Windbreaks are very important in some areas of WA to protect your garden & crops from damage.
Shadecloth with a shade density of 35% make an ideal windbreak , and as an added bonus offers a reasonable level of shading.
What makes a good windbreak?
When installing a windbreak, you need to choose a material that reduces the amount of wind, but not by too much.
35% shadecloth strikes this balance. It blocks enough wind to reduce the potential damage to plants, but not so much that the material starts to act as a sail, flapping and moving about. When this happens, the sheltered side is subject to excessive turbulent air movement, and this will cause its own problems.
So the goal is to use a fabric for windbreak, like 35% shade cloth that will reduce the straight flow of the wind, without creating turbulence on the sheltered side.
In this photo you can see that the spacing of the fibres is quite open and while it does let the wind pass through, it offers enough resistance to protect plants and crops.
Where do you install a windbreak?
For a windbreak to be effective, you need to understand which direction the prevailing damaging winds come from. This will depend on where you live in. Once you have figured this out this is the side that you want to place the windbreak on.
How high does a wind break need to be?
A good rule of thumb, is that a wind break will reduce air flow for a distance ten times the height of the barrier, assuming level ground. So this means that if you use 1.83m wide shadecloth, you will shelter an area up to 18 metres from your windbreak.
If your block is sloping, it will depend on which way the ground runs.
If the ground slopes downwards on the sheltered side, then a windbreak 1.83m high will protect even further from the windbreak.
Ground that slopes up on the sheltered side, will be less protected at the same point.
Looking for more information on 35% shadecloth?
