Wind breaks

You could try something like berberis, mahonia or even holly, not sure how they'd cope with the wet but they're all pretty tough!

Apologies for not replying sooner - blame the winter, working, being away, four dogs and now re-wiring the house! Appreciate your replies though.

 

I've always wanted mahonia in the garden and my husband recently pointed to a plant and said "I like that" which was berberis. Interplanting with Rosa rugosa sounds good as the hips would bring good colour too. I should have said hawthorn is a no-no as we already have three very long hedges of it, which borders our property. We love it - as do the wren, blackbird, greenfinch and bullfinch that have nested this year - but we don't want any more.

We will seriously have to think about what we plant as we want to landscape more of our garden and put in more shrubs. Thank you for the ideas.

Hi sweetpea

 

Mahonia are good workhouse shrubs - we have one in a very shady spot growing up in front of a drain pipe. It is no bother - we just control the height.

 

The best feature is the yellow winter flowers - the blue tits love them and we love watching them from the window.

 

 

Thanks Liz for your input and the added info about the bluetits. Have had the privilege of seeing two fledge today.

 

It'll be a while before we can landscape the garden as we wish so any other ideas would be most welcome. We live on Anglesey which is very windy, are four miles from the coast and believe there is a well in the garden, close to the area that we are discussing. As you can imagine, it can become rather wet in the winter!