Important shelter

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 18, 29 September 1987, Page 9

Important shelter

How often have so many of us said when faced with a mass of tangled growth and weed in our garden "I'd like to clear the whole lot and start again". With a new garden we were given that opportunity, there being little in the way of planting but that very rampant herb Comfrey. Masses of it. Comfrey acts as a good accelerator in the making of compost and quite a lot of this found it's way into the compost heap. As with all new plantings shelter for the young plants was the first consideration. So many young plants struggle for f survival because of lack of shelter from drying winds, hot sun in summer and frost in winter. Even if the plants are hardy enough to survive, it takes them a long time to recover from their poor start in life. In our garden we are fortunate to have a solid wooden fence right around the property. By fixing wooden battens painted the same colour as the fence to the posts and attaching a strip of shade cloth 18 inches wide to the top of the battens we effectively raised the fence line to a height of four and a half feet. This has proved quite adequate to protect the plants growing beneath and all of them seem to have made good growth. In the absence of a solid fence or a thick hedge the planting of shrubs and trees of stronger growth less likely to be troubled

by adverse weather will, once they have made sufficient growth, provide good shelter for the more tender plantings. Rittosporum varieties, Escallonia, Japonicas, Buddlia etc, are all useful in this respect and planted as a solid background will be quite effective. Good temporary shelter can be achieved by windbreak cloth, less expensive than shade cloth, or even sacking attached firmly to s takes driven into the ground around the plantings. However it is achieved, the golden rule for any successful garden is to provide good shelter first. Planning the Layout Planning the layout of our garden presented little difficulty. Our ffont garden being so tiny, we had to make all our flower beds follow the fence lines leaving a small centre lawn, but by digging the beds in long sweeping curves and rounding off sharp corners we have achieved the effect of making this section of the garden appear to lead on to somewhere else. In this case only to a very narrow strip between the decking and the side fence. The effect of 'Leading the eye away', so to speak, can make even a small area appear larger. Here we have planted climbing roses along the fence line, and if I win the battle over the necessity of a mowing strip, native ferns will be planted along this narrow pathway. Such a shaded cool area would be ideal for them.