Plastic lawns are increasingly on display in suburban front gardens. Their owners probably think they give a tidy impression while being a timesaving and trouble-free option compared with tending a real lawn.
Plastic lawn problems
But they are by no means trouble-free. Some owners end up having to hose them down or vacuum them. Pets and birds shit on them. Leaves and moss pelt down from the roofs. But this is just a matter of an untidy appearance.
What is much worse is the environmental damage they do. They kill the life that should be swarming and seeding beneath them. They also prevent the ground from absorbing rainwater. A recent research article by Professor Ross Cameron of the University of Sheffield states that gardens take up about 50% of urban space. But some cities have lost about 50% of their gardens in the last two decades to tarmac, car-park paving, conservatories and plastic lawns. He suggests that there should be some reduction of council tax for those who maintain planted areas.
I suggest the water companies should give rebates on their waste water charges, because gardens are needed to absorb the storm water that is causing sewage outflow into rivers. Property-owners make choices on how to use the ground they own. Many choose to pave it over in the front to make way for one, two or even three cars. It also adds value to the house if there is parking space, especially one conveniently sited so that an e-car can be charged by a plug connected to the domestic circuit. A good-quality driveway can add 5–10% to the value of your home. But a choice that may add value to private wealth is in fact taking value away from the commons – the ground that all communities need for natural drainage.
Permeable choices
You do not need planning permission to replace 5 sq m of front garden space with parking provided that a) the new surface is permeable or b) the water is collected and directed to a permeable area. If the plan does not meet these criteria, then planning permission is necessary. But how well is this monitored and enforced? Owners often start out planning their paving project ignorant of the options and the need to take account of drainage. The main picture shows four options. The tarmac and the bricks, if placed in concrete, are impermeable. The gravel is permeable, and so of course is the grass. Advertisements for plastic grass claim it is permeable so that dog’s urine and puddles do not sit on the surface.
In recent years, local government and planning has become better at making permeable choices. Here in Ashford, the new car-park in Elwick Road is a permeable hard surface. But, as I discovered when protesting over the contract to tarmac over the Lower High Street, it was made impermeable many years ago, as concrete was laid down under the granite squares.
Green solutions
With new planning awareness about the effects of new builds on rainwater drainage, some permissions for developers come with conditions about drainage. Sometimes this means the developer has to allow space for dykes, hedges, trees and ponds. Trees are excellent drinkers of rainwater.
Water companies, too, knowing that sewage outflows caused by excess rainwater give them a bad name, are now turning to green solutions (rather than the ‘grey’ solution of more concrete storage tanks at the waste water treatment plants). They want to see more roof water directed into water butts for garden use, and more planters and ponds in public spaces. And why not an occasional muddy ditch beside a block of flats for the children to enjoy? But, alas, it may get clogged with litter, like the River Stour, which even has shopping trolleys thrown into it.
Bees need untidy gardens
Grass is what we are culturally used to in British gardens. But the fashion for tidily mown grass has developed only since the machines for grass cutting were invented and sold. It is not healthy for the eco-system. The bees need the daisies and the dandelions and other wild flowers. One notice I saw reads, ‘My garden is untidy because I am feeding bees.’
So much better to let your lawn grow wild than to cover the ground with green plastic.
