Vanes & Dials

With the current trend to garden design and décor it is easy to forget that some people have added accessories and statues to their gardens for a very long time. In large gardens, even twenty or thirty years ago it was not unusual to find a stone sundial in the middle of the lawn. That is not to say that people always knew how to read them, they tended to have sundials because they were traditional in large gardens, and they looked good.

Another item that you might have found in someone’s garden before today’s craze on garden décor was the weather vane – sometimes called a wind vane because it swings in whatever direction the wind is coming from. In days gone by these were a way of forecasting the sort of weather you might expect – essential information for a farmer. While modern wind vanes maybe attached to poles and displayed in the garden, historically they were usually found on the roofs of buildings.

Wind vanes are attached to a rod and they swing round when the wind blows, it has a long history as one of the oldest weather tools. The part of the vane that swings in the wind is usually shaped like an arrow the other end is wide so that the vane will catch even small breezes. Sometimes weather vanes have roosters or other animals attached to them. They usually have NSEW on them for north, south, east and west.

If you decide to have a weather vane or a wind vane in your garden then they can be bought from most garden centres, they are usually made of metal. Nowadays most windvanes are put up for decorative purposes, even those that work well. Self-steering wind vanes on the other hand were not originally meant for gardens, they are used on boats so that the craft can travel with the wind. Self-steering vanes have been used by sailors for the past four hundred years.

Wind vanes are useful to have and quite easy to make – you can learn how to make a wind vane. To make a wind vein you need some thin wood or plastic, a skate or bicycle wheel, a saw, some screws and sand paper and the letters NSEW. Cut a shape with a pointer on the end from your wood or plastic and attach it to the wheel or swivel, attach the vane to a pole or secure it on your roof. You can now measure the wind activity if you like.