are too much for you, and you want something even more basic than Carl's weather sticks, I offer the Deck-centric Weather Forecast. First thing in the morning I look out at my deck.. - Is it wet? It must have rained overnight and the temperature is above freezing. - Are there splashes in the wet? It's still raining. - Is the whole deck wet or just the part not under the overhang? If the whole deck is wet than there's strong winds from the east (or northeast or southeast). If only part, then it's relatively calm or the wind is from the west (or northwest or southwest). North winds are mostly blocked by the house. - Is there snow on the deck that wasn't there yesterday? It snowed overnight and the temperature is at or below freezing. - Is the snow depth increasing? It's snowing. - Are there shadows on the deck? It's sunny. This morning part of the deck was wet but no splashes, and there was a small amount of snow around the edges. A little later I started seeing shadows but on and off. Therefore, it rained overnight but is not raining now, and the temperature is just around freezing. There's little wind and the sky is partly cloudy. And the squirrel conned me into throwing out peanuts again. The next level of the forecast is to look at the porch on the other side of the house, where similar rules apply except for the wind direction. Claire

@Carl Arnold, welcome to the cooking forum! And if you really are a person trying to join in, and not trying to drive traffic to some outside website (why I mentioned no link, but sometimes there's a post that's sort of on topic, and the link comes later), you really are very welcome. As Sherry said, we have problems with bots. Your post was overwritten—very beautifully—for this kind of message board. Your follow up was more normal in tone, but unfortunately the new AI is capable of it all. That said, while we do run to older females in traditional families, we try not to exclude our younger, male, non-binary, non-traditional, unique and diverse posters, and it's right to call us out when we fail in that. Your point about cooking roles being more dependent on individual skills than gender is on topic, and an important POV, no matter how many of us have experienced the calcified classic gender roles in the title of the post. I bought a little table top barbecue last year, and have a littler freestanding one that's cute, but harder to use, and generally too small. I'm not really into outdoor cooking, and don't live in a climate where it's necessary. My little barbecues make my menfolk snicker. They have big and bigger gas grills to cook on...but really only for outdoor parties. I don't get the point (it not being an outdoor kitchen for all cooking in too hot and humid for indoors weather). I think barbecues should burn charcoal and aromatic wood chips to be worth the bother. I use a chimney starter. Barbecues are bad for the air quality, however, so mine are minimally used. The ”outdoors” cooking for us is not a gender thing determined by cultural norms, just a combination of attitudes and druthers that fall that way, informed by weather and circumstance.

I have three of these. They are great. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015KIFKG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1