As a child living in Kingsbury in the 1950s I was fond of the suburban front gardens of Crundale Avenue and Valley Drive - full of shrubs, flowers and the occasional specimen tree. Now many of those have been converted into parking lots..
The CPRE Front Gardens Network seeks to stop the decline of the front garden and the biodiversity they encouraged. In a September online meeting Rosie Whicheloe, in an Independent Ecologiss capacity, gave a stimulating presentation on how to reverse, enhance or preserve front gardens. It began by demonstrating how the front gardens between Fryent Country Park and the Welsh Harp could be mapped as a project starting point.
Thanks to the CPRE, Front Gardens Network and Rosie for permission to post the video here.
The London Front Gardens Network promotes de-paving and re-greening of
front gardens by enabling people working in this area to exchange
information and ideas, amplify the voices of individuals, and promote
joint working where it can increase impact. Ultimately the aim is to
re-establish important wildlife habitat; reduce river pollution and
flooding caused by excessive rainwater run-off; reduce the urban heat
island effect caused by paved surfaces; and make streets more pleasant
to encourage walking and to promote wellbeing.
Suburban street in Jack Rosenthal's 'Ptang, yang, Kipperbang' (1982)
The UK’s
disappearing gardens
Most recently, in October, the Royal
Horticultural Society (RHS) published The
State of Gardening, along with
first-time mapping of the UK’s domestic,
public and private gardens which finds
that:
“Just 0.15%
of domestic garden is artificial lawn
but this still accounts for 7.5million
m2 while artificial
grass across all cultivated green space
stands at 18million m2 -
more than six times the size of the
City of London.”
“More than
a third (35%) of domestic gardens
comprises lawn, with 25.8% under trees
and 11% as flower beds.”
“42% of
domestic garden space is paved over
(55% of front garden space and 36% of
back garden space)”
As we know, the loss of gardens adds
to rising flood risk and health-harm from
higher temperatures i.e. not just in
official ‘heatwaves’, and reduces the role
of gardens, soils and plants in supporting
wild species, storing carbon, and capturing
some air pollutants.
Policymakers
to guarantee “Space to Grow” in all
housing and urban planning, so every
household has access to a garden.
Homeowners
to consider robust planting and
permeable paving for front garden
driveways to help mitigate flood risk
and promote the cooling potential of
gardens as well as support
biodiversity.
Local
councils to ensure diversity in tree
planting, prioritising those species
that will respond best to climate
change.
Developers
to design gardens with water
channelling, capture and storage
facilities to help future proof them.
