Disappearing lawns

[Wild-Woman]

Just had a leg stretch around to my local shops and something struck me...no not a car!
I was really shocked to see how many front gardens have disappeared under a sea of concrete. Not a blade of grass in sight! A few had the obligatory concrete pot with a some plant or another looking defeated and unhappy and some had a flower bed that was kept strickly under control.
I do understand folk need to get the extra cars off the road and I suppose with our busy lives, there's not the time for the weekend gardening session like folk used to do. I would just like to see a nice lawn, with lots of daisies and dandelions again.
I can remember seeing an article on TV a while back suggesting that disappearing lawns could be part of the problem when it comes to localised flooding, basically the water has no where to soak away!
It's a shame the traditional front garden is becoming a thing of the past.

[Cotham Marble]

This must be a major problem for ground feeding birds in urban areas and not just because front lawns are being lost to car parking. The increasing use of weed suppressing membranes topped with ornamental gravel and/or the use boards is massively reducing the both the total area given over to grass and the area given to cultivated soil.

Those TV garden design shows have lot to answer for.

CM

[Olly]

I remember watching the same TV show and what struck me was that the majority of te people they spoke to did not know or care about the effect their tarmac'd drive was having.

It not only increases the risk of localised flooding but also contributes to the drought problems as most of the water runs into drains and not into the water table as it used to.

I think it should be a case for the planning departments to take hold of. I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to put rules in place that ensure a percentage of the area to be paved/tarmac'd is left as lawn or border. Its a shame the government can't work in the long term as this, and other related issues, could have been dealt with before it was too late.

[nightshade]

The majority of humans are completely thoughtless and ignorant
they cut a tree down,a complete eco system in its own right but
a food source and habitat for many more the same applies to a lawn
I could almost give up on the stupid ape

[smartie]

Originally Posted by Olly

I think it should be a case for the planning departments to take hold of. I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to put rules in place that ensure a percentage of the area to be paved/tarmac'd is left as lawn or border.

Some do. Parking restrictions here meant that we decided when we moved into this house that we would need to replace our little bit of grass at the front with some hard standing and the local authority was most particular about maintaining green areas down the sides of the plot and at least a large planted bed at the front. We were intending to do that anyway and had no problems with the restrictions - in fact there is so much greenery there now that there is hardly room to get the car through the gap and blackbirds nest in the front bed But the authority have forced some neighbours who didn't want to have so much planted area to comply. The Garden City ethos still lives on here and it helps.

[thunder]

Hard standing for cars doesn't have to be continuous - I remember seeing a picture of some that was concrete with hexagonal holes in it. Grass etc can grow through the holes and from a distance it looks green. Free draining and places for birds to feed. But I suppose it is more trouble to install and more expensive.

thunder

[Kayleigh]

Nearly all the houses on our road have large areas of block paving. Our neighbour wanted to take a foot of our lawn to make his enormous drive even bigger. We refused to let him. We get starlings flocking to eat the grubs in the lawn. He has a tiny piece of grass the other side its not worth getting the mower out.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by thunder

Hard standing for cars doesn't have to be continuous - I remember seeing a picture of some that was concrete with hexagonal holes in it. Grass etc can grow through the holes and from a distance it looks green. Free draining and places for birds to feed. But I suppose it is more trouble to install and more expensive.

thunder

Grasscrete.... very useful stuff. However, I bet it isn't tidy or pretty enough for suburbia, there'd probably be complaints to the coincil before you knew it!!!

[smartie]

You can also achieve a similar effect with paving blocks by using spacers between the blocks to create bigger joints that can be filled with soil. If I was doing mine again that is what I think I would do - though I'm ashamed to say we didn't think of it at the time.

[eeyore]

I must admit that we have a concreted over front, except for a largish flowerbed, to be fair it was like this when we moved in , but it does come in handy particularly when I need to get the work pick up off road overnight

mind you we do have a dirty great lawn out the back - i'd like to lose that too , but before i get lynched i should point out that the long term plan out back is to replace it with a wildflower meadow and giant pond