Weather - Is the combination of rainfall, temperature, wind sunshine and air humidity which affects your garden at a specific point in time. You can help defend your garden against climate and weather changes with some straightforward renovation work.
Climate - Is the summary of the weather which is likely to affect your garden all through the year. The climate maps of your area should be used as a rough guide only. They supply averages over many years instead of telling you the extremes of climatic conditions which you are likely to enjoy (or suffer) during a specific year. Furthermore, the general climate of your region can be much modified by factors all around the garden (the local climate) and the factors around each plant (the microclimate).
General climate - The overall climate provides a rough guide to the weather you may expect in your garden. In Britain it varies from nearly sub-tropical (S.W. coastal areas) to nearly sub-arctic (N.Scottish highlands). The general climate is controlled by the latitude, altitude, direction of the prevailing wind and the closeness to the sea. The effect of latitude is apparent to everyone, southern gardens are warmer than northern ones. The effect of being close to the sea is equally recognized, western coastal gardens are kept virtually frost-free by the Gulf Stream. Less well known is the effect of small increases in altitude and the plant-damaging effect of salt in coastal areas for as much as 5 miles inland.
Local climate - The local climate is the modified form of general climate. A little renovation work cancertainly help in this area. It is controlled by:
Slope - a south facing sloping site starts its growing season about 1 week before a level plot.
Openness - nearby trees and bushes will cast shade and reduce solar energy, but they do also reduce the damaging effect of high gusts of wind.
Proximity of buildings - town gardens are affected in several ways by the closeness of walls, houses etc. Walls cast shadows and thus reduce solar energy, they can also cast rain shadows and so diminish rainfall. Walls affect the temperature, heat is released at night and south facing walls can potentially form a sun trap.
Soil type - frosts tend to be more likely to occur over sandy soils than over heavy ones.
Proximity of water - a close-by large lake can have a cooling effect on hot summer days.
Micro climate - The is the modified kind of local climate in a immediate vicinity of a plant. Large variations can occur from one part of a garden to another part. Nearby walls and hedges or overhanging plants will certainly lead to less light and less rainfall than in an open garden, the effect of this rain shadow can be to cut the water supply to only 25% of the rainfall in an open garden. On the credit side the effect of nearby walls and plants is to cut the danger of frost on clear, still nights and to cut back the harmful effect of wind. The general climate cannot, of course, be changed. The local climate is usually impossible to change but they can often be improved by introducing cloches or windbreaks. Carrying out some renovation work to your garden can be a great help against the elements.
Author Resource:
An amazing quantity of my time is spent in my garden. One of the jobs I enjoy a lot is crrying out renovation work. I find it helps me to unwind and forget everything, apart from the work I am doing.
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