It has been pretty windy at my place in the last month or so, actually it has been extremely windy, I have been away a fair bit and keep coming back to a very wind stressed garden.
I live on the coast, my garden isn’t front line coastal but lately it has been feeling that way, we are about 800mm from the water and behind a large sand dune, that I thought would provide some protection when it came to wind. However I wasn’t counting on these nasty winter westerlies that come hurling down from the Escarpment and have been flattening parts of my garden.

I am comfortable with the Winter Southerlies that hit us pretty hard, they strip the leaves from my bamboo and a few of my Lilly Pillys, as there is a bit of a wind tunnel down the side of my house. I expect this every year and every year the plants come back, stronger than ever. I have never seen this sort of damage to some tough natives in my garden and I have been here 7 years.

Above you can see my poor Leptospermum sericeum and Dodonaea viscosa purpurea almost laying down, both I would have considered wind tolerant and both were fairly established. I have since removed the Leptosoermum after I discovered it was damaged at the roots, instead I am going to try a Grevillea olivacea Red (fingers crossed). As the the Dodonaea it seemed to have respond to staking and deep watering.

 

The other plant whose suffering I was very surprised at was my Calothamnus quadrifidus Grey, poooof and blown over, just like that. Luckily it too seems to have responded well to staking and it standing up and taking a buffering like a trooper.

I thought I would do a little re-cap of the truly wind tolerant natives in my front garden who have not suffered at all.

So, of my screening shrubs in that same position that have coped well with the winds are:

Below, Banksia spinulosa standing tall and strong.

 

Below, Leptospermum brachyandrum Silver, I have three of these out the front and my neighbour also has three, all six just bend gently in the gale forced winds, looking almost graceful.

Below, Casuarinas, hooray for the she oaks, I have a Casuarina nana in my front garden that has showy flowers and withstands terrifying winds, it also prunes well and grows fast!

 

And last but not least Melaleucas, I have Melaleuca incana in my front garden and wind has never been an issue for it.

 

I will keep you posted with the progress of the Grevillea olivacea Red, but I’m sure it will be fine.