RE: Planting for windy sites

Hi Karrie and Jeremy,
 
Thanks for replying.  Will take the point about waiting for the winds to moderate on board.  I am not sure about Opuntia, I'm a bit fearful about handling it and I'm not sure I'd want it so near the house.
 
In the last year, minimum temperatures on Skopelos were  -1c or 30.2f with a maximum 34.7c or 94.46f.  The lowest windchill was -7.8c or 18f and during November 2008 it was -0.6c or 30.92f.  The house is about 360feet above sea level so hopefully the salt spray won't carry. 
 
For the area between the back of the house and the hillside I had planned something with a courtyard feel, somewhere away from the all-consuming sea view, restful with dappled light, gravelled but with two citrus trees for shade and colour and some seating and informal planting to go with.  Somewhere I can potter rather than bask!  Instead we seem to have created a wind tunnel.  I also need to incorporate planting around the front door.  I'd hoped for rosa banksiae, jasmine and ceanothus on the stone building with agapanthus in pots, then some evergreen waterwise shrubs with a more delicate understory spreading onto the gravel - informal not formal.  On the white plastered part of the building I had hoped for bougainvillea with a lemon tree in front.  This side of the house is west facing but the heat is not too intense as we don't get the sunset.
 
As far as windbreaks are concerned: just South of this area is an umbrella pine (juvenile but about 16 feet high) which creates dappled shade from the South but don't stop the wind.  At the North end is a parking 'ramp' and a dirt track down which the North West wind howls.  On the banks of the ramp I have started to plant Italian cyprus but they're going to take some time to establish.  Due North we have a couple of small olive trees and a builder-battered fig, but there is room for a proper windbreak hedge both on the boundary and closer to the house.  Beyond our land to the North is an almond orchard and beyond that a pine forest (Aleppo Pine), though following last Winter's storms it has a big gap in it. 
 
Any thoughts and lists would be greatly welcomed.
 
Janet
 
From: Reidfamily [mailto:pkssreid@comcast.net]
Sent: 30 December 2008 00:14
To: secretary@britishcopyright.org; medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: RE: Planting for windy sites

I think it would be helpful to all giving advice to know your minimum and maximum temperatures, as well as if your wind is filled with salt spray or removed enough to only be a nuisance because of the nature of wind itself.  Also, do you mean that you have already planted or planned to plant windbreaks?  Are you really just looking for plants that look green and lush but can take high winds?  Whatever lists folks come up with, I would personally avoid trying to plant right now if these winds are prolonged.  Waiting until they are more moderate would be a wise course.

Karrie Reid

Folsom Foothill Gardener

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf Of Janet Ibbotson
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 12:57 AM
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Planting for windy sites

 

Having spent Christmas at my new home in Skopelos, Greece (steep South East facing terraces on the North East coast), I realise that my vision of citrus etc near the house is merely that, as the North Wind at this time of year, with some contributions from the South Wind, make the area round the house itself too exposed (I guess my ideal garden has been sacrificed to take full advantage of the views). 

 

So now I need some advice on how to make the best of things.  I've read all about windbreaks, terraced and dry areas but my windbreaks are in the future and I need some immediate cover in the area, something that will give a more lush, protected sort of feeling to the house than the natural planting I have, and will continue to use, on the rest of the site i.e. olive, almond, arbutus, umbrella pine, spartium, etc.

 

Suggestions and lists would be very welcome.  Also tips on how best to establish such plants in the teeth of a gale force wind.

 

Happy New Year to you all.

Janet Ibbotson

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