Wind Protection

[digitS']

Here are most of my winter squash (Buttercup and Kabocha)


In 2019, most of the winter squash had died by now. All of the Cha Cha Kabocha died. I don't want to overstate this but garden location certainly seems to have made a difference in 2020.

The caveat is temperature differences. The electric/gas bill recently arrived. June temperatures for 2019 and 2020 are given as comparisons of both daily highs and daily lows, on average for each month. It's interesting to me that both lows and highs were more extreme last year than in June 2020. Yes. I noticed that! Those temperature bounces were likely the most important factor in destroying the squash in 2019.

Wind is a real factor in the neighborhood of my big veggie garden. I mitigated its effects this year. Just to the right of these squash plants is a dense pea trellis. It's something of a mess because it's been an especially windy growing season.

I've thought about setting up a temporary plastic fence as a wind barrier. (I've tried a plastic film tunnel in a distant garden but had problems because I'm not there all the time to open up the covering during the sunny parts of the day.) For several years, I have planted sunflowers on the windward side. I think that they are too late to provide wind protection in the early part of the growing season.

Imma gonna have lots of winter squash this year - Imma hoping .

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

i saw the first baby blue hubbard squash today! already about a foot long. i don't think it is going to be quite the baby that we'd hope for, but it will be the baby we get.

as for wind breaks, take some boards/slats perhaps and pound them in the ground upwind of the plot and that may help break up the worst of the force of it. i do know this that wind can reduce productivity of some garden plants, but to me it is just a part of things and nature. also to me the wind does things like make a stronger stem so the plant won't break off or fall over in heavy rains or at least i hope so...

another thing perhaps to consider is a wire mesh fence high enough and that you can plant climbing beans on (ahem, beans )... i already have some beans that are at the top of our eight foot fence. if i'd planted them a week or two earlier they'd have got there even sooner.

 

[Zeedman]

another thing perhaps to consider is a wire mesh fence high enough and that you can plant climbing beans on (ahem, beans )... i already have some beans that are at the top of our eight foot fence. if i'd planted them a week or two earlier they'd have got there even sooner.

Agree about the pole beans, that is part of my wind break system. But perhaps better yet would be a chain link fence covered by whatever perennial vine would thrive in your area... trumpet vine, grape vines, etc. In a couple years, the vines would thicken to a substantial & permanent wind break.

 

[flowerbug]

i definitely would not vote for trumpet vine, that stuff is way too hard to control.

i do like grapes, but i removed my grape vine here after finding out that our microclimate just made it a perpetual source of black rot. nothing more frustrating than seeing a lovely crop of grapes start up and get nice and green and plump and then when they started to ripen they'd get spots in them and then fall off the vine. i'm not a fan of having to babysit a crop with chemical treatments to get it to harvest and haven't yet sourced a replacement vine that would be resistant. i got enough to do anyways...

 

[Zeedman]

i definitely would not vote for trumpet vine, that stuff is way too hard to control.

I agree, but that is what would make it such a strong, effective wind break. I also agree that grapes are too temperamental; wild grapes might be hardy enough for @digitS' climate, but they are REALLY hard to control, and birds would spread them everywhere. At least with trumpet vines, they won't spread by seed, the flowers are attractive... and they attract hummingbirds.

Sorry to hear about your grape troubles, @flowerbug . I know that must really be frustrating, after putting years of work into them.

 

[flowerbug]

I agree, but that is what would make it such a strong, effective wind break. I also agree that grapes are too temperamental; wild grapes might be hardy enough for @digitS' climate, but they are REALLY hard to control, and birds would spread them everywhere. At least with trumpet vines, they won't spread by seed, the flowers are attractive... and they attract hummingbirds.

Sorry to hear about your grape troubles, @flowerbug . I know that must really be frustrating, after putting years of work into them.

they were delicious concord grapes! i do miss eating them fresh and making jam with them. it's not easy to find good concord grapes at the stores when they are in season.

this particular vine was planted back in the SE corner of the lot near the large drainage ditch which runs through the property. it was not properly trained or pruned for years. in fact it was driven over with the pickup truck several times when they/we were building. when i came along and moved in here one of the first things i did was to build a trellis for it. i had a few nice crops out of it and then from then on it was nothing but black rot trouble. i decided that treating and sprays weren't something i was going to bother with and then after a particularly bad winter the main stem of the trunk developed a large split in it. so at that point i just decided to remove it.

i had much better luck when i was younger and had a different place where i trained 6 concord grape vines to go up some 8ft chainlink fences to fill it all in and cover it up. it looked great. then i went away to college. imagine after 4yrs of getting the new small vines and training them, being careful with making sure the vines are properly shaped and have the right balance between root and stems when you get a letter in the mail from Mom saying, "I cut back the grapes and the roses." !!!!! oy... i screamed arg! i spent a bit more time getting them regrown and reshaped when i could get back home, but it wasn't too long after Mom sold the house. we drive by it every once in a while but we've never stopped in and i can't see the space behind the garage where the vines were from the road so i dunno if the vines are even still there.

 

[digitS']

I imagine that I will stay with the peas. They provide the early protection that climbing beans wouldn't.

I measured the tallest of those against my shoulder, this morning. The skinny and tallest bean tendril is only about 5'. Those squash plants benefited from the pea vines 2 or 3 weeks ago.

The property owner has Concord grape vines but my garden is about 100 yards from those. I wouldn't be able to put in a perennial vine while growing on other people's property . He's been doing real good again about keeping things watered and says that they have no plans for travel this summer (that's so nice for me ). He just might be receptive to a stone wall on the windward side. I would be surprised if he wasn't ... howsomever ... it would be yours truly who would have to put it together!

Steve