How to Protect Your Garden from Wind Damage
All gardens need some wind to circulate the air in them, but there is a great difference between a gentle breeze and a strong gusting gale. Strong winds can do an enormous amount of damage and their strength needs to be reduced before they enter your garden.
The effects of wind in a garden
– Water loss is the single most important effect of wind on plants. Usually, water moves up through a plant at a slow steady pace. Strong winds will dry the leaves as soon as the water reaches them, faster than it can be replaced. Plants can appear to be suffering from drought even if the soil is damp. This is especially harmful in winter when the water may be frozen and trapped in the soil. Evergreens are particularly vulnerable and should be gently sprayed with water to keep them damp.
– Constant wind from a single direction can cause lopsided or stunted growth. Leaves and stems may be broken off and the growing tips on the exposed side are constantly pinched back. This is particularly noticeable on coastal sites where there is often a constant wind off the sea. Foliage and tips can also be damaged by being rubbed together.
– Wind reduces the temperature and can turn a cold day into a potentially harmful one for tender plants.
Protecting the garden
– If you have a large garden, a couple of loosely structured layers make the best windbreaks. This could be a line of deciduous trees with a mixed hedge in front or openwork fencing with climbers and a selection of robust shrubs in front.
– In a small garden, trellis with climbing plants is often the best solution as trees and hedges take up a lot of room and leach the surrounding soil of nutrients and water. Climbers, such as certain roses, ivy (Hedera) and trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), will fill out the trellis, look attractive and not mind the wind. The batons need to be 2 cm by 3 cm thick in order to be strong enough to withstand the constant buffeting they will receive.
Any windbreak needs to be large enough to protect your garden. As a rough guide, a windbreak will protect an area of garden equal to twice its height, i.e. if your hedge is 2 m/6 ft tall it will protect 4 m/12 ft of garden. It will give some protection for up to five times its height but you have to bear in mind that the level of protection will decrease as you get further from the windbreak.
If your garden is not enclosed at either end of the barrier, bear in mind that some wind will sweep around either end with renewed vigour. The solution here is to either make the barrier wider than it needs to be or continue it around at an angle so the wind is deflected away from the garden.
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