I also feel like the loss of front gardens is contributing to a loss of sense of community. With no front garden, people are spending less time lingering outside in their street, losing opportunities for friendly interactions with neighbours. Instead, they go straight from the hermetically sealed bubble of their car to their house. 😕
There was a nice piece about a Dutch Initiative / competition to encourage people to remove paving stones called Tile Whipping by Jo Thompson here: https://jothompson.substack.com/p/the-dutch-competition-to-green-gardens. Newcastle University did a study a few years back (after the Tyne Monsoon) about the difference it would make to storm water if more houses installed water butts - a significant difference they found. I now have a 2,000 litre one!
Yea it's really clever scheme - friends of mine in Holland have taken part - they got some grass seeds to sow the new area of soil - several millipaving slabs have been removed - the local council takes them away too.
Did you get an IBC ? I have 3 to supply the greenhouse - now self-sufficient in water
Such a great informative article! Unfortunately there isn't enough publicity and education around the benefits of permeable front gardens and dangers of turning them all into parking spaces. We reversed the space in the front of our house from parking into a garden. Lots of people in the neighbourhood were really supportive and complimentary but a few reacted quite angrily and told us off for "wasting" parking space.
You are so right, and its such a shame that people react negatively to positive changes. I like the work that CPRE London is doing around front gardens - the message is slowly getting out.
We bought a house where the front garden had been paved for parking as they had two cars. I'd like to change it but how expensive would it be? We have brick pavors and have no idea what is underneath, it might be tons of rubble and sand. We probably will alter it eventually but at the moment we are spending our money inside.
The other thing that occurs to me is having invested in a change any new owners could pave it all over again! Maybe we need legislation around this?
The simplest and cheapest option is simply to lift the pavers where you dont need hard standing to create flower beds. Do a test area first to see what's there. If its sand and rubble underneath thats great as its permeable and its perfectly suitable for growing in so you just need to loosen it up as it will have been compacted before the pavers were paid. - check out my posts on growing in sand. I have a huge bed in front of the house created from crushed concrete. Its a sunny aspect so the verbena, verbascum, erigeron, nepeta etc love it and bring in hordes pollinators. Or you could start growing veg in containers and make your front garden productive - if you need ideas for container veg growing, check out Vertical Veg Growing by Mark Ridsill Smith
Also, this can be gradual. We have space for 2 cars out the front but have encroached on this space by adding a narrow flowerbed on one side by lifting bricks and adding topsoil. It feels satisfying to see it rewilding but we still have space to host a visitor if necessary.
Our driveway is all concrete. We just built huge wooden planters on it. I mean several tonnes of soil each. If you get soil delivered in bulk, it's suprising how much cheaper it is and good for the environment as there are no plastic bags involved. If you garden can be accessible by a grab lorry, they can empty the soil from the truck straight into your planters. We drilled really deep holes into the concrete until we reached the hard core underneath. Laid permeable weed membrane to stop them being blocked. Then a layer of gravel and another layer of permeable weed membrane to stop soil mixing with gravel. Then added the soil. This means that the beds are definitely well drained and there is no risk of the holes getting blocked. The beauty of this method is that no digging or removal of anything is required. And each container can have soil conditions you need. I've got 2 for desert plants like agaves, acidic soil for conifers and neutral for other shrubs. Also planning to build another one with boggy conditions for gunneras. The possibilities are quite endless.
Hi Caroline - thanks so much for the link - great to read about the actions the community group are taking. Another project on my list to visit in the area!
If rules could be put in place at the inception of a new build to ensure the ecological and visual amenity is preserved that can be very effective, as seen in places like Hampstead Garden Suburb’s rules on hedges no fences, etc. I think it’s high time to put more measures into planning regulations. Ie small tree to shade south elevation and hedges to a specific height etc.
Agree totally - we need to rethink planning regs - it only needs a tweak but they would be so effective. Had not heard of Hampstead Garden Surburb's rules so looked them up and its a fascinating read - https://www.hgstrust.org/documents/property-design-guidance.pdf Some of those photo of street scenes remind me of the streets I walked down on the way to school in the London suburbs - hedges, grass, trees - such diversity. Sadly, I doubt I would recognise those front gardens now. Thank you for the info!
I also feel like the loss of front gardens is contributing to a loss of sense of community. With no front garden, people are spending less time lingering outside in their street, losing opportunities for friendly interactions with neighbours. Instead, they go straight from the hermetically sealed bubble of their car to their house. 😕
That's a really good point Claire
There was a nice piece about a Dutch Initiative / competition to encourage people to remove paving stones called Tile Whipping by Jo Thompson here: https://jothompson.substack.com/p/the-dutch-competition-to-green-gardens. Newcastle University did a study a few years back (after the Tyne Monsoon) about the difference it would make to storm water if more houses installed water butts - a significant difference they found. I now have a 2,000 litre one!
Yea it's really clever scheme - friends of mine in Holland have taken part - they got some grass seeds to sow the new area of soil - several millipaving slabs have been removed - the local council takes them away too.
Did you get an IBC ? I have 3 to supply the greenhouse - now self-sufficient in water
What is an IBC?
One of those large white or black plastic containers in a steel mesh container that you see on allotments
Such a great informative article! Unfortunately there isn't enough publicity and education around the benefits of permeable front gardens and dangers of turning them all into parking spaces. We reversed the space in the front of our house from parking into a garden. Lots of people in the neighbourhood were really supportive and complimentary but a few reacted quite angrily and told us off for "wasting" parking space.
You are so right, and its such a shame that people react negatively to positive changes. I like the work that CPRE London is doing around front gardens - the message is slowly getting out.
We bought a house where the front garden had been paved for parking as they had two cars. I'd like to change it but how expensive would it be? We have brick pavors and have no idea what is underneath, it might be tons of rubble and sand. We probably will alter it eventually but at the moment we are spending our money inside.
The other thing that occurs to me is having invested in a change any new owners could pave it all over again! Maybe we need legislation around this?
The simplest and cheapest option is simply to lift the pavers where you dont need hard standing to create flower beds. Do a test area first to see what's there. If its sand and rubble underneath thats great as its permeable and its perfectly suitable for growing in so you just need to loosen it up as it will have been compacted before the pavers were paid. - check out my posts on growing in sand. I have a huge bed in front of the house created from crushed concrete. Its a sunny aspect so the verbena, verbascum, erigeron, nepeta etc love it and bring in hordes pollinators. Or you could start growing veg in containers and make your front garden productive - if you need ideas for container veg growing, check out Vertical Veg Growing by Mark Ridsill Smith
Also, this can be gradual. We have space for 2 cars out the front but have encroached on this space by adding a narrow flowerbed on one side by lifting bricks and adding topsoil. It feels satisfying to see it rewilding but we still have space to host a visitor if necessary.
Check out John Little for planting/sowing ideas in to gravel/hardcore substates - plants wanna grow :)
Yes John has some great ideas for aggregates
Our driveway is all concrete. We just built huge wooden planters on it. I mean several tonnes of soil each. If you get soil delivered in bulk, it's suprising how much cheaper it is and good for the environment as there are no plastic bags involved. If you garden can be accessible by a grab lorry, they can empty the soil from the truck straight into your planters. We drilled really deep holes into the concrete until we reached the hard core underneath. Laid permeable weed membrane to stop them being blocked. Then a layer of gravel and another layer of permeable weed membrane to stop soil mixing with gravel. Then added the soil. This means that the beds are definitely well drained and there is no risk of the holes getting blocked. The beauty of this method is that no digging or removal of anything is required. And each container can have soil conditions you need. I've got 2 for desert plants like agaves, acidic soil for conifers and neutral for other shrubs. Also planning to build another one with boggy conditions for gunneras. The possibilities are quite endless.
https://www.tarringfloodactiongroup.org/. My local climate resilience group.
Hi Caroline - thanks so much for the link - great to read about the actions the community group are taking. Another project on my list to visit in the area!
Day out in worthing always fun! https://www.ttworthing.org/
If rules could be put in place at the inception of a new build to ensure the ecological and visual amenity is preserved that can be very effective, as seen in places like Hampstead Garden Suburb’s rules on hedges no fences, etc. I think it’s high time to put more measures into planning regulations. Ie small tree to shade south elevation and hedges to a specific height etc.
Agree totally - we need to rethink planning regs - it only needs a tweak but they would be so effective. Had not heard of Hampstead Garden Surburb's rules so looked them up and its a fascinating read - https://www.hgstrust.org/documents/property-design-guidance.pdf Some of those photo of street scenes remind me of the streets I walked down on the way to school in the London suburbs - hedges, grass, trees - such diversity. Sadly, I doubt I would recognise those front gardens now. Thank you for the info!