Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi there, not sure if this is the best forum for this....

As Alice suggested to me in another thread....

I have a major problem with a very very windy garden. I am becoming quite worried about getting some stuff out there (toms eventually, cucs etc) as they wouldn't survive a night like tonight. We have an odd problem in that we can have utter calm at the front of our house, and severe gales at the back. The wind comes up from the sea. The wind can occur like this over the hottest summer weeks too. I have rescued the kids play tent that was pegged down several gardens away, along with window boxes, chairs and anything else that we have forgotten to bring in.

We are also quite restricted in what we can do as it's a shared garden, I can't have a greenhouse and we are fairly limited space wise too.

What advice can you all give regarding the best way to shield my poor veg form the wind? What sort of thing works well for other people???

Many thanks

C

Stick to low growing crops. I also live in a windy area although you do sound as if you are in a worse position than us. Maybe some vigorous growing shrubs to diffuse the wind and grow your taller plants in the lea of the shrubs.

Planting your rows in the direction of the prevailing wind may help.
I'd look for an allotment.

We have a prevaling east wind on our lottie site partly sheltered by houses.
Crops on one side of the site seem to grow quicker than the other

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

Erecting fencing as a windbreak may work. Needs to be quite high but must have gaps in between the boards to allow the wind through. It should slow it down to a manageable level though!
We have a prevailing westerly wind at the allotments and a lot of plot holders use windbreaks that you get for use on the beach, you know the type of thing I mean, with poles every so often! Very colourful, but maybe not much good for your house garden!
I know what you mean about the devastation wind can cause......not looking forward to going to lottie today to see what damage has acrued from last nights high winds!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Plant a hedge or two, even a traditional low growing box edging may help. more attractive and ultimately more effective and sturdy than other wind breaks.

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Advertising is the rattling of a stick in a swill bucket. George Orwell
Paul

Thanks all.

I think it will have to be a combination of hoping for a good summer with less wind and dragging stuff in of an evening. (I can drag some stuff in that are in bags and pots i think into the communal stair)....

I was also thinking about a small space where there is a garden shed and a fence next to it. I don't think the neighbours would mind too much if I managed to cover up along the fence with some of your suggestions. I will be trying to tempt them with the though of some of the pickings!

Oh the fence is an old iron thing in case that sounded odd!
Many thanks again

C

I'm growing willow as a windbreak. I can have it on my allotment here, or you can grow it in a pot/trough/container thingy...plants some whips at an angle 45 degrees and weave together like a trellis. Trellis would help too, thinking about it. You need a 50% permeable barrier of course, solid ones are worse than nothing at all.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I love the willow idea.

Will look into that one as it's something that the neighbours might like too.

Many thanks

C

You might want to plant Lovage , Noidea. It's a herb, grows 6 to 8 feet high and planted along the railings might help with the shelter. I'm going to plant some as part of the wind break for my kitchen garden. I've plenty of seeds left so if you're interested in trying it PM your address and I'll send you some.

You could have a walk round your area and see what arrangements other gardeners have for wind breaks.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Alice that's really kind of you. I will pm you in a mo.

I had a wee look earlier and as we are the only ones really attempting to grow anything other than normal garden flowering bush type things, I don't thinka nyone has actually thought about the wind that much. It's an old georgian tenament and the gardens are HUGE. We are in a Crescent and apparantly the reason they are all just lawns was after the war they took all the local anderson shelters and buried them in the back gardens. Was easiest to just then cover with grass even though my elderly neighbour said before that people did have veg growing. The garden does have some very odd lumps and bumps!

C

We have a very windy garden, caused by a house at the bottom of it. I have found that a wooden trellis type thing worked a bit, but for the future maybe a forest of spinach or beans to break the wind up if it is small area. The worst thing is a low solid barrier, as the wind just goes up and over!

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Vegmonkey and the Mrs. - vegetable gardening in a small space in Cheltenham at www.vegmonkey.co.uk

Not sure if you can see this, but right at the back you can just make out the wind break I purchsed from argos to protect my beans and peas until they were established - Was only a temporary measure, but it seemed to work! (bit gastly in the colours though!). Bernie

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

I use windbreak netting from LBS - green and has eyelets top and bottom. Available in a range of heights - 1m, 1.5m or 2m. Only drawback is it comes in 50m rolls. It also provides shade (quoted at up to 40%)

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

I certainly know a thing or two about wind up here! And we are one of the windiest sites in Shetland with the wind channelling up the valley. A general forecast of a Force 5 will have us with a Force 7 driving up the loch.

I've made windbreaks from windbreak netting - put up some very simple fencing (I did it myself!) and then stretched windbreak netting over the sides. Further out from the fence I have planted a selection of willows (Icelandic Willows that grow well here) and Rosa Rugosa. It will be a few years before these take hold, but the windbreak fencing should help in the meantime. I did this last spring and really noticed the difference last year, although I still can't grow beans outside. One day I hope to be able to take the fences down, but I might be able to hide them behind the willow and roses.

If you have a serious wind problem in your garden, which we do here (we can get a gale of wind north and south!) you have to really think hard about where you want to garden as it is so frustrating if you keep losing things. Wind can be very drying and often leaves are left at a crisp.

All my flowers are very small in height too. I go for perennials which die back in the winter and really start to get going now. It means I don't have a pretty garden in the winter, but I get a great carpet of colour in the summer.

Hope this helps.