Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi everyone

We have just made a group of 7 raised vegetable beds arranged in a square. The problem is that on one side the plot is very open to high winds. We need to erect a windbreak but not sure how high or close to the beds it needs to be for maximum protection. We are thinking of hazel hurdles for immediate protection (very expensive but look nice!) or a hedge - the total length will need to be about 8 metres. Can anyone help please?

How windy is windy ?

My experience of hazel hurdles, is that in strong winds they tend to take off and fly away

Welcome to the Center for Plasticulture at Penn State

will give you info on Height v Distance of protection.

Remember the more inpenetrable the break, the more damaging eddys you create and the greater expense needed to secure it.

You don't mention whether shade cast is an issue.

Take a look at

Buy discount gardening equipment online - UK delivery - regular special offers - Garden Warehouse

They sell lots of windbreak gear and give good descriptions of protection/shade ratings.

The creme de la creme for windbreaks is Paraweb but very expensive

Providing it's not to windy you could always try reducing wind by increasing it

Plant a row of Jerusalem Artichokes !!

That's an important point - it needs to be a permeable barrier, so the wind is filtered rather than blocked. Otherwise the air will go up over the obstacle and come crashing down hard on the other side.

I've used pallets for this before - the ones with big gaps between the boards worked brilliantly.

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Resistance is fertile

Thanks, really good info on the links!

Its only about an 8 metre square patch and as you rightly say, I am concerned about too much shade so want to have the height as low as possible... The pallets sound cool and the other half has some ready to make compost bins... have to check the height ratio, maybe I can appropriate some!

If you go for planting spud think about whether the roots might penetrate into your raised beds, even though they are raised.

I planted some rosa rugosa around one of my beds for some filtered shelter from the wind and staggered how far the roots are travelling!

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Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.
~ Mary Kay Ash

My favourite windbreaks are fruit bushes - they work well and produce a crop too. Our lottie is very exposed, so we tried this and it worked so well that now we have taken on a second plot we're going to do it there too.

Nice idea blue moon :-)

did you have to put up a temporary wind break until they were established?

Funnily enough that's what I've done this year to try and take the edge off the prevailing west wind. I've also used tin sheeting to protect the fruit bushes until they establish but hopefully once the fedge is estabished I can do away with the ugly tin sheeting and use it for the roof of some thing or other!

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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)

I like it

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Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.
~ Mary Kay Ash

Hi Spud57,

I used windbreak netting with great success when I lived at the Coastguard Station in Ilfracombe. Carl Seawolf will know where that is, 400ft up and open to all the Bristol Channel could throw at us.

Permiable so that it filters the wind and for every foot of height you will get 8 feet of shelter horizontially. So 3ft high will give you 24 feet of shelter (just to save you doing the maths) Just fix it to some stout stakes and it will last for several years.

Best of luck

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Quite a few of us have used the debris netting they use on the scaffolding on building sites as a fence (ask nicely and they give it away at the end of the job)

If you know a builder or scaffolder try and get some of the netting they use to enclose scaffolding......it's perfect for the job.

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Detroitsburg - Where cool cars come

No, but then our plot was in such a state that it took us three years to clear it completely. We put the fruit bushes in the first spring, in three strips, which divided the plot into four large beds, (if you see what I mean, it sort of goes bed, path, fruit, path, bed..... along the plot, the final place where there should be a fourth row of fruit has lavenders instead and room for a few annuals.) we had only cleared enough space for a few spuds and onions that first year, by the time the whole plot was finally cleared the bushes were well established.

Our allotment site is called Evington Hilltop and at the top of a hill it is. To shelter one of my plots I grew jerusalem artichokes as an edible hedge and it worked very well, disrupting the wind enough to prevent any damage but not giving an impenetrable barrier.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated at last - Saturday 9th at 2040hrs

I too have JAs between my garden and the next at the end - where the fence becomes trellis and less use for windbreaking purposes. They are only any use during the growing season but then that's probably exactly when you need them. They are good for breaking wind in every sense of the word!

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It takes more oil than vinegar to make a good salad dressing.

vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated Sept 7th 2008