Growing in the WIND
Get to know your winds, says Monty Don, and you should be able to save your plants from a battering
THE fact that the wind can be so specific even within the smallest garden always amazes me. Two identical plants can grow side by side but one will suffer wind damage while the other shows no effect at all. While this can be baffling, annoying and at times disastrous, it is also the key to managing the wind in your garden.
I write this as Storm Eleanor is rattling my windows and bending the trees outside like a particularly flexible yoga class. Storms are exceptional and they come and go quite quickly, but every garden has to deal with winds the whole year round – and the most violent ones are not necessarily those that do most damage.
There are many winds, and all gardeners learn – usually at a cost – that each one brandishes a different weapon and that their garden has vulnerabilities depending on planting and aspect. Winds can be a steady force like someone pushing against you, or a gentle zephyr that cools you on a sweltering day; they can be blustery or swirling, and occasionally they can erupt with sudden violence. For the gardener all these winds have an impact, and must to some extent be managed.
Get to know the wind. Sometimes it will be a fierce adversary and occasionally it will be your friend, but it should always be familiar. By far the most important piece of knowledge is its direction because this will tell you most about the impact it will have on your garden. So have a clear map of the wind in your mind and be aware of the implications of its direction.
Westerlies are our norm – 90 per cent of all our weather rolls in from the west, and is often wet. But these winds do the least damage because the plants have grown acclimatised to them and develop roots and structures to resist them.
Southerly winds are generally welcome, when they arrive in my garden, because they quickly dry everything out – but it means we have to scurry around staking because they also buffet my plants, which generally have not grown roots strong enough to withstand them. These winds will also dry out evergreen plants, especially those in a container, extraordinarily fast.
North winds are very rare in my patch and almost always bring snow. Spring easterlies are even rarer – thank goodness – because they cut like a blade of ice through everything, including the walls of the house.
Wind chill can turn an otherwise perfectly acceptable temperature into a lethal blast. For example, the official average January temperature where I live is 6°C, which is fine even for tender plants, but a wind blowing at 30 miles an hour will reduce that to 0°C – which will kill tender plants and severely stress half-hardy ones. Be ready for this and create shelter where possible. If one particular plant is ailing, always check its exposure to wind, even if the plants around it seem fine.
Shelter is the key. Any shelter you can provide, whether from trees, hedges, shrubs or woven fences, will make your garden grow better. I said that it always amazes me how two plants can be so differently affected by wind – but often the first, damaged, plant is acting as shelter for the other and protecting it. This applies right down to plants within a container or even weeds.
The idea is to filter and slow the wind down, robbing it of its sting rather than blocking it, because a solid barrier causes wind to bounce off it and then rise up and over it, coming down with all the greater force on the other side. A good rule of thumb is that if you can sit comfortably sheltered from the wind then your plants will be comfortable too.