Creating a Wind Barrier

When you are growing a garden from seed and you live in an area of the country that receives a lot of wind, it is essential that you protect the new plants from the wind. If you do not protect the plants during this extremely vulnerable time, they will be burned away by the wind and die. Dead plants do not produce fruit.

Creating a sturdy wind barrier is simple. All it requires is a 1 gallon water jug and some scissors. Mark the jug as below and then cut it using the scissors:

We will be using the top half of the jug for our wind barrier. Once you have enough for your plants, we can start to protect our plants. Insert the large end into the ground and push it down until soil covers about 1/2 inches of the plastic. Due to the slight dome shape, even extremely strong winds of 50mph will not be able to move the barrier. How do I know this? During high wind days, we receive 50+ mph winds and they have never moved a single plastic barrier. Here is a photo of what it should look like now:

Make sure you keep the end cap off so our plants can breathe. Another benefit of creating a wind barrier is that it also acts like a small greenhouse for out plant! Once the plant is too large for the barrier, it will be time to remove it. You can either pull it out of the ground, or cut it in half length wise and remove it. Make sure you do not pull out the plant while you are removing the plastic jug!

That is all is takes to create your own wind barrier. Now get to work and enjoy the fruits of your labor!