Windy Gardens – and what to do about it.

A soft summer breeze is lovely, but not all wind is as soothing.

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Smaller gardens generally suffer from two types of wind, a tunneling effect as it speeds up between narrow spaces.

Secondly, turbulence;  the wind is deflected up and over walls and structures which can in turn create areas where even moderate wind speeds can cause problems.Contact us if you’d just like some advice – we’re very friendly!

Here’s the  meteorological bit, but the basic principle is this; when wind hits a solid object it goes up and over, but it doesn’t get slowed down much. Secondly if it passes through a narrow gap it gets squashed and flows faster thus creating a wind tunnel.

Windbreaks are not designed to stop the flow of the wind, but to slow the winddown and disrupt it. So if you live in an exposed place, you really need to consider windbreaks and shelter belts, to break up the wind flow. Dealing with wind in a small garden this is harder as you don’t have the space for a proper shelter belt.

The fastest wind is shown red, the ‘broken wind’ green.

The bottom diagram represents a normal fence or wall, so the wind goes up and over and is only ‘calmed’ near the base of the fence, so most of the plants get a bit of a battering.

The top image shows a fence that has open horizontal slats on either side of a post, these allow the wind to pass through, more slowly, leaving the faster wind level above the fence line.

The top diagram here shows a more traditional shelter belt, the wind is deflected up but is also allowed to pass through the windbreak, dramatically reducing the speed of the air. In the lower diagram, the windbreak effect of a large tree is shown, airflow is reduced, but noticeably not at the base where the trunk is.

A typical garden fence

This is more the normal scenario for most homes though, a fence with  a shrub behind it, as you can see, some of the wind is slowed, but not much, it is merely deflected. So how to remedy this problem, well two solutions really, firstly  a windbreak that allows air to flow through and secondly a taller structure to catch the wind flowing over the fence.

Here the tree and the split open fencing, break the speed of the air, leaving you a calmer garden.  You can also add trellis above the fence line to again reduce the  wind speed.

Horizontal slats are by far the best, not only do they offer good privacy, but they also look nice. However you do need to ensure they are built sturdily and able to withstand the wind.