Windbreaks in suburbia

I'm just wondering if anyone out there has any suggestions for how to create a windbreak on a small suburban plot. We are in the western suburbs of Melbourne and have built our house to accommodate an 8 x 20 metre "green space" on the north side for a garden. But at the moment the biggest problem seems to be wind. The few potted plants we brought from our rental can't seem to survive anywhere outside without suffering wind shock even on the south side of the house. Admittedly they are not the best outdoor plants and I'm not considering populating our garden with them but I'm just beginning to wonder how many plants are going to stand up to the wind. I noticed on another thread that somebody suggested growing lilly pillies along the fence line for a windbreak but we have a 2 metre easement at the back which means we could only grow creepers, small shrubs or ground cover. What we were thinking of doing was using the back 7 metres for a vegetable garden and then putting in a hedge of citrus (to about 1.2 metres high) to give some protection to the rest of the garden. Would this work?

I still can't picture what are you describing (20m - width??, 8m total - depth??, 2 metre easement at the back (assuming out of the 8m??), then you still have "back 7 metres for a vegetable garden" -?? confusing ...) but anyway, I'll give it a shot.
If you have an area about 1 to 1.5m wide along the back fence AND if that is where you want to grow your shrubs, I suggest murrayas. Yes, in 10-15 years they might be 4m high - is that going to be a problem? Or do you only want smething up to about 1.2 metres high? If you only want 1.2m, is that really going to help with the wind? Where we live, I find we needed much higher trees/shrubs to act as windbreaks, so we went for taller species, about 4-5m at maturity.

Hi Lex,

Our lot is 14 metres wide by 34 metres deep. The block runs east-west with west at the back. The space I am describing is on the north side of the house and is 8 metres wide by 20 metres deep. We can't plant murrayas along the back fence because there is a 2 metre easement there; we can only plant creepers or small plants. We intend to use the first back 7 metres of the 20 metre length for a vegetable garden. I have read (though don't know if it is true) that citrus are wind tolerant so am thinking of a hedge of citrus planted about 7 metres from the back fence after the vegetable garden to protect the rest of the garden. Does that make any more sense?

I guess I'm more of a sketch person

Anyway, I am still not completely convinced that small trees would be able to effectively act as a wind break ... that's my whole point, I guess (in the true sense of a windbreak). My understanding is that windbreak planting should be tall, not short like citrus trees??

Here are a few articles I found:
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2010/08/11/218801_gardening.html
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1756036.htm

One says "Tough trees, furnished to the ground with thick, wind-resistant foliage always make highly efficient windbreaks." ... which goes along my murraya thinking Although, what makes a "wind-resistant foliage" ??? And how highly efficient your windbreak needs to be??

I guess lots of plants would work, you just need to decide which ones would you like the most.

Hi Lex,

Thanks for having a think about this for me. What you are saying makes sense because if the house behind us isn't acting as a windbreak probably no little hedge we put up will either. Maybe things will get better as the estate grows and there are more houses around. We'll just have to experiment a little and see what we can grow.