Sorry to bring this up again folk, reading a national paper this morning I noted a comment that 7,000,000 homes have lost their front gardens to concrete or hard standing to park more cars off the road. I ask does this turn the theory of removing your lawns and paving to make the world green a little on its head? Bob Flowerdew's comment I am sure was not remove your lawns and park more cars although we see it happening all around us. I am also sure that using around half a litre of fuel per fortnight cutting lawns must be better than causing water once mostly soaked up by the grass to run off hard standing to over-flow kerbside gutters never built to take so much water, hence the flooding we get. What about the green footprint of the gas guzzlers parked where once a verdant green lawn lived? Frank.
My take on this is that it is all down to evolution-the days when cars were a luxury has long gone ,now the 2 car family is common then there are the 3 and 4 car families-all new builds will have parking spaces outside the house where the front garden would have been so lawns for those who want them will be at the back-and as back gardens are smaller than they used to be it is either a lawn which is a quick fix item once a week or so or a "proper" garden
If I take a walk into the local shopping centre-I would say that 50% of the front gardens are neglected scraps of grass and it looks so sad where as a tidy bit of blockpaving with a few pots is much more praticicle for the busy lives some people lead
I do take the point about the flooding issue but I think we have to accept that not everybody gardens-they use it just as an outside space-the days when men would push the mower up and down on a Sunday morning in unison, trim the edges tend the roses whilst Mother cooked the roast are long gone- now perhaps it is a trip to Tesco or B&Q and a quick run with the Flymo.
In my road that was built in the 1920's-before cars-I would guess that 80% do not have front gardens now with tended lawns-they are parking spots
Time moves on,fashions change as do priorities-what is important to us as gardeners may not seem important to all.
Geoff, it does depend on where you live, my area 30 years old had good long drives with all the family here I can get them all off the road, the result is most have lawns with various adornments in my case trees. Walls are not permitted but low box hedges if you wish, no more than 24 inches high, too fussy by half to look after. My Daughters estate fairly new build have hard fronts mainly with parking just off the pavement in front of double garages and a narrow path to the back. As to the Sunday morning lawn pushing race well times have changed, as they all disappear during the week leaving us retired lot on our own the Sunday is taken up with the women pushing the mower and the men cooking the Sunday Lunch? What happened to women cooks I ask? Nigel Colborn comes out against Bob Flowerdew with an article on long live the lawn, "yer tak's ya pick".
This is good subject to discuss, and yes it all depends on the size of your garden, whether or not you or your children use the lawn for recreation. I am not in favour of losing all the lawn necessarily, grass has an pleasing aesthetic appeal,although I have got rid of mine simply because I only have a small back garden measuring 33' x 28' or 10 M by 8.5 M if you prefer and I chose to grow lots of fruit, vegetables and flowers. I installed a grid of narrow gravel paths between the beds, so I can get around and tend the garden.I have retained a small patio to sit out on and to dry the laundry, which I can get too either from the house or the back of the garage which I fitted with a corrugated plastic roof so I could use it as a greenhouse. At the front of the house the 20' x 10' or 6M x 3M space which was paved entirely when I moved here has been altered I have left the paving in front of the garage but the rest has been removed to create a cottage garden area, with just a path from the front door and garage and to the street. So I have no lawn to mow or edges to clip, but I do have to keep on top of weeding, deadheading, and replace plants that have gone over with something fresh, and of course watering, but I have three water butts. Some people would find my garden hard work, but I get a great deal of enjoyment from it and a lot of tasty meals. There are too many cars and vehicles on the roads these days, and folk have to park them somewhere I suppose, but concreted front gardens are lifeless and contributes to drains flooding, so I like to see front gardens with a bit of lawn surrounded by plants and often comment when I am out walking the local area. Each to there own, as has been said we are all free to chose how we wish to use the space, but these days garden space is at a premium
Now, I'm going to throw the cat into the pidgeons here. I like cars. Together with gardening, reading and the sproglets they are one of my passions. I unfortunately have a rather bad Land Rover addiction, HOWEVER, my car is 18 years old, and runs on home-brew biodiesel that hubby makes from waste veg oil from school that would otherwise go to to landfill. It costs me around 15p a litre for chemicals and electric, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford to run it. We never go abroad for holidays, we have a touring caravan as we have dogs and small children. I don't have a front lawn, it's parking for my land rovers, it's limestone chippings with a large soakaway my husband spent a day constructing, so we don't get a lot of run-off.
I have small kids. They will get bigger, and want to play outside with their friends. They won't be allowed on the front. Why not? Because although we have a lot of 2 and 3 car families on the street, a lot of them can't be bothered to park their cars on their driveway, they are abandoned on the street, and although we're in a 30 limit and residential, LOTS of folk come speeding down our street to miss the speed cameras and 2 sets of traffic lights.
I'm in favour of getting rid of the front lawns if it means the streets are safer for kids, as there will be places where they can see to cross. There have already been 2 accidents in the last couple of years with kids being knocked over because they can't see what's coming.
Sorry to have got on my soapbox, but as a driver of a classic land rover, I get a bit upset when accused of driving a gas guzzler and destroying the planet. I also have solar panels and will be getting a geothermal heat pump when I've saved up the money. I intend to make the world a greener place for my kids to enjoy......assuming they grow up and don't get knocked over and squished by someone driving a prius they can't see or hear.
You are allowed to rant Mummy even if it does sound like common sense in your case. The problem with this save the planet malarkey is that it is only a very small portion of us doing it and paying through the nose to do it. When I read of China building one new coal fired generating station every six months, India building 10 miles of motorway a day, Asia putting 5,000,000 vehicles on the road in the next three years it make our efforts very puny indeed. We have wind-farms on the land near us and blotting out the sea view as more are put out to sea but close to the beaches every day. The cables broke on one lot and they stood idle for months, they only work at a certain wind speed and has any one worked out the footprint of the manufacture and erection of those things plus the oil they use in high speed turbines and gear boxes which is what we have inside those big boxes on top of the pole. The props or sails as they are called may be slow but the inside workings are racing. I like my lawns front and side, they will stay, the car is smaller now I do not have to drive on the Continent, The green waste and plastic waste plus glass tins and paper are duly put out, as for the rest I object to having to pay through the nose in taxes for something that will not change in my life time. PS my daughter in California was having a moan this week as gas will soon be $5 a gallon half what we pay, my friend in Canada went out for a meal with his son, 100 miles each way and to them it is normal, can some one tell me why we should bother?
The reason for the solar panels and hopefully the heat pump, is that I don't like being dependant on other countries for our power supply. I want my children to be warm and safe, and not be held to ransom by whichever country has the gas and coal supply. We didn't learn to be self-sufficient during the second world war food-wise, and we've not taken the self-sufficiency thing on board. A lot of folks have an allotment at the moment because it's the trendy thing to do. It's about time we try to look after ourselves, on a local, regional, national and international level.
I quite like the look of wind farms, how much power they generate is debatable. We have a village a few miles away that are objecting to a proposed wind farm, I think they should be given a choice - a couple of wind turbines, or a nuclear power station at the end of their garden, 'spoiling' their view. We'd see a lot of 'Say Yes to the Wind Farm' posters then!
I do get accused of having common sense, often by the same folks that originally think I'm single-handedly killing the planet!!
I too am a landy enthusiast as is all my family. We don't use biofuel. I had to sell my much beloved defender due to it needing a new chassis. Now got one of them disco thingys Om loves it, as he needs the comfort these days. but it's a gas guzzler, although it does a few more miles to the gallon. I don't have solar panels, I live near a windfarm, I have no objection to them on or off shore. I object to cars parking on roads if it causes havoc whilst driving down roads. and when I lived in a town my kid wasn't allowed to play on the road, they played in gardens or stayed at home........... i hate to see front gardens given over to anything other free draining materials. But then i have moved from an area that was mostly concrete and tarmac, and there was continuos hose pipe bans....................... now i wonder why!!!! I remember years ago reports being made that the seas around britain would rise......... i think they probably are, but not for the reasons originally stated, but by all those folk covering their front gardens which causes rain to run off into the drains and that ends up in the sea one way or another. No wonder parts of England will be made into desserts. My objection is all these new builds going up. Even where we live, rural wales, modern town houses are going up in a matter of weeks And there are so many houses on the market. But then it's mostly back handers that get things through planning. That's why I moved from an area that was included in the Oxbridge ark of building estates and new villages. And I saw no plans for extra reservoirs for all these hoards of new villages.
i agree with Bob Flowerdew if it is done properly for a good reason, creating beds for more veg or flowers. if folk don't want gardens why don't they buy / rent a flat?
Posts
@shuv.. so right.. a garden as is individual as the person growing it..
Sorry to bring this up again folk, reading a national paper this morning I noted a comment that 7,000,000 homes have lost their front gardens to concrete or hard standing to park more cars off the road.
I ask does this turn the theory of removing your lawns and paving to make the world green a little on its head?
Bob Flowerdew's comment I am sure was not remove your lawns and park more cars although we see it happening all around us. I am also sure that using around half a litre of fuel per fortnight cutting lawns must be better than causing water once mostly soaked up by the grass to run off hard standing to over-flow kerbside gutters never built to take so much water, hence the flooding we get. What about the green footprint of the gas guzzlers parked where once a verdant green lawn lived?
Frank.
My take on this is that it is all down to evolution-the days when cars were a luxury has long gone ,now the 2 car family is common then there are the 3 and 4 car families-all new builds will have parking spaces outside the house where the front garden would have been so lawns for those who want them will be at the back-and as back gardens are smaller than they used to be it is either a lawn which is a quick fix item once a week or so or a "proper" garden
If I take a walk into the local shopping centre-I would say that 50% of the front gardens are neglected scraps of grass and it looks so sad where as a tidy bit of blockpaving with a few pots is much more praticicle for the busy lives some people lead
I do take the point about the flooding issue but I think we have to accept that not everybody gardens-they use it just as an outside space-the days when men would push the mower up and down on a Sunday morning in unison, trim the edges tend the roses whilst Mother cooked the roast are long gone- now perhaps it is a trip to Tesco or B&Q and a quick run with the Flymo.
In my road that was built in the 1920's-before cars-I would guess that 80% do not have front gardens now with tended lawns-they are parking spots
Time moves on,fashions change as do priorities-what is important to us as gardeners may not seem important to all.
Geoff, it does depend on where you live, my area 30 years old had good long drives with all the family here I can get them all off the road, the result is most have lawns with various adornments in my case trees. Walls are not permitted but low box hedges if you wish, no more than 24 inches high, too fussy by half to look after.
My Daughters estate fairly new build have hard fronts mainly with parking just off the pavement in front of double garages and a narrow path to the back.
As to the Sunday morning lawn pushing race well times have changed, as they all disappear during the week leaving us retired lot on our own the Sunday is taken up with the women pushing the mower and the men cooking the Sunday Lunch?
What happened to women cooks I ask?
Nigel Colborn comes out against Bob Flowerdew with an article on long live the lawn, "yer tak's ya pick".
Frank.
This is good subject to discuss, and yes it all depends on the size of your garden, whether or not you or your children use the lawn for recreation. I am not in favour of losing all the lawn necessarily, grass has an pleasing aesthetic appeal,although I have got rid of mine simply because I only have a small back garden measuring 33' x 28' or 10 M by 8.5 M if you prefer and I chose to grow lots of fruit, vegetables and flowers. I installed a grid of narrow gravel paths between the beds, so I can get around and tend the garden.I have retained a small patio to sit out on and to dry the laundry, which I can get too either from the house or the back of the garage which I fitted with a corrugated plastic roof so I could use it as a greenhouse. At the front of the house the 20' x 10' or 6M x 3M space which was paved entirely when I moved here has been altered I have left the paving in front of the garage but the rest has been removed to create a cottage garden area, with just a path from the front door and garage and to the street. So I have no lawn to mow or edges to clip, but I do have to keep on top of weeding, deadheading, and replace plants that have gone over with something fresh, and of course watering, but I have three water butts. Some people would find my garden hard work, but I get a great deal of enjoyment from it and a lot of tasty meals. There are too many cars and vehicles on the roads these days, and folk have to park them somewhere I suppose, but concreted front gardens are lifeless and contributes to drains flooding, so I like to see front gardens with a bit of lawn surrounded by plants and often comment when I am out walking the local area. Each to there own, as has been said we are all free to chose how we wish to use the space, but these days garden space is at a premium
Now, I'm going to throw the cat into the pidgeons here. I like cars. Together with gardening, reading and the sproglets they are one of my passions. I unfortunately have a rather bad Land Rover addiction, HOWEVER, my car is 18 years old, and runs on home-brew biodiesel that hubby makes from waste veg oil from school that would otherwise go to to landfill. It costs me around 15p a litre for chemicals and electric, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford to run it. We never go abroad for holidays, we have a touring caravan as we have dogs and small children. I don't have a front lawn, it's parking for my land rovers, it's limestone chippings with a large soakaway my husband spent a day constructing, so we don't get a lot of run-off.
I have small kids. They will get bigger, and want to play outside with their friends. They won't be allowed on the front. Why not? Because although we have a lot of 2 and 3 car families on the street, a lot of them can't be bothered to park their cars on their driveway, they are abandoned on the street, and although we're in a 30 limit and residential, LOTS of folk come speeding down our street to miss the speed cameras and 2 sets of traffic lights.
I'm in favour of getting rid of the front lawns if it means the streets are safer for kids, as there will be places where they can see to cross. There have already been 2 accidents in the last couple of years with kids being knocked over because they can't see what's coming.
Sorry to have got on my soapbox, but as a driver of a classic land rover, I get a bit upset when accused of driving a gas guzzler and destroying the planet. I also have solar panels and will be getting a geothermal heat pump when I've saved up the money. I intend to make the world a greener place for my kids to enjoy......assuming they grow up and don't get knocked over and squished by someone driving a prius they can't see or hear.
Rant over.
You are allowed to rant Mummy even if it does sound like common sense in your case. The problem with this save the planet malarkey is that it is only a very small portion of us doing it and paying through the nose to do it.
When I read of China building one new coal fired generating station every six months, India building 10 miles of motorway a day, Asia putting 5,000,000 vehicles on the road in the next three years it make our efforts very puny indeed.
We have wind-farms on the land near us and blotting out the sea view as more are put out to sea but close to the beaches every day. The cables broke on one lot and they stood idle for months, they only work at a certain wind speed and has any one worked out the footprint of the manufacture and erection of those things plus the oil they use in high speed turbines and gear boxes which is what we have inside those big boxes on top of the pole. The props or sails as they are called may be slow but the inside workings are racing.
I like my lawns front and side, they will stay, the car is smaller now I do not have to drive on the Continent, The green waste and plastic waste plus glass tins and paper are duly put out, as for the rest I object to having to pay through the nose in taxes for something that will not change in my life time.
PS my daughter in California was having a moan this week as gas will soon be $5 a gallon half what we pay, my friend in Canada went out for a meal with his son, 100 miles each way and to them it is normal, can some one tell me why we should bother?
Frank.
The reason for the solar panels and hopefully the heat pump, is that I don't like being dependant on other countries for our power supply. I want my children to be warm and safe, and not be held to ransom by whichever country has the gas and coal supply. We didn't learn to be self-sufficient during the second world war food-wise, and we've not taken the self-sufficiency thing on board. A lot of folks have an allotment at the moment because it's the trendy thing to do. It's about time we try to look after ourselves, on a local, regional, national and international level.
I quite like the look of wind farms, how much power they generate is debatable. We have a village a few miles away that are objecting to a proposed wind farm, I think they should be given a choice - a couple of wind turbines, or a nuclear power station at the end of their garden, 'spoiling' their view. We'd see a lot of 'Say Yes to the Wind Farm' posters then!
I do get accused of having common sense, often by the same folks that originally think I'm single-handedly killing the planet!!
I too am a landy enthusiast as is all my family. We don't use biofuel. I had to sell my much beloved defender due to it needing a new chassis. Now got one of them disco thingys Om loves it, as he needs the comfort these days. but it's a gas guzzler, although it does a few more miles to the gallon. I don't have solar panels, I live near a windfarm, I have no objection to them on or off shore. I object to cars parking on roads if it causes havoc whilst driving down roads. and when I lived in a town my kid wasn't allowed to play on the road, they played in gardens or stayed at home........... i hate to see front gardens given over to anything other free draining materials. But then i have moved from an area that was mostly concrete and tarmac, and there was continuos hose pipe bans....................... now i wonder why!!!! I remember years ago reports being made that the seas around britain would rise......... i think they probably are, but not for the reasons originally stated, but by all those folk covering their front gardens which causes rain to run off into the drains and that ends up in the sea one way or another. No wonder parts of England will be made into desserts. My objection is all these new builds going up. Even where we live, rural wales, modern town houses are going up in a matter of weeks And there are so many houses on the market. But then it's mostly back handers that get things through planning. That's why I moved from an area that was included in the Oxbridge ark of building estates and new villages. And I saw no plans for extra reservoirs for all these hoards of new villages.
i agree with Bob Flowerdew if it is done properly for a good reason, creating beds for more veg or flowers. if folk don't want gardens why don't they buy / rent a flat?