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Apart from the chance of having an amazing view from your deck chair, a hilltop garden can be a mixed blessing. Situated above the shelter of trees, buildings or indeed other hills, these gardens can suffer from strong winds, which can damage plants, either directly or by drying out the soil. The latter can exacerbate the tendency for hilltop gardens to be rather dry anyway, as rainfall drains quickly off these high places. In these conditions, delicate-leaved or moisture-loving plants (such as weeping willows) are unlikely to fare well. On the other hand, drought-tolerant, hard-leaved species (such as rosemary, lavender and thyme) will really shine. The good news for hilltop gardeners is that many of the most common medicinal plants come from Mediterranean climates, which means they thrive on dry soil and will cope well in windy conditions.

In situations such as these, protection from winds can radically improve growing conditions, and can be as simple as putting up a slatted fence or even just planting a simple evergreen hedge. Either solution will lessen the impact of wind damage and, in doing so, allow a much broader range of plants to be grown.

Digging a bit of organic matter (such as compost, leaf litter, even leftover vegetable peelings which have been rotted down in a compost bin) into the soil can greatly improve its ability to retain water on dry hilltop sites, the organic fibre acting exactly like a sponge.

It is not all bad news, however. Counterintuitive though this may seem, hilltop sites often enjoy far less cold and fewer frosts than surrounding gardens. The reason is simple: cold air sinks, meaning that wintery air drains freely off gardens on elevated sites and whisks away the chances of frost as it goes. If the garden is in the south of England, or even just faces south, this effect is even greater. Of course, if the hill we are talking about is of Alpine proportions these benefits start to diminish, but for most hills under about 400m above sea level (which is pretty high by UK standards) there is a definite benefit.