Losing half the garden for a drive?

[KEAWYED]

I've posted on here ages ago about moving for a driveway and a garden but a smaller house.

We have a terraced house, the middle one of 3.

It's ideal size for a family BUT my big bug bare is the lack of parking. We are on a main road which doesnt bother me.

Next door have 6 cars and they are lovely but have no consideration for other people, it's got to the point where I'm getting so mad when they have all their cars outside and no one else can park (I know I don't own my 'space' outside)

It's a private road round the back and I was thinking of block paving half the garden so I have a parking space and have a garden just big enough for a bbq, patio set and a slide (at a push)

I've been looking at semis with a driveway and they just dont have the space inside and I'm only a 5 minute walk from the park.

I always thought I wanted a big garden but thought last night How often do we actually use it?

What would you do?

Sorry it's long and rambling thanks

So you wouldn't be parking in your front garden, but the back garden?

I'm not sure tbh, I like having a big garden but also like the fact we have parking for about 5 cars and a double garage.

If I had to give one of them up, and if not a keen gardener, I guess I'd sacrifice a bit of garden for parking.

There are new rules about hardstanding for cars now, something about it having to be permeable to allow rainwater to go into the ground, so you may have to either have gravel, or two strips of flagstones for the wheels to go over, with grass in between.

There's a good article in this months RHS Garden magazine about how to make a front garden and driveway work together.

No front gardens not big enough for parking.

We were going to go round the back of the house and access parking that way.

We did used to have a garage there which we knocked down about 5 years ago to make a bigger garden (less cars then)

Beginning to think it was a mistake.

Is the base for the garage still there? If so you won't need planning permission.

It must be a total ballache to park in the road, esp. when you have loads of shopping/pushchair etc.

No we ripped it up and laid turf.

We were thinking of the money we were going to use to move, instead use it to turn the house into 4 bedrooms.

It is we have 3DS youngest being 6 months and would like another.

We are on a main road but set back there's a grassy bit in front of us almost like a layby

Mumblechum's quite right - if you follow the RHS's advice on gardens you can park on / parking with plants in it, you don't need to sacrifice your garden in the same way that you might be thinking of. Instead, you can create a small amount of hard standing for the wheels of the car, and plant under and around the rest. I particularly liked what someone did at one of the RHS shows, Chelsea I think - they had a pergola over the car parking space and grew climbers up it.

Here's the relevant advice sheet - they refer to front gardens, but you can do exactly the same for a back garden.

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

I agree with GrendelsMum's post, if you really want to put in parking then do it in a way where you can also have garden.

If you put in a double gate at the back (which you'd need to open and shut each time you leave/arrive) then you arent making really the garden smaller, if that makes sense? It also means for re-sale/value that you aren't losing out as it leaves it open either way.

Something like this might work (obviously round the back so not quite the same)
www.fresh-outlook.co.uk/info2.cfm?info_id=68382

Is there no way of agreeing a compromise with your neighbour with 6 cars? Surely they woudl leave a space for you with your young DCs if you expressly asked them to?

Thanks.

The neighbours have done the back so they can park but just don't use it.

They are lovely neighbours normally but they just don't seem to think!!