How to protect plants from wind is a concern plant lovers frequently struggle to find an answer to. It is essential to provide additional protection or cover for your plants because the wind damage that accompanies thunderstorms can cause a significant threat to the stems of your plants and even uproot them.
Our gardening experts will share their knowledge with you in an easy-to-follow step-by-step format for tackling plants during more windy days. Continue reading for more information on the procedures to ensure they thrive in such an environment while maintaining their health.
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How to Protect Plants from The Wind Damages?
You can protect plants from wind damage by using fabrics and installing trellises or greenhouses. You can also build windbreaks from permeable material, place the plants in the right location, use net cloches and tunnels, or trim the plants and install a greenhouse.
How to protect from wind depends on the type of plant. The damage caused by the wind to the plants can be wasting both time and money; hence it is essential to take measures to protect them.
– Use Fabrics
If you want to protect an area that contains a lot of plants, such as a garden bed, you should cover it with a sheet of gardening fabric, row covers, or burlap. The covering material must be sufficiently loose, so the taller plants do not get squished or harmed in any way from the chaotic weather; as a result, you can try to use bricks or stakes to keep the covers weighed down and in place.
On the other hand, if you are required to tackle winter chills, this is when you can use a fabric with a higher thickness, typically a frost blanket. Burlap, which helps keep heat and moisture close to the plant, would also be a way you can protect sensitive foliage during cold weather.
For wind protection for trees and upright plants such as tall bushes, wrap them up and secure them by tying them with some yarn or twine.
– Get a Trellis Installed
Provide slender plants with support like a stake or trellis. During severe weather, the plant’s stem will be protected from snapping or breaking due to the use of stakes, which will help anchor the plant to the ground.
The reason why you should consider getting a trellis is that it will provide support for creeping vines as well as plants that climb. Any stakes, trellises, or other structures must be firmly planted in the ground to prevent the wind from uprooting them as well.
If you have these things on hand, you’ll be ready for any sudden weather that may come your way. On another note, do keep in mind that once the storm has passed, you should take off the protective covers so that your plants can get some sun.
Some vegetables, like runner beans and tomatoes, will benefit from having their supports arranged in a tepee-like fashion because this will provide both a more robust support, trailing growth, and protection from the wind.
This also will work in the case of container gardening, where a means of providing plant support, stakes, or tall poles can be driven deeply into the containers.
– Build Windbreaks Out of Permeable Materials
To protect your more delicately growing individual plants from the wind, plant a windbreak with trees and bushes around the area. This will cause the wind to die down, which is more effective than fences or walls, which deflect wind to other parts of the garden.
This means that if you wish to guard the perimeter of your vegetable garden where you may be growing radish, pea or okra, this is where you should aim to plant taller crops, such as runner beans, fruit bushes, or sunflowers. This is an excellent idea on how to protect plants from wind on balcony.
Climbing plants wrapped around the railings of balconies can serve as adequate windbreaks, protecting the contents of pots and tubs from the wind. In addition, you can also create decorative windbreaks in the flower garden by planting bamboo, willow, or grasses in a hedgerow formation. In short, a substantial trellis or pergola will also serve the purpose of deflecting wind and protecting your plants.
– Place Plants in the Right Spot
If your garden is sloped, the plants in the middle of the slope will be more protected than those found at the top or bottom. To shield your plants from the blustery winds that blow from the north, try to locate potted plants on the south side of your home if possible.
If there is a prediction of a wind storm, it is advisable to move the plants indoors or to a covered shed or porch to protect them from the harshness of the blast of air.
This is because some plants can have a safe growth if they are placed a bit further away from being underneath the direct sun, as a way that you would be aiming to keep them safe from staying around harsh weather conditions.
– Use Net Cloches and Tunnels
Wind rock is a condition that occurs when strong winds cause the roots of plants to become dislodged. For such cases, plant cloche to ensure that shrubs such as roses, buddleia, and hydrangeas are planted firmly in the ground.
The reason why cloches are beneficial is that they are extremely helpful when it comes to protecting the plant, especially if your garden is loaded with delicate and small plants such as spinach or lettuce growing in raised beds.
Think about it in the sense that different wind speeds and forces can be significantly mitigated by constructing a frame out of thick wire or water pipe and stretching the netting over it. You can construct a polytunnel using a low-cost polytunnel frame and cover it with netting.
Building a frame for the net out of scrap wood is also possible if you want another option, or you can go to a professional extent and hire specialized people who will be able to do this.
– Trim Plants
It is best to prune top-heavy plants, primarily herbaceous perennials, to prevent them from being easily blown over by the wind. The ideal time is in the fall after the growing season, when you can cut the height of shrubs like roses by a third to protect them from the harsh winter winds.
Additionally, to prevent injuries and accidents, you should trim any branches hanging over your greenhouse, polytunnel, or public roads.
You would notice how the winter weather is full of different harshness and conditions that not every plant will be able to resist; as a result, it is great that you trim them because as their size gets small, they will be risking much less to tip and fall, or to have their leaves damaged.
– Get a Greenhouse Installed
Even when you are staking and securing your tall plants, high winds can damage even the most sturdy trellises and stakes. As a result, you need to give significant thought to the various structures protecting your plants.
Basically, you can also think about the way that greenhouses are highly beneficial, especially if you live in an area that experiences a lot of wind and have an exhaustive garden. You may also go for placing some row covers as an option to consider when the winds are powerful and in doing so, you don’t have a budget for a strong greenhouse.
Similarly, you can use a cold frame, which is a closed structure, to house your plants within. This will create a barrier between the wind and your plants and help keep them warm and prevent the wind from damaging them.
Conclusion
You now have a better understanding of how to protect tall plants from wind in simple ways.
The details we provided for you in this article are summarized in the following paragraphs:
- Wind damage to plants wastes time and money that could be better spent elsewhere. Thus protecting them is necessary.
- Covering an area home to a significant number of plants with a row cover, burlap, or a sheet of gardening fabric is the best way to safeguard the foliage in that location.
- Give tall, leggy plants some kind of support, like a stake or a trellis, to lean on as they grow, which also protects against wind.
- Create a windbreak around the area by planting trees and bushes. This will shield your more sensitive plants from the wind.
- It is best to prune top-heavy plants, mainly herbaceous perennials, to prevent them from being easily blown over by the wind. If you live in an area with a lot of wind and a large garden, investing in a greenhouse is an excellent decision.
After having a better insight into how you should be able to take the necessary precautions to shield your lovely plants from wind, you will be able to help them. With the understanding of what needs to be done, you take the required action before your plants get caught in a windstorm.
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