Wind and Gardens

Wind in gardens can wreak havoc on young plants. Windy days, even more so on sunny or hot days, forces a lot of evapotranspiration on the plants causing them to wilt. They don’t have deeply rooted systems yet, and the plant simply can’t keep up with demand. Thus windy days are bad for transplanting, and this is how I screwed up and my wife saved my butt.

So I decided things were too cramped in a couple of our raised beds. The russian red kale and a Brussels Sprouts were beginning to shade my turnips. So I transplanted the sprout to the edge of the bed, and the two kale to whiskey barrel flower planters. I watered. Then I watered again, and they wilted. It was the hottest day of the year so far, 90’s and high winds to boot.

I blew it. They didn’t look good. I had to go uptown for propane so to smooth thngs over with the wife I dropped by the nursery. Picked up a six pack of white impatiens, two oriental poppies, six pack of coleus, and four millet. This would make up for killing the other plants. When I got home, I surprised my wife with the flowers.

However, she had a little surprise of her own. Later on as I made dinner she went around and plucked the old leaves from the Kale I had transplanted. Leaving behind only about the three newest leaves. They are doing just fine. Lesson learned, in addition to water if you reduce the amount of surface area that evapotransiration can occur, it will help with transplant success.



We only get to have a couple of small raised beds for gardening at the place we summer. So this year I added a faux raised bed, and lined a 2X10 frame with cardboard on the bottom. This is my container garden for small nursery stock like the 2 for $2 catalog special weigelas, and mockorange, and a couple smokebush. There’s random stuff I started like echinacea, and rudbeckia.

Its also for my baby potatoes, which I grow by putting in the bottom of a container half full of soil. Once the potato plants grow past the top of the container I fill the rest of the way with compost. At the end of the season the container will be full of baby size potatoes. I think it’s probably one of the easiest ways to grow potatoes.

There are also one gallon containers filled with habanero and jalapeno peppers. The small container forces them to flower sooner in our short growing season here. It will allow me to harvest peppers sooner, and transport them. Container growing allows season to be extended in the spring or fall if a greenhouse, coldframe, or south facing window is available.

Lastly there’s a lone red pear tomato, because it like variety in my salad. It’s also to keep it away from the Sungolds I planted, and the Tibetan tomatoes my wife planted. I always seem to have issues with cross pollenation or something the more varieties I grow. So those are my gardens, and how their affected by wind.