Have you ever wondered how your garden’s microclimate affects plant growth?
For example, you may wonder why some plants don’t bloom. Or, even if the same plant seems to be growing well in a neighboring garden, other plants may have leaf scorch.
The key is to understand or create different “climates” within your garden.
I recently visited Paul Seaborn at Pelham Plants Botanical Garden. He and his partner took advantage of the windy and uneven donkey fields to create garden microclimates, primarily by dividing the gardens with hedges.
Paul Seaborne and his partners at Pelham Plants created this lush, vibrant garden from a windy donkey farm. They used hedges to create sheltered areas and shady nooks.
What is a garden microclimate?
It is a small area of the garden where the weather conditions are different from the surrounding area. It could be an area of your garden that is particularly wet, dry, hot, cold, or windy.
For example, let’s say you have an east-facing garden that probably gets a lot of wind.
But you can find or create a sheltered spot in your garden. It could be a storage room or an area protected by a wall in the house. Alternatively, you can add a hedge or wall facing south. It will give your garden a little microclimate, with more sun and less wind.
One of the microclimates of the garden is the area close to the walls of the house. The wall protects the plants from the wind. And if your house is made of brick, the brick absorbs sunlight during the day and emits light at night.
The plant closest to the house will benefit from its shelter and warmth. In some cases, you can grow more tender or exotic plants near your home. Paul surrounded Rose Cottage with a series of hedges to protect the plants while still allowing the sky to open directly overhead. The cottage’s brick walls absorb heat during the day and release it at night, making it warmer than the border a few feet away.
If you don’t have storage space, some tender plants can safely overwinter by moving them closer to your home. If your house is made of wood, the effect is less, but the warmth of the house may be affected during the winter.
Creating a microclimate in your garden with a hedge doesn’t mean lining it with dark foliage. Here, we have two pole hedges to protect the plants from the wind. In the foreground is a pampas grass hedge. And behind it is a hornbeam hedge cut in dramatic style. A pampas grass hedge protects Stipa behind it. Before the hedge grew, the stipa was sometimes ripped from the soil by the wind.
How to start creating a microclimate in your garden
When they moved into Rose Cottage, the house was surrounded by rugged fields where the previous owners kept donkeys and horses. Therefore, there were no borders and no lawns.
Little by little they began to carve the borders. As plant lovers, their priority was to “enjoy plants” and cultivate as many types as possible.
So there was no overall “design”, just piecemeal experimentation.
The first step to creating a microclimate in your garden is evaluating what you have. Rose Cottage is on the edge of the Sussex Weald forest, says Paul. And it is surrounded by fields.
The wind blows through the fields, sometimes even seeming to be “stuck” surrounded by forest on both sides.
There is countryside, but no views. “It’s understandable that people who want great coastal views have to put up with wind because they don’t want their views blocked,” says Paul. But that wasn’t a problem for us. The wind didn’t want it. ”
So they planted hornbeam hedges in great shapes and almost random locations to create a series of garden microclimates.
The warmth behind the brick and tile house and the wind-blocking hedge on one side allow this border to grow tender, sun-loving plants. Although the sun doesn’t shine all day long, it does provide about 6 hours of sunlight a day. Shade also prevents the border from drying out in hot, dry weather.
You can also add walls and garden buildings to create a microclimate in your garden. Read this post about “ruins” and garden follies to see how dividing up your garden and adding focal points can help create a garden microclimate.
Assess your garden’s strengths…
Paul says observation is an important part of gardening. If your plant doesn’t bloom or its leaves are burnt, it’s either in too much sun or in too much shade.
You can move the plants or create a suitable spot in your garden.
The plants in the garden are stocked beds from Pelham Plant Nursery. All the plants you buy from there, whether you go to the nursery itself or buy from a plant fair roadshow, are grown in the garden and in the nursery. Planting his garden has given Paul a better understanding of what different plants need. “For example, some plants may be thirstier than others,” he says.
This is one reason why purchasing from an independent nursery is so helpful. Those who have grown plants themselves in the field, whether from seeds or propagation, know well how plants grow.
The Rose Cottage garden is a “stock bed” for plants sold at Pelham Plant Nursery.
Although Rose Cottage is surrounded by forest on two sides, there was relatively little shade. “We grow Heuchera ‘Autumn Bride’,” says Paul. “It has tall panicles of white flowers and lime-green leaves, but the leaves were burnt by the sun and wind.
By planting trees and hedges, you can now grow shade-loving perennials such as Heuchera and Hakonechloa macra.
Paul planted hedges and silver birch to provide enough shade to grow heucheras and ferns.
Which hedge to choose to create a microclimate in the garden
Paul wanted to make a quick impact without spending too much money. “I always plant hedges when they’re about 6 inches tall,” he says. “So I chose hornbeam because it grows quickly.”
Hornbeam also retains its leaves in winter and maintains its beautiful shape. However, please note that it grows quickly and once established it will need to be mowed three times a year.
They also considered beech, which similarly retains its brown leaves in winter and can be cut and shaped. However, beech does not like sitting in wet soil in winter, and Paul decided that the area might be too wet for beech.
Two chairs are placed between the hornbeam hedge and the pampas grass hedge below. This means that the sun’s rays can be received, but they are blocked from the windows. The hornbeam is also cut into a nice shape and the depression just behind it also lets in more sun.
Boxes were once popular as hedges, but box blight and box moth outbreaks make it unwise to plant boxes. Even if box moths have not been present in your area before, box moths are rapidly spreading throughout the world. Click here to learn more about box moth larvae.
This article has more hedging options.
And there is no need to choose shrubs for hedges. Dense ornamental grasses such as calamagrostis and miscanthus can also filter wind, but they are cut down to the ground once a year, so they only act as hedges in summer and fall.
There is no need to hedge the space. The hedges in this garden stop and start, leading you through a narrow cut archway. They are cut into swooping, irregular shapes.
The latest mini-hedge is a short planting of about four Portuguese laurels in the front garden. As it grows, it creates a glossy evergreen windbreak near the front path.
Even a gentle slope affects the microclimate of the garden
Paul explained that the gardens at Rose Cottage are on a gentle slope. “You may not realize it, but it tilts the ground slightly to the north.
This means the garden will be cooler than if it were flat or slightly slanted to the south. “In the winter, you may end up with frost on the ground for longer than normal,” says Paul. “But in summer, even on sunny days, gardens don’t dry out quickly. This means plants bloom later, but other gardens can dry out after weeks of sun and drought. It means it looks fresher than before.
You can see that there is a slope going down from the garden to the terrace. Although it is only a gentle slope, it affects the microclimate of the garden. But it also means that the terrace by the house is completely surrounded by beautiful plantings.
To learn more about gardening on a slope, check out this post. And this explains how to plant on a slope.
If you can’t create the ideal garden microclimate…
You can’t always do something about garden problems. For example, if you have shady corners due to nearby buildings, you may not be able to demolish them.
If so, think about what you can enjoy in that space and what kind of plants you can grow. Check out 10 ideas for shady garden corners and 2 to avoid.
“Right plant, right place” is one of gardening’s most famous maxims. This means choosing sun-loving plants for sunny locations and shade-loving plants for shady locations.
We also consider other factors such as wind, soil type, and winter temperatures. There are also other windy garden plants and solutions here.
One of the most difficult places to plant is in “partial shade.” There are so many different types of partial shade that when a customer asks for a plant suitable for partial shade, Paul always discusses their exact requirements. It doesn’t hurt to remember this! See this post for more information on how to choose plants for different types of shade.
For example, if you have very dry, poor soil, consider planting a dry (or gravel) garden.
Watch more videos of Rose Cottage Garden
This video has some beautiful views of Rose Cottage Garden, plus some advice from Paul.
Pin to remember about your garden’s microclimate
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