Kitchen Garden Forum

Concrete over your lawns to save the planet, says Bob Flowerdew

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/94 ... erdew.html

Discuss

Complete and utter twaddle!!!

Part of the problem with the water table, as I understand it, is the increased number of low or no maintenance gardens, where turf or soil has been covered up with concrete, paving stones or tarmac thereby reducing the earths capability to absorb the rain water when it falls. Instead the excess water runs of into totally inadequate drainage systems or remains as standing water which then evaporates away.

VPM
x

Some logic in what he says, misquoted on "concrete your lawn" as the concrete suggestion related to grass paths.

Concrete is one of the highest energy input building materials, baking rock to make the cement.

I think the advice is good for paths, eliminates weed creep-in, edge crumble , winter mud and constant maintenance, so over twenty years it probably pays out environmentally.

Lawns on the other hand, no, concrete is not a good answer. Well maintained lawns are a wildlife haven as far as songbirds go, easy to avoid the cats, good worm population and ideal display/dispute arena.

There are drought tolerant lawn grasses, there are living alternatives to grass, chamomile for example, and weed membrane covered with various mulches, from gravel to wood chip all allow rain to soak in.

There is nothing as evocative as the smell of a freshly cut lawn and nothing as comfortable as lying on a lawn on a pleasant day, unless it's the addition of a blanket or old rug for cushioning from dry hard clay. Plus I think the dog associates hard surfaces with indoors and won't wee on them, so I'll be keeping my lawn, such as it is.

In my 70' by 25' back garden we have a concrete terrace, steps down to a level lawn, then a sloping lawn that, when finances permit, will acquire a retaining barrier halfway to allow construction of a pond and possibly a gravel garden on half of it. All four segments are room sized and finish with a greenhouse & shed surrounded by herbs, herbaceous plants and a few shrubs. A concrete path runs from the terrace steps down the righthand side, crosses diagonally kissing the left corner of the greenhouse to a gate in the left corner of the bottom.

The front is block paved with a flower/shrub bed across the front of the house and a larger bed behind the low boundary wall.

I think Mr Flowerdew is in need of media-attension.

I remember some years ago an article by an author I don't remember the name of pointing out that it's the amount of tarmac and concrete covering land that is partly responsible for low water tables.

All of us have a right-to-drainage over our neighbours land, this right-to-drainage has been used to such an extent to cause flooding. Seventy-percent of the property up the hill is draining onto the lower properties which don't have enough absorbent surface to absorb.

When we prepared our sloping land I asked for help from the Dept-Of-Environment, they recommended grass for what is now a paddock and stone chippings for what is our drive and turning/parking area. It was the use of quick and easy concrete by farmers that caused some flooding to nearby property in the past. Our downhill neighbour does get a little flooding during heavy rain but nothing like as bad as might be if we hadn't paid attention to local advise. In fact the digger driver saved us a lot of money and created a perfect solution to what could have been a disaster.

We are all on septic tanks and whilst there are only three properties on the side of this valley we all rely on underground drainage, if water travels over the ground it causes a lot of problems and filling our septic tanks is just one them.

See also: God and St Francis (in the jokes thread).
Concrete no: partly for the reasons above, importantly for the reason that reduced acreage of permeable ground increases the speed of runoff. So flooding is more likely and in particular the speed from rainfall to flood is considerably increased.
But replacing formal lawns with meadows and less formal gardens, particularly with xerophytic plants is a constructive idea. Thirsty plants in the south east of the country are probably a poor choice.