It is always better to select plants that will thrive in the given conditions rather than trying to alter the conditions to suit the plant. However, there may be occasions where a plant flourishes well in a garden during the growing season, but needs a little help to survive the frost, snow and cold winds of winter.

It may also be useful to create windbreaks to shelter plants from damaging gusts of wind and allowing the gardener to grow a wider range of plants.

In this section we look at all these tasks, from wrapping trees and shrubs in hessian to insulate them from the cold, to erecting a series of semi-permeable barriers to reduce the strength and speed of wind blowing across the garden.