We have recently moved onto a country lot that was a field adjacent to farmland for about the last 30 years. It was mostly overrun with Bradford Pear trees that have since been removed. But now the acreage is wide open and the wind from the southwest has been near constant.
Now we've just added 10 chicks so that we can get our first flock established. I have the location for the coop selected, but no matter where it is on the lot it's going to get a ton of wind. I'm hoping some of you have recommendations for beneficial plants I can add around the coop/run that will act as a natural barrier, and maybe even have some benefit to the chickens.
20 years ago, we had the same problem on our homestead. We planted white pine in the places we wanted to work. We also let a row of wild berries grow for about 200 yards down the creek bank. We have since add 4 other berry types in the same row. It has been windy here the last couple of weeks with 15-30 mph winds. I was out doing chores last night and noticed how calm the winds are behind these wind breaks. There is almost no wind behind the pines.
Christopher Shepherd wrote:20 years ago, we had the same problem on our homestead. We planted white pine in the places we wanted to work. We also let a row of wild berries grow for about 200 yards down the creek bank. We have since add 4 other berry types in the same row. It has been windy here the last couple of weeks with 15-30 mph winds. I was out doing chores last night and noticed how calm the winds are behind these wind breaks. There is almost no wind behind the pines.
I'm relieved to hear that, I actually pulled seeds from a white pine last fall and I have 9 seedlings growing in my office as we speak.
This is a big subject actually... as always in Permaculture, "it depends".
I'm not in your ecosystem. So here are some things to consider:
1. Is the wind direction the same year round, or does it have significant seasonal changes?
2. Conifers are year round shade, decidual is seasonal. Do you need one, both or a mix?
3. What is your winter vs summer temperature variation?
Our chickens love things like Mulberry (not too many leaves as they're too high in protein), apples, and everything in the cabbage family. There are some tall "tree kale" that might have a role. They'll eat a bunch of berries also, but they really want bugs, so overdoing the sugar isn't a good thing.
There are many choices for windbreaks, but I personally like Eastern Red Cedar, see the pic below. It grows really dense almost ground to top and is of course evergreen. The pic is from a site I hadn't come across before, Windbreak Trees. It seems like a really useful site regarding how to design and plant etc., and of course, they're glad to sell you the trees. White pine is on their species list too!
Anyway, back to the cedar, I might plant a double or triple row with an eye to progressively logging as they grow for the lovely rot-resistant wood, very handy for all kinds of things on the farm. Windbreaks are more effective if they're not just a vertical wall, I might plant some dense, low bush or shrub at the base of the windward side and also the leeward side of your cedars.
If your prevailing wind is from the southwest, then, I'd plant maybe some berries on the sun-facing side, and a shade-loving bush if you can find something appropriate, on the NE side. Planting something at the base of the windward side is more important to sculpt your windbreak than the leeward side, but both are helpful.
In addition to the Windbreak Trees website I just came across, the Plants for a Future website is really great to search for plants with specific characteristics you might need on a permie property, it's great for stacking functions and idea generation.
My chickens love white pine needles (as long as it’s still green and attached to the branch so they can pluck of pieces) it grows fairly fast and you can probably get saplings for free from people who don’t want it on there property.
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