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There we were in our new home perched majestically on top of the ridge overlooking the surrounding mountains. What a beautiful view! What a perfect place for the landscape we envisioned with trees, shrubs, perennial beds, vegetable gardens, cutting gardens, water features, the works! After the first winter, however, we learned it was a severely windy ridge which rattles our windows and froze rain before it got down to earth. It even blew snow hither and dither to pile up at our doors so we could barely get out again. Something had to be done but what?
That was obvious to us. We needed windbreaks and several of them in tiers to diffuse that harsh wind and keep the snow at bay. Tall trees planted where the wind prevailed, followed by tall hedges and fences and then we could plant our masterpiece landscape. What we didn’t know at the time was that doing this had a fancy name. We had created Micro-climates.
What is a Micro-climate? Just sections of your yard where wind, temperatures and other conditions are a bit different than your surrounding landscape. We all have them within our landscape without realizing it. In our case the backyard with all these wind diffusing plants and structures was far less windy and consequently, a tad bit warmer than our open field out front. In the same vain making a garden along a stone wall created another micro-climate even warmer. The stones drew in the sun’s rays helping keep the plants there just that tiny bit warmer.
Sometimes these micro climates can give you an extra half to whole zone warmer if done carefully. For those of us in northern regions of the globe even a quarter of a zone can be the difference between a plant which makes it through the winter and not. Believe me, micro-climates are what every gardener should purposely look for and make within his/her landscape even those who garden in southern areas. Yes, a micro-climate can make things a bit cooler too for heat sensitive plants.
Each yard has many micro-climates though it may not seem it to us. They may vary so very slightly. A flower bed in semi-shade is different than one placed in full, bright sun. We all have a slightly shadier side of the house perfect for shade loving plants. The area near a pond or waterfall is slightly cooler in summer than the rock garden with its porous soil and heat-retaining stones. But during winter that same water may make the area around it just a bit warmer due to the warming effect of moist air.
Micro-climates are worth looking into. Check out the various ones around your own dwelling and see if you too can’t make them work to your garden’s advantage.
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 For more fun gardening facts and amusing short stories come visit me at http://www.helium.com/user/32782
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