[Jon Gale]

Our new site is very exposed, and the wind seems relentless - to the extent that the leaves are literally being torn off my runners by it. Any tips for cheap/DIY windbreaks just to tide me over until next pay day?

I am thinking of taking a beach windbreak down womorrow.

[cadalot]

OK I've made 4ft square panels out of old fizzy drink bottles to cover and warm up my grapes, I will also make some to use as a cloche and when I get more a greenhouse, but you could make 2ft high ones to make as windbreakers. 

[Yana]

OK I've made 4ft square panels out of old fizzy drink bottles to cover and warm up my grapes, I will also make some to use as a cloche and when I get more a greenhouse, but you could make 2ft high ones to make as windbreakers.

Do you cut the top off the bottles Cadalot as they seem to fit together without a gap.

[snow white]

I have the same problem.  I have used old gazebo poles banged into the ground. Then I used a green mesh and tied them to the pole with cable tie.  So far they are working brilliantly.  When you crouch down behind them it is noticably warmer.  It is only 3ft high and higher than my beans at the moment.

[Oddpod]

Any netting which you are not using at the moment will help, either around the plants or around the perimeter fencing of your lotty, I am on a very exposed site facing the sea and use anything I can lay my hands on, including old net curtains. It is better to use something which will allow some of the wind to pass through, like netting, large solid structures tend to create turbulence around your plants and may flatten them.

[Annen]

I made this heath-robinson arrangement yesterday , not to stop the wind but just to slow it down a bit, by weaving canes and/or any old thin pieces of wood I could find.  The fence at the front is chestnut palings from an old fence. I thought I could staple some netting to it if I needed to.

[Trillium]

Adding some sort of mesh will help disrupt the strong air currents doing all the damage. It's a simple trick but does work. One garden I had was at the top of a hill and I had to use every trick I could think of to keep the plants in the ground. Another trick was to place individual scrap boards in front of each young plant to the windward side. Eventually I planted spirea plants a few feet to the windward side and when they sized up a bit, the wind speed had dropped considerably around the plants.

[Jon Gale]

I have had a good furtle round in the rafters in my garage, and to my surprise the previous occupants have left a few useful bits and pieces behind. So as well as 7xbeach windbreak poles, I have 7x 6' lenghts of 2x1 and a plank about 10' long. I think I will go and invest in some decent netting to make a windbreak for my beans - that can be cable tied to the windbreak poles. The 2x1 can make a cage for brassicas later on.

[cadalot]

OK I've made 4ft square panels out of old fizzy drink bottles to cover and warm up my grapes, I will also make some to use as a cloche and when I get more a greenhouse, but you could make 2ft high ones to make as windbreakers.

Do you cut the top off the bottles Cadalot as they seem to fit together without a gap.

I stack the bottles one inside another by cutting off the bottoms and with a garden cane supporting them through the middle. The first bottle has a hole melted with a soldering iron in the bottom. At one end I reverse a bottle so it faces the opposite way from the rest and cut the top off and again have burnt a hole in the bottom which is now the top of the stack.

This makes a long tube with the ends of the garden cane sticking out of the tops of the bottles at either end. You can adjust the length to pushing or pulling joints. The I use U nails and nail the bamboo to the frame which is made out of large roof batten

[Yana]

OK I've made 4ft square panels out of old fizzy drink bottles to cover and warm up my grapes, I will also make some to use as a cloche and when I get more a greenhouse, but you could make 2ft high ones to make as windbreakers.

Do you cut the top off the bottles Cadalot as they seem to fit together without a gap.

I stack the bottles one inside another by cutting off the bottoms and with a garden cane supporting them through the middle. The first bottle has a hole melted with a soldering iron in the bottom. At one end I reverse a bottle so it faces the opposite way from the rest and cut the top off and again have burnt a hole in the bottom which is now the top of the stack.

This makes a long tube with the ends of the garden cane sticking out of the tops of the bottles at either end. You can adjust the length to pushing or pulling joints. The I use U nails and nail the bamboo to the frame which is made out of large roof batten

Thanks for the explanation. Seems straight forward enough so I'm going to give it a try as I've got loads of bottles and daughter number 2 drinks fizzy stuff all the time getting through 8-10 bottles a week.