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Post by Wheelgarden on Mar 16, 2020 18:48:07 GMT -5
Was reading about a windswept karst island off the coast of Croatia, where over the many years the residents have gathered stones and made natural wind-and-soil breaks for planting areas. It brought to mind similar practices in Old England, New England, and the northern-French bocage natural woody hedgerow system that holds soil and shields and fosters flora and fauna. My late uncle had a large dairy-corn-tobacco-alfafla farm. He was adamant about keeping his hedgerows intact for those reasons --- although he cussed the attendant crows in the corn acres.
Just a memory, and a good practice where possible, I think.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Mar 16, 2020 19:41:31 GMT -5
Wheelgarden, great topic to bring up, and just at an appropriate time. Your post reminded me that when I first began gardening, I had no wind breaks at all, but since the garden area was bordered by houses and large trees, it was more than a few years and loss of all my roses and mums before I realized that they were in the path of western winds which skirted around the house and garage and attacked my vulnerable perennials. One of the things I've been doing over the last few years is redesigning and creating bordered gardens throughout, initially with the thought of using the borders for vining plants. Now I realize they could be windbreaks. Thanks for sharing such helpful thoughts.
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Post by Latitude33 on Mar 31, 2020 20:52:24 GMT -5
My late uncle had a large dairy-corn-tobacco-alfafla farm. He was adamant about keeping his hedgerows intact for those reasons He didn't happen to be Dutch did he? Many Moons ago I was seasonal farm hand on a couple of Dutch family dairy farms and hedgerows were very common in the landscape.
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Post by emmsmommy on May 5, 2021 6:32:50 GMT -5
Living atop a hill, wind is a big issue here. Just moving my mini greenhouse 30 feet made a major difference as it was no longer in the path of the northwestern winds. I also remembered reading about Scott and Helen Nearing several years ago and the stone walls they built around their garden. Not only did it serve as a windbreak, but the walls retained heat and in essence gave them a longer growing season.
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