The benefits of having trees in your yard are enormous; from the purely practical, such as offering privacy, shade and protection from the elements, to their natural beauty. The best trees for a windbreak can help prevent storm damage to other plants and property-and even provide food and flavouring too.
'In contrast to a rigid structure such as a brick wall or a wood fence, a row of privacy trees allows strong winds to blow through it, reducing the strength and slowing it down,' says Kim Stoddart, co-author, The Climate Change Garden. 'There are so many reasons why trees are so much better as a wind break than a fence or wall. A solid structure can act as a sort of trampoline for wind, simply bouncing it off so it lands (and causes possible worse issues) elsewhere. Wind can have an extreme cooling impact on plants causing further stress and damage, alongside the actual on the the ground impact of the strong force. It's much better therefore to slow the flow and enable it to gently spread and dissipate, which is what happens when hedging or trees are used instead as a barrier.'
