As Jay Flattery comments above there are supposedly legal constraints on paving front gardens, but these are heavily ignored and the fact is that the upholding of planning regulations is a postcode lottery. Whilst amateur and professional gardeners can readily provide aesthetic solutions this does little to inform the populace at large as to the harmful consequences. One additional factor not mentioned in the blog is the carbon storage provided by soil itself, 2nd only to the oceans. Modern development in the UK has continued to ignore this fact for too long and the UK has seen large scale erosion and the concreting over of soils to an extent that we have created huge sterile areas that require considerable new materials if to be converted back to a productive soil and thus subsequently leads to another problem in the UK which is an overuse of nitrogen in urban - peri urban areas. As the rest of the world progress with sustainable land management, the UK continue to ignore their greatest asset, which helped to provide the landscape of which we are all so proud of living in. Is it not the time to forward horticulture as THE sustainable front line and not just a 'hobby' industry.
happymarion,i just need to ask you,are you a secret gardenersworld gardener,as you know loads of stuff, are you a professional gardener? as you even know about nettles and butterflies not liking to lay eggs in shade,you know sooooooooo much.
sarah's pondlife. Thank you for such flattery but I have reached the age when I realise the more knowledge you acquire the more you ignorant you become. There is always plenty to learn in gardening and always joy in finding new things. I was not a professional gardener but a research chemist which means I learned reesearch and team skills aplenty, all uesful in making gardening friends like you. I also have seven children and seven grandchildren and have looked after many schoolchildren and grandchildren and been a Brown Owl in the Guides so I am experienced in wildlife safaris. Visiting gardens, especially Botanic gardens, all over the world has given me an enthusiasm and experteese with plants and attending workshops and dayschools and classes like the RHS Diploma classes over thirty years ago and more recently becoming a Guide at the Bristol Botanic Garden where I have been a volunteer gardener for some years. Yesterday, for instance, we had a fascinating lecture on the design and planting in the Chinese Herbal Garden by the teacher of students of herbal medecine. Next Wednesday one of the clubs I give powerpoint lectures on gardening to in the winter is visiting my garden. It is divided into many rooms like the scree for my alpines, a bamboo grove forshade, a fernery with foxgloves about to flower, a Persian runner now awash with aquilegia, wallflowers and Sweet William, a woodland walk full of epimediums, lily of the valley and bluebells, azaleas and rhododendrons. I have two large veg. gardens already burgeoning with early veg.a butterfly garden and a spinney for the resident fox. Lots of fruit trees and fruit bushes and strawberries and at the moment blossom to make you gasp from the philadelphus,tamarisk, tree peonies, lilac, also artistic plantings like orange poppies next to purple alliums, multi-coloured anemones next to black aoniums, dark purple bearded iris next to fluffy lady's mantle, Alchemilla mollis. In short a gardener's heaven,hence my email name.
my god happymarion you must have a huge huge garden or should i say estate. 7 children my ..how did you find time to garden..[hahaha]. in my area there is nowhere to learn about gardening other than books and knowledge from my dad [old ways know best....] plus just making mistakes and learning from them,i love wildlife and would love to be more involved in knowing more.
i to had a fox in my garden for 7 yrs he lived with us,but sadly he died, of all days it was christmas day i found him in the shed...'very sad' he became a big part of my family even our dog wasnt bothered by him.
I live in East Ayrshire just outside Kilmarnock.As far as I know we don't have legislation to control paving of property. In 1998 a new neighbour moved in and over the years covered the whole property with slabs,monoblocks and tarmacadam.This is counsel owned.I own my property.This means that every time it rains I get flooded. The counsel say they are allowed run off,and if I want to get rid of the water I can either put drainage in or run it through to my neighbours.My garden is entered each year for the competion run by the council.
i have been given a lovely peony,could you tell me how deep i should plant it as i keep being given differant methods ,im sure its not to deep to secure flowering [about half inch deep ].its not a tree peony if that helps.thank-you.
Thanks for all your comments. Details of the legal requirements re paving over of gardens are in the link above ‘risk of flooding’.
Jay Flattery – interesting that the law is so rarely enforced in the UK. The flat I live in is in a purpose-built block, which includes purpose-built paved ‘gardens’, it’s only eight years old so we assume the council was happy for it to go ahead. My friends down the road live next door to a council house, the back garden of which is entirely paved over, and another local council house garden has also recently been lost under paving slabs. Sadly, it seems my local council is very pro paving over gardens, and whether permeable or not, it’s still a tragedy for wildlife, carbon emissions and the look of the area.
Gwen Turner – thanks for the info re soil and nitrogen. With the use of leaf blowers, peat, pesticides and herbicides – despite trends for organic/natural gardening in recent years – I can’t see that we can promote horticulture as the sustainable front line for now. Perhaps in the future, I really hope so.
I am a street mason and pavor by trade . And i have been flaging front gardens and back gardens for over thirty years. And thats all over the liverpool area. and i have never been asked to have permission to lay the flags in front or back gardens.
As a professional landscaper, I would love to have the very small area outside my Victorian semi in Berkshire planted up with appropriate plants. Unfortunately, the theiving people of questionable parentage make this impossible. We have had a hand built trailer, which was parked around the corner, fully protected, stolen by theives with bolt cutters. Our Council rented garage, also around the corner has had attempted thefts by bending the doors 4 times. What have Thames Valley Police done? Sent us a questionnaire about how the crime was handled. No, nobody even turned up to even think about investigating the crime. Since our police are a load of chocolate tea pots we have to park our vehicle in the small space which I would have loved to have made into a Victorian front garden.
Posts
as you even know about nettles and butterflies not liking to lay eggs in shade,you know sooooooooo much.
im very very impressed..
also do you show your garden ?????
[i reckon you do...]
7 children my ..how did you find time to garden..[hahaha].
in my area there is nowhere to learn about gardening other than books and knowledge from my dad [old ways know best....] plus just making mistakes and learning from them,i love wildlife and would love to be more involved in knowing more.
i to had a fox in my garden for 7 yrs he lived with us,but sadly he died, of all days it was christmas day i found him in the shed...'very sad'
he became a big part of my family even our dog wasnt bothered by him.
Jay Flattery – interesting that the law is so rarely enforced in the UK. The flat I live in is in a purpose-built block, which includes purpose-built paved ‘gardens’, it’s only eight years old so we assume the council was happy for it to go ahead. My friends down the road live next door to a council house, the back garden of which is entirely paved over, and another local council house garden has also recently been lost under paving slabs. Sadly, it seems my local council is very pro paving over gardens, and whether permeable or not, it’s still a tragedy for wildlife, carbon emissions and the look of the area.
Gwen Turner – thanks for the info re soil and nitrogen. With the use of leaf blowers, peat, pesticides and herbicides – despite trends for organic/natural gardening in recent years – I can’t see that we can promote horticulture as the sustainable front line for now. Perhaps in the future, I really hope so.
Unfortunately, the theiving people of questionable parentage make this impossible. We have had a hand built trailer, which was parked around the corner, fully protected, stolen by theives with bolt cutters. Our Council rented garage, also around the corner has had attempted thefts by bending the doors 4 times. What have Thames Valley Police done? Sent us a questionnaire about how the crime was handled. No, nobody even turned up to even think about investigating the crime. Since our police are a load of chocolate tea pots we have to park our vehicle in the small space which I would have loved to have made into a Victorian front garden.