Exposed gardens are often located on a hill or near the coast, and as such often have good views. However, they also have to cope with the effects of strong winds, which damage plants and garden features. Rooftop gardens and hills in town also suffer from powerful gusts, funnelled by buildings, hills, valleys and established woods.

Here are some ideas to help you cope with your exposed garden.

Boundaries

Boundaries need to be at least 50% wind permeable, so that they baffle, filter and drain rather than contain wind. A tree or hedge shelter belt is often the most popular choice. Barriers should be slightly taller than those in standard gardens - standing at least 2 metres - although you may need to check on any boundary height restrictions you may have.

A series of barriers can also be very effective, although they will require a fair amount of space, as the intervals between each should be about 10 times their height.

Creating Sheltered Sites

Choose or make sheltered sites for patios, arbours and other seating areas, using secondary hedges and fencing. Walls can produce wind eddies, so create year round sheltered pockets using evergreen plants or filtering internal structures such as trellis.

Consider making sunken areas of the garden to provide shelter for patios, seating and planting. You can create a 'sunken' garden by building raised beds around an area, avoiding major earth movement.

Vegetable gardens can have quite low hedges or hurdles around them - even a windbreak of just 50 cm will work. Lavender hedging would be a good choice.

Protecting Your Structures

Tall features such as arches, pergolas and trellises should be concreted into the ground. The top growth of plants adds extra weight and wind resistance to these structures, so you will need to sink about a third of their finished height into the ground.

Take care where you position fragile structure such as greenhouses; if necessary, make sure they are in a sheltered spot with their own separate wind break.

Protecting Your Planting

Wind causes physical damage to plants, breaking limbs and stems, and drying out foliage of evergreens. Salty coastal winds are even more destructive. Create a shelter belt of planting using wind tolerant plants, installing temporary windbreaks around them to help them get established. A barrier of garden mesh stapled to stakes hammered into the ground is often very useful for this purpose. When this planting has become established, you will find that you now have sheltered areas in your garden in which to widen your plant choice.

Choose plants with robust but flexible stems that will move with wind. Support herbaceous plants by pushing twiggy pea sticks (hazel brushwood) into the ground around them early on in the season.