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Plants to trap snow? Raspberries?

 
Myron Platte
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What plants have you guys found useful for trapping windblown snow? I'm considering raspberries, does anyone know if they work for this? How about for directing snow in a different direction?

Sorry, admins, I'm not sure where to put this topic. If there is a more appropriate forum for this, please move it there.

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thomas rubino
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Hi Myron;    
Here in Northern Montana we can get quite a bit of snow some years.
We are very lucky to live in a small valley that rarely get much wind.
We did have an incredible  raspberry patch for many years .  I would say they would have made a poor wind break at best.

I don't know what would grow best in your climate but I would look at some kind of a hedge plant.
Use plastic snow fencing for protection while anything you plant is small.
Build swales to attempt to change wind direction and the resulting snow drift.

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Hi, We get 95kph winds and a lot of snow. We built a log wall 3meters tall to divert snow, plus we have dwarf evergreen trees. It is very improbable to stop snow.
 
Myron Platte
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I know that raspberries are not going to stop wind. What I want is a plant that will function like a snow fence, and I noticed that a buckwheat and oats mix left standing through the winter seemed to collect a pile of compacted snow in amongst the stems, so I thought a raspberry hedge could mimic that. I heard that boxwood is good for this, but that plant is way too poisonous for the zone 1 application I need. Preferably, there would be a drift on the windward side.

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Michael Cox
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What about jerusalem artichokes?

The stems grow 6ft high, and stand all winter if undisturbed. A strip 6ft wide should give you a decent wind barrier.

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Myron Platte
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Michael Cox wrote:What about jerusalem artichokes?

The stems grow 6ft high, and stand all winter if undisturbed. A strip 6ft wide should give you a decent wind barrier.



Neat idea... but if jerusalem artichokes work, I don’t see why raspberries wouldn’t. Similar growth habits. Both leafless in winter. The problem with jerusalem artichokes is that to harvest, you have to turn up the soil, and that will be a no-no in the area I’m trying to catch snow. See, I’m trying to stack functions here. Food and snow catch.

Earthworks are the skeleton; the plants and animals flesh out the design.

 
Marc Dube
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I actually studied where and why snow collected this winter and yes your raspberry patch would collect snow. To sum it up I found that it took short plants a width of 2 to 3 feet wide hedge to collect snow and it collected it up to a hight of itself minus 4 inches. So if your raspberries were 4 feet high there should be a snow bank over 3.5 feet.
 
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On which side of the raspberry patch did the snow collect? Windward or leeward?

Earthworks are the skeleton; the plants and animals flesh out the design.

 
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