#2 - Dec 2016 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz WIND December/January: Early to mid-summer. The heat’s on. Plants grow fast. Enjoy your flowers. Eat your early produce. Brace against the wind… Wind is the only bane of life in Eastbourne. •Growth slows in a light wind and •growth stops in a strong wind. •In a very strong wind, shoots break and leaves burn (margins go brown). Most storng wind comes from the north as does the sun, so a windbreak creates shade. But most plants like full sun – especially fruits and vegetables. But don’t give up, there’re options…! Least: Wind is least close to the ground, so low-growing plants get less wind than tall ones. Choose bush or dwarf varieties of vegetables and shrubs. Pinch out the tops of taller-growing varieties and they will grow lower and bushier and suffer less from wind. Windburn: Water well to prevent/reduce windburn (leaf margins go brown and dry). Especially if it’s very windy. Movement: Stake plants. If a plant moves about in the soil, it breaks the fine roots and this can kill it. Breakage: Support bendy shoots with strings, canes, wire-mesh, a fence etc. Especially, tie down fast-growing young shoots regularly to stop the tender tips being bashed about. Shelter: if you want to trade-off reduced wind for reduced sun, create a windbreak. A windbreak can be •living (poke poplar or willow cuttings in the ground in late winter – they must be the right way up) or •natural (a palisade of straight sticks poked in the ground) or •artificial (a permanent wooden wind-fence – a nice feature, or •wind-cloth (about $3 per m2 from a garden centre) on a wood frame – ugly but works). The two rules for a windbreak are: (1) you get best shelter from a windbreak with 30% gaps (a solid windbreak creates violent eddies which wreck plants) and (2) you get about 6 m of shelter behind a 1 m high windbreak (12 m for a 2 m high windbreak etc). Remember, a living windbreak must be continually pruned to maintain the 30% gaps and the right height. ___________________________________