The weather will be a major influence on the design and planting of your garden. If you live in an area where the proportion of cold, wet days is high, you should site your vegetable patch near the house, or at least make sure there is a dry path to it so that it will he easy to pick a winter cabbage.
A well planned garden should make the most of variations in the microclimate. The plants behind the pond and under the tree-Himalayan poppies, rhubarb, hostas and primula -all like shade and moisture; the fruit trees are trained up against the wall, since brick stores and re-radiates solar heat long after the sun has gone off the garden; and the vegetables are planted on a south-facing slope to catch the full benefit of the sun's rays.
Shade-loving plants tend to be the ones with relatively large leaves, since these become hotter than small leaves when exposed to sunlight. While plants and soil absorb heat from the sun during the day, at night they give off heat into the atmosphere. On cloudy nights, heat radiated from the ground is partly reflected back again, so that temperatures do not increase too rapidly. On clear winter nights, however, nearly all the heat is lost to space and the ground temperature falls rapidly until it is lower than that of the air. The soil then takes heat from the air at ground level, resulting in freezing.
The incidence of frost will be less under overhanging trees and covering the ground with materials such as straw or sacking will also help to reduce night-time heat loss. A free flow of air, ensuring that cooled air gets whipped away by the wind before its temperature drops too far, prevents the formation of frost pockets.
The overall design and the use of plants can either lead the eve out or focus it within the garden. The garden illustrated above adjoins an equally attractive beyond.
The maps shown here cannot indicate the details of local variations, though these can be significant. The effect of local altitude, for instance, can mean that a garden in a sheltered valley above a frost pocket will enjoy one or two weeks more growth than a nearby garden up in the hills.
A well planned garden should make the most of variations in the microclimate. The plants behind the pond and under the tree-Himalayan poppies, rhubarb, hostas and primula -all like shade and moisture; the fruit trees are trained up against the wall, since brick stores and re-radiates solar heat long after the sun has gone off the garden; and the vegetables are planted on a south-facing slope to catch the full benefit of the sun's rays.
Shade-loving plants tend to be the ones with relatively large leaves, since these become hotter than small leaves when exposed to sunlight. While plants and soil absorb heat from the sun during the day, at night they give off heat into the atmosphere. On cloudy nights, heat radiated from the ground is partly reflected back again, so that temperatures do not increase too rapidly. On clear winter nights, however, nearly all the heat is lost to space and the ground temperature falls rapidly until it is lower than that of the air. The soil then takes heat from the air at ground level, resulting in freezing.
The incidence of frost will be less under overhanging trees and covering the ground with materials such as straw or sacking will also help to reduce night-time heat loss. A free flow of air, ensuring that cooled air gets whipped away by the wind before its temperature drops too far, prevents the formation of frost pockets.
The overall design and the use of plants can either lead the eve out or focus it within the garden. The garden illustrated above adjoins an equally attractive beyond.
The maps shown here cannot indicate the details of local variations, though these can be significant. The effect of local altitude, for instance, can mean that a garden in a sheltered valley above a frost pocket will enjoy one or two weeks more growth than a nearby garden up in the hills.
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Selecting suitable plants that suit to the climate of the region of your garden is important in garden planning.
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