On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:15:00 -0000, Bob Hobden wrote:

I live in Arkengarthdale at 1200+ feet. (google it )
It's windy. It's cold. I love it but plants don't.

Snap but add 200' to that altitude and a few tens of miles further
north up to the middle of the North Pennines ANOB.

I have made up some raised beds to try and combat the killing
conditions.

Wind anytime and winter cold are the killing conditions here. I can't
see how a raised bed is going to help either of those, you'll lift
the plants up into the wind and let the frost at the roots in the
winter.

He'll have the problem that he needs a windbreak that can cope
with the
cold as well as with high winds (but it doesn't need to be
salt-tolerant). I was wondering if juniper was suitable.

I would have thought Rowans would be OK especially the Sorbus aucuparia
var sibirica and var glabrata. Likewise Scots Pine should also cope and
that will provide a tall windbreak IDC.

Juniper should survive, make sure you get a native variety it is a
threatened shrub/tree. Rowan, Birch, Ash, Scots Pine, Larch should
also survive.

Note the use of the word "survive", the growing season is very short
and still harsh. We planted 800+ trees (as slips) 10+ years ago, 20%
didn't make it through the first winter, 10% didn't make it through
the second. They vary in size from a slender 8' saplings with a few
small twigs near the top to small, maybe 15', wind swept trees.
Probably down to the variations in ground it goes from well drained
"chalk downland" with hair bells, cotton grass, scabious to wet peaty
soil.

For creating a wind break Birch or Rowan is probably the best bet but
don't expect much result in less than five years. Ash takes years to
establish but then grows reasonably well considering that it's
normally just coming into leaf two weeks after everything else and
drops it's leaves two weeks earlier than everthing else.

What else have we got that doesn't disappear? Crocosmia, wooly
willow, london pride, red and black currants (they are sheltered
behind 5' drystone walls), buddleia (but only just, the season is
almost too short for it), snow in summer, geraniums (hardy!), fuschia
(again a hardy variety), forget-me-not (one my late mothers
favorites, I'm hoping the few examples we have will self seed around
the place), docks, thistles, nettles and ragwort also seem to like it
but we don't like them so they are slowly being eradicated by pulling
or strimming the patches.

The key is probably selection of probably suitable plants and
patience. Just because something disappears the year after it was
planted don't assume it's dead, it may well just be resting from the
shock! We have had stuff come back in the third year.

--
Cheers
Dave.