Regardless of where you live and your local weather patterns, your gardens and landscape will have their own specific microclimate which is created due to several different factors and influences working together. The factors include the orientation of your site, its protection from wind, whether it slopes or not, and the amount of sun and shade it receives each day. So besides your local growing conditions, your microclimate is a very important consideration for a successful landscape and garden.

Any structures or obstacles that you place on your lot can effect the microclimate. All your landscaping plans could easily be effected by just one placement. A house, for example, can cause a windbreak that changes the airflow around it. Some areas will be cooler and some areas will be warmer on either side of the house. There will also be shade in different places at different times of the day. A wall or fence has effects on a garden or landscape just the same as natural elements like trees, bushes, and other vegetation.

The composition of the soil surface can have effect on local temerature changes. Some surfaces like paving gets so hot in the warmer summer months that you can’t walk on it. The heat they produce is also felt in the air above. In comparison, a concrete surface keeps cooler. All landscaping plans will be effected differently by different elements. Lawn grass is always cool with the length of the grass having an influence on the temperature of the soil under it. You can use temperature changes like this to help you grow warmth loving plants like semi-tropical varieties. These varieties can grow well in front of brick walls or you can espalier fruit trees against a sun facing wall if you live in a cooler climate. Surfaces that heat up during the day will release the heat slowly throughout the night. This effect can be used to mitigate frost damage in susceptible areas.

To reduce exposure to wind in any garden, some sort of barrier is usually needed. It’s been noticed that solid wind barriers such as solid wood fencing makes areas of turbulence on both sides of the barrier. This is common knowledge to most landscaping contractors. The best barriers and blocks are those that allow some air flow. A barrier like this will be more like a filter than a baracade. You can use trees or shrubs with light foliage, an open spaced board fence or even a brick fence with spaces between the bricks to create a good wind barrier.

A body of water such as a pond or pool can have different effects on microclimates. It stabilises the temperature of the air to a greater or lesser extent depending on the size of the pond. A pond reflects light from its surface, so plants surrounding a pond tend to get both more water and more light than those planted elsewhere. However, even though a pond has a cooling effect on its surroundings in the heat of Summer, it can also have a very chilly effect in Winter. Keep this in mind when you’re considering where to place a pond.

Both people and vegetation get more out of it when you consider your site’s microclimate and plan accordingly.