In article , MartnJules.9dba937
@gardenbanter.co.uk says...

Hi Folks,

I'm a bit of a ?New? gardener and I'm looking for some advice on the use
of Garden cloches.

We finished landscaping our garden last year and put in 8 x raised beds
around 2m x 1m. Although my wife and I are novices, we had a reasonable
amount of success with Kidney Beans, Peas, Courgettes, Mange tout and
salads.

The one thing I discovered is that when you plant things, there are a
number of things that are out to get you!

1. Domestic cats ? Our next door neighbour has 5 cats which took great
pleasure in using the beds as their personal toilet.

2. The Wind! ? We live in a cliff top village in the Scottish Borders
and suffer from extremely high winds. We lost 3 of our Courgette plants
in one afternoon despite a 7 ft garden fence and the fact they were
staked.

Someone else will advise on the cloches; but it's worth mentioning that
in a windy location, a 7ft fence offers so much wind resistance that it
causes considerable wind turbulance in its lee (the sheltered side).
Swirling turbulence is notorious for dragging plants out of the ground
especially large leafed ones like courgettes. In other words it's not the
best way to reduce wind damage in the garden (and, in my experience of
Scotland's wind, a tall solid fence probably won't last long). You may
also find that your cloches act like a sail and fly away in gales, unless
very well anchored.

The best wind protection for plants, is slowing down the windspeed and
turbulance by letting it blow through dense planting. It doesn't need to
be as tall as 7ft. From the list below, I'd particularly recommend cornus
alba and rosa rugosa for cheap fast tough shelterbelts that can easily be
controlled and shaped. If your cliff is on the warmer west coast, green
phormiums also make good windbreaks.

http://www.glendoick.com/index.php?page=advice2-wind

Janet ( gardening on windy clifftop, Arran)