On The Edge

[stinker]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. So I'm sorry if my questions have been answered a million times before.

At the end of this month I'll be moving to Port Mulgrave. It's a tiny little place between Staiths and Runswick Bay. My new home is situated quite close to the edge of the cliffs with no wind break, what so ever.

I don't want to erect a wind break, either. It'll spoil the view for ourselves and the neighbours.

The garden its self is about one third of an acre but it also comes with a padock of about the same size. The garden has been landscaped with a beautiful large pond and a few small trees dotted about. The trees are maybe three feet high.

But I want to grow some fast growing trees and I was thinking of silver birch but I'm not sure how that will fair in the high winds. I have to say, I haven't seen any birch in that area. I don't know whether that is a clue to the success of such a species in that enviroment.

Also, does anyone know of a decent garden centre in that are? I'll be wanting plenty of advice soon, as I'm not a gardener. I'm a wonnabe.

Thanks in advance. Stinker

[gardengal]

A couple of things........Port Mulgrave could be on the moon for all I know, so something a bit more specific as to location would be helpful. Since I looked it up, I found it's on the coast of Yorkshire and photos of the area show a very open, somewhat rocky and windswept promintory. While I'm no authority on the area by any means, that would lead me to believe that establishing large, fast growing shade trees would be problematic - if they could grow easily or well in that type of situation, chances are they'd already be present. Birches of all types are very prone to wind damage, so they'd not be on the top of my list. I'd suggest you wait until you are settled there and ask neighbors or view what DOES grow well in that location. There is also a rec.gardens forum specifically addressed to those that reside in the UK......you will likely get far better suggestion there.

And my last suggestion is that caution needs to be exercised when considering "fast growing" trees - in general, trees that put on growth quite rapidly also often have structural issues that make them undesirable for very windy sites.

[sf]

Pretty place, but it doesn't look like the locals do much gardening.

It looks like you'll need to plant a lot of birch trees to produce any appreciable wind break. I don't think you can do it on a third of an acre

Why not plant a traditional British hedge? The BBC seems to have a comprehensive web site. Have you looked there? But I want to grow some fast growing trees and I was thinking of silver

I would go to Google and use North York Moors gardens, gardening or landscape as a search term. I'd also search for Images.

[sf]

If you noticed his @ you would have seen it's one of those online forums that borrow usenet content to look like they are busy. He had no idea he was asking the world. He thought he was speaking to fellow Brits or at least people who had more of a clue than you or I did.

[stinker]

Right, thanks for the replies... I did add very local areas that are well known in the UK. And the web site I submit my question to has a dot co dot uk in the address. Which, in my experience gives the impression that I would be conversing with fellow Brits.

Top and bottom line... Am I going to face snotty attitude in here or am I better off in another forum? 'Cause I can do snotty, too. But I prefare nice chearful people.

But hey, if an unfriendly manner is your way?

[sf]

Bottom line... you're not really in the UK based forum you think you're in. You're on Usenet.

Sorry if you took it as being unfriendly. It's a wild world out here in Usenet and although curt, the reply was far from snotty.

[gardengal]

Sorry...the response was not intended to be snotty. Although I used to participate on this newsgroup extensively, I've been away for a few years and things have changed. There used to be an associated group that focused on gardening in the UK but apparently that has been incorporated into gardenbanter and any posts are now distributed to a worldwide audience. Where you are located specifically is paramount for any helpful advice.

I still believe you will get much more meaningful suggestions from those who garden in a similar location and under smiliar conditions. I'd try here:

do take all responses with a grain of salt :-) The Internet is a valuable resource but newsgroups and forums lack the type of personal interaction that allows one to accurately assess and interpret written intent and meaning - one misses facial expressions and body language that indicate emotion. They're hard to replicate with computer icons and punctuation smiley faces. So what you may consider 'snotty' is more often than not just a brief /blunt presentation of facts or opinion.