Would you demolish a lovely front garden to create off street parking?

[HeadFairy]

Our road is terrible for parking. Most people have paved over their front gardens and have dropped curbs so they can park but consequently this has left the rest of us with very little curb to park in. We're only a 10 min walk from town where there are some large insurance companies and the like so lots of people drive here and park for the day, parking's actually not that bad at the weekends. But during the week it's hellish. I've just spent 20 minutes driving around looking for a space (strangely I would accept this if I still lived in London, but not here!) and that's a good day.

Anyway, dh thinks we should pave over the front garden in a kind of can't beat 'em join 'em move. I love our front garden, there's a beautiful magnolia tree and a fuschia hedge, it would be a shame, but the parking is driving me insane.

WWYD?

I would pave over the garden as it is impacting your life more than the removal of the plants would.

God yes. It's fantastic. Go for it.

noooooo! leave it alone.

I wouldn't, but then I love my magnolia tree, its one of the things that persuaded me to buy our house.

I sometimes have to park in the next street.

No I wouldn't. Apart from anything, part of the reason that places flood so readily these days is because of all the paving over of gardens makes drainage more of an issue.

midnightexpress, that's the other thing that's stopping me, I don't want to be one of those people who say stuff the planet I want my parking space, but I do want a parking space!!!

Our council are making people change their front gardens back from parking to garden because of flooding issues.

Just think of all that carbon fuel you're burning driving around looking for a space. You'll actually be saving the planet if you pave it over.

really, blueberry? Wow. That's good.

Could you compromise a bit? What about gravelling the front garden and transferring some of the plants to pots? Gravelling is better on the flooding front I think and looks nicer too?

Yes, 100%. It's not as if you sit in your front garden and enjoy it, you only walk through it a couple of times a day.

:o apletrees, I'm sure you're right about my carbon footprint driving around!

Or alternatively lobby your local councillor to get permit-controlled parking on your street?

Exactly, gravel! problem solved.

You could pave it with something water-permeable (more expensive unfortnately) to offset the drainage issue.

yeah, but I keep thinking curb appeal Trillian...

The plants are all too big and mature to put in pots... the magnolia tree is huge, the full height of the house, and the fuschia hedge runs along the front of the whole house. However, if we did do it I would certainly do something like gravel and keep some planting to the side.

I would hate to do it but TBH having lived your parking nightmare for 13 years I might feel obliged to do so.

or apply for residential parking in your area. it won't guarantee you a space but it will make it harder for other people to park there all the time.

Not to mention the problems with surface water flooding that all these paved front gardens are causing.

It's not an either / or situation, you know!

You'll need to change your planting, but you can have plants and parking, without causing your basemetn to flood.

Here's the RHS guide to front gardens with parking

www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/88/8855ec1d-444b-4caf-97a6-801ce421b460.pdf

I would LOVE to have a residents' parking scheme, one that only runs say from 10.30am to 11.30am to stop people who work in town parking here all day, apparently our local council are very anti it - the previous owners of our house had tried before to get a scheme started.

Grendel... thanks for that link, I would definitely try and keep some kind of attractive frontage, I hate those horrible paved over car park type front gardens. It's more about whether I've got the heart to chop down that lovely magnolia tree. It's a bit of a love hate relationship really because it sheds leaves like a bastard, but it's so beautiful when it's in full flower

Don't do it, streets where the majority have paved over the front garden are much less attractive. Gardens add to wellbeing. Where do you need to drive if you only live 10mins from town?

You will need to get consent from the council and pay for a dropped section of kerb.

Also there are restrictions on the style of paving that can be used.

This happened in a street we used to live in, near a tube station. It is very annoying. I think you may have to join'em.

I know, I'm facing the dilemma of whether or not to take out a magnolia too...

I'd find it very hard to cut down a mature magnolia. Come the revolution, when the City is on its knees and nobody needs parking, your magnolia will still be flowering :o

Can you replant the tree in your back garden?

We paved over our front lawn a couple of years ago - was easy decision to make though as although we kept the grass short, it would never have made Chelsea flower show! and tbh, maintenance of it was a total pita

Its lovely being able to drive right in -especially with a toddler as I hated being in the traffic path while putting him in the car seat

Our neighbours have followed suit but the new rules apparently are that you have to have drainage with the OSP so they have a grille type thing that runs the width of the driveway for rainwater

Bloody govt likes us to feel guilty about so much crap these days - water drainage the least of my worries when you consider how much water leaks from shitty water pipes in need of fixing by water companies!