My name is Georgia, and I love to write. As an avid gardener, I have spent hours writing about gardening, but in this space, I wanted to turn my attention to trees in particular. I recently added a number of fruit trees to my garden, and I have old oaks in front of my house which have suffered and survived through a range of mishaps. If you want to learn ideas for taking better care of your trees, you have stumbled onto the right blog. Welcome to this space, please explore and share this blog with your friends if they inspire you.
Caring for garden plants in a windy area, such as near the coast or on high ground, can be challenging. Many plant species suffer in windy conditions. Inevitably, this can leave you deflated when you find that all your hard work on your landscaping has gone to waste.
Strong winds can snap stems, tear off leaves and leave flowers ragged. However, don't give up on your garden. Believe it or not, but wind can also be beneficial to plants, not just destructive.
Wind Helps Plants Flourish
If you work with wind as a gardener, you can use it to help your garden flourish. For instance, wind can actually strengthen the stems of young plants, so some wind is useful. Wind also helps to spread the seeds of your plants. You can see this in action in spring and summer when the dandelion seeds go parachuting through the air in all directions.
But as you plan your landscaping, ensure that you select sturdy plants that can withstand heavy winds and storms. You can start with the following 3 wind-tolerant plants and build from there.
The Sturdy but Beautiful Bottlebrush
The bottlebrush plant is an Australian native plant that grows in moist conditions, such as near rivers and creeks. Although these plants have tough leaves and strong stems, that doesn't take away from the beauty they can offer your garden. These plants can live for up to 40 years and produce beautiful pink, white and red flowers each year.
The Poppy-Like Japanese Anemones
This plant, which despite its name is a Chinese native, grows in attractive clumps and produces pleasant purple flowers. Because this plant tends to grow in clusters, much like a Creeping buttercup plant, it can withstand windy conditions better than most other landscape plants. Funnily enough, it also goes by the name of "Windflower"!
The Lovely Lavender Plant
Most gardeners will be familiar with lavender plants and their heady scents, as well as colourful blooms on thin but strong stems. This plant fares well in windy conditions because of its tall thin stems. There are also over 450 varieties of lavender —and counting — which means you can get creative, planting clumps of each variety in different areas of your garden.
These are just three flowering plants that can thrive in windy conditions. There are many more to choose from. However, if you plan to purchase your plants from a local nursery, think about adding a little wind protection too in the form of evergreen trees, such as Norway pines, for example.
Although these plants are wind tolerant, your garden as a whole, could still benefit from a border of evergreen trees as a wind buffer.
Share19 July 2019