How to block wind in backyard

Wind can bring a lot of problems to owners of suburban lots and summer homes. Let’s find out how to deal with wind and what landscape windbreaks are.

Wind sometimes causes a lot of trouble for dacha and homestead owners. Broken trees, fallen flowers, frozen house – all these are “pranks” of the wind, and not so innocent. It is more difficult for the owners of plots, located in windy places – at the border with a field or on a hill. They know better than anyone else how difficult it is to ensure comfort for themselves in such conditions and create favorable conditions for plants, which prefer wind-protected places.

Wind protection in the countryside

• Windproof constructions
• Hedges
• Large hedges

You can protect your garden from the wind by means of landscape design. Moreover, there are several methods of garden wind protection. They vary in cost, scale, method and duration of implementation, but they always achieve the desired effect.

Windbreaks

Handmade wind protection are fences, walls, wind screens that block the movement of air currents in certain areas. The area protected by such structures will depend on their size and configuration.

Thus, an ideal quiet and windless place can be considered a patio. Its area is usually not large, but such a cozy corner is quite enough for a small recreation area and a mini garden with plants sensitive to drafts. Plot, protected by a high fence – can also claim to be one of the coziest places in the yard.

It is quite possible to plant plants, demanding to the wind regime, and not just shade-loving – if the fence construction will be built, for example, polycarbonate blocks, there will be enough light for plants on both sides.

To protect any particular space inside a yard or garden (swimming pool, recreation area, playground, etc.) from wind, specially designed windscreens are used. They can be made of wood, plexiglass, polycarbonate and other materials.

Such means of wind protection are installed permanently almost perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction. A slight deviation from the perpendicular will increase the stability of the screen to avoid the effect of the sail.

The main advantage of man-made wind shields is that they begin to fully perform their functions from the moment of installation. In addition, patio and screen can easily fit into the landscape of any plot, and the fence is an obligatory component of it. To the disadvantages of such structures, first of all, should include their cost. For example, a windproof fence will cost the owner of the plot more than a normal one – it will require a foundation, special materials, reliable fasteners. This also applies to screens and patio fences.

Hedges

An excellent means of wind protection in the landscape is a screen of shrubs. A hedge cannot be called a completely impenetrable barrier to the wind, but this is its advantage. The fact is that completely blocking the movement of air is often not the best solution.

Shrubbery reduces the intensity of air flows without preventing the ventilation of the site, which is especially important for areas located in climatic zones with high average annual temperatures or with high humidity.

In addition, the choice of plants for a hedge and the density of their planting allows to regulate the efficiency of wind protection – a shrub planted in one row can reduce the power of air flows by 25-60%.

When selecting plants for a windproof hedge, you should take into account that the crown density of deciduous shrubs is less than that of conifers. This means that conifers will hold back the wind better than deciduous plants, and evergreens will meet the challenge of wind protection all year round.

For wind protection in the garden to be effective, the hedge must be tall enough. For example, a plant wall about three meters high will make a small courtyard or part of a large plot cozy. To create such a windbreak, you can use bird cherry, hawthorn, iris, lilac, cotoneaster, privet, elderberry, medium-grown species of spruce, thuja, fir.

Landscape designers recommend forming a plant screen of two or three types of plants, interspersing them when planting. This will keep the barrier from the wind, even if any of the species is subjected to disease or frost. Of course, the plants in the hedge should have similar requirements for soil composition, moisture regime, light.

A hedge, in many cases, can be the best solution for windproofing a site. But it will take several years from the time the plants are planted until it begins to fully perform its function, and this is probably the only significant disadvantage of fences of this type.

Large trees

Trees planted in a row to the windward side of the site – one of the oldest and most effective methods of wind protection in the landscape. In such a way orchards, yards were protected, the intensity of air currents in the fields was reduced.

Tall trees are an almost obligatory element of landscape design of garden plots, especially if they are large in area, and correctly selected and planted they can change the microclimate of the plot. Indeed, what else can be used to create a barrier against the wind with a height of 10 meters or more? There is simply no alternative to bulky trees.

For protection from the wind, as a rule, tall trees of the same species with narrow, branchy, dense crowns, planted in a row at a small distance from each other, are used. The effect is enhanced if they are planted in two rows. The density of the tree crowns and their ability to withstand the wind should also be taken into account.

Ecologists claim that deciduous trees with full crowns planted in one row reduce the wind by 25-35%, the same trees, but without leaves detain about 5% of the moving air masses, one row of evergreen conifers reduces the wind force by 40-60%, two rows – by 60-80%. It is also important that the roots of the trees selected for windbreaks develop deep into the soil – copies with a surface root system will not be able to withstand squall winds.

Among the serious disadvantages of such windproofing is a rather long period of tree growth. However, nothing prevents you from protecting the site from wind in other ways until the seedlings grow up.

In general, methods of garden wind protection can be combined, selecting them individually for different parts of the yard and garden. It is also worth taking care that garden screens, hedges, fences and trees blend in well with the garden landscape. In this way, you can make your plot more comfortable and create a favorable environment for plants that previously could not grow in your garden because of the winds.