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I have a new house with a little protected garden, we mostly have giant sheds and concrete slabs and paving but I will do some containers and so forth. I feel that we would have a different microclimate here (three doors uo the road)due to the much more protected and paved nature of things- does anyone have any sage wisdom about figuring this out?

Hi
It is very likely if you have a protected site that you will have a slightly different climate within the garden to outside. The only way to figure it out is to watch and wait. Maybe get a thermometer and keep some records so that you can see how hot/cold it gets?

The sheds will provide some shade, so use that wisely, while the paving will heat up in the sun and radiate the heat back in the evenings.

The one thing that is difficult to predict, is how the wind will be affected. I have a large, fairly open garden in an relatively exposed location at the top of a hill and my mother has a tiny courtyard in town surrounded on all sides by fencing and houses. Contrary to what you'd expect, my garden is rarely affected by high winds, whereas she gets a lot of wind damage. The airflow gets buffeted into her garden by all the surrounding structures.

I hope you enjoy your new garden, you will quickly find out what does well and what doesn't.

Zoe

Try growing several sets of the same plant and see how they compare in different parts of the garden. I've got groups of plants from the same sowing in different parts of my garden and they demonstrate obvious differences. Some will be down to them not all being planted out at the same time (making my observations less than scientific) but they will also be affected by soil, heat, light and probably some measure of how often I notice them and water them.

Wulf