[permaculture] Creating frost-free microclimates

Linda Shewan linda.shewan at bryn.com.au
Fri Oct 5 03:46:00 EDT 2007


Hi,

This was not planned but worked brilliantly. I have a West Indian lime tree which was a stick after being completely frosted off the first winter I planted it. The next summer a thicket of fennel grew on the uphill side of the lime tree (about 1 foot or 30cm away). I let it go and it grew about 30cm higher, or perhaps even more, than the lime tree - the lime tree has not been even slightly affected by the frost since then. I cut it back every spring and let it grow through the rest of the year. The first year I was not diligent enough and got too many fennel seedlings throughout my garden so have since been ruthless in ensuring that no seed is allowed to develop. My lime tree is growing beautifully! It is the wrong lime for the area as it needs warmer temps so not sure if I will ever get fruit - will wait and see. But at least it is not frosted anymore...

Good luck, Linda


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Archer [mailto:permaculture at juggernaut.com.au]
Sent: Friday, 5 October 2007 11:01 AM
To: permaculture at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Creating frost-free microclimates

Greetings,

I'm developing a site that tends to be frosty through winter and
into mid-spring. Overnight low temps get down to -6 C. Daytime
maximums in Winter range from about 4 C to 14 C.

This isn't an icy climate, but frost-sensitive plants don't do
well. For example, I have a lime tree that's planted in a fairly
protected spot, but after 6 years it's still just a stick which
has all it's new growth frosted off every year. Poor thing.

I'm planting mostly frost tolerant trees and plants, but would
also like to plant some frost-tender species such as limes,
passionfruit etc.

I've read all the books, and there seems to be some things that
can be done to create frost-free microclimates. But I've tried
some of them and they failed miserably.

I'm wondering if anyone can share their experiences (good or bad)
about some of these techniques:

- Diverting frost around an area by creating a V-shaped planting
with the point of the V uphill.

- Sun traps - a parabolic planting facing sunwards and to hopefully
retain sufficient heat from the day to prevent frost at night.
Can also use water to reflect more heat into an area.

- Growing trees espaliered against a sun-facing rock wall.

- Growing trees and vines around water tanks.

- Creating sufficient thermal mass with surrounding large trees
and structures to prevent frost from settling.


And in a non-permaculture approach... has anyone had experience
with overhead sprinklers automatically triggered with a frost
sensor?

FWIW, I tried a suntrap on a small scale, and it seemed to have
no effect at all. Hence the lime tree stick.

 ...Richard.
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