I live in the north-west coastal part of Norway (latitude: 62° 54' 42.84"). I love Japanese maples, and really want a maple garden. There are however some challenges. The summer season is short, the winter is long, and the wind can be draining.
Since moving to this property in 2017, I have tried to keep Japanese maples many places in the garden. It took several seasons before I realized that the wind from north and west in spring and early summer was too hard for them when they were leafing out, and that they dried out and died as a result. Therefore I moved all the remaining maples to the only area in the garden with natural shelter from these directions. It looks like I mostly have succeeded with sheltering them from the hardest wind. Further I plan to add structures for softening the wind, defining space and framing the view in order to create shelter, dimension, and interest to the garden.
My ultimate goal is to make my surroundings as beautiful as I passible can.