Almost half of the UK’s gardens are paved, according to a new study.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has carried out the largest ever audit of the UK’s gardens and found that they represent an untapped – and until now, largely unmeasured – potential resource for nature.
Researchers from mapping company RHS and AI Gentian mapped out 25.8 million gardens, representing 959,800 hectares (2.37 million acres), or 4.6% of the UK’s total land area. They discovered that the gardens covered an area three times larger than all the UK’s national nature reserves combined.
The report reveals that 42% of domestic garden space is paved (55% of front garden space and 36% of rear garden space). Paving large parts of the garden reduces space for nature and makes flooding worse because the water has nowhere to go.
The study also found that there were 18 million square meters of artificial turf in all cultivated green spaces. Seven and a half million square meters are devoted to domestic gardens.
The gardens are home to more than 50 million trees and thousands of species, the RHS said. They are home to around half of the UK’s butterfly, amphibian and reptile species, as well as more than 40% of bird and mammal species. They also store around 158 million tonnes of carbon.
There is inequality in the amount of garden space available to people in regions across the UK, the report found. For example, 41% of London is classified as gardens, compared to just 19% in Leeds, 25% in Edinburgh and 27% in Cardiff. The study found that more than a quarter of community gardens, which provide green space for people who do not have a private garden, survive on a budget of less than £500 a year, and less than 3% of community garden groups own their own land.
The RHS is asking homeowners to stop paving their gardens and instead use robust plantings and permeable paving to help mitigate flood risk, promote the cooling potential of gardens and support biodiversity. The association also calls on the government to guarantee “space for growth” in all housing and in all urban developments, so that every household has access to a garden.
Clare Matterson, chief executive of the RHS, said: “The fact that there is no equality in access to growing spaces across the UK reinforces the need for more garden provision in the 1.5 million new homes promised by the Government in this parliament. It also demonstrates the need for fencing and increasing support and funding for community growing spaces which should be seen as basic infrastructure.”
Professor Alistair Griffiths, director of science and collections at the RHS, said: “When people talk about the biodiversity crisis or the loss of nature, they [generally] When we think about the loss of wild plants or wildlife, they rarely think about how cultivated plants and trees are also in danger and have a significant positive impact on our lives and our damaged planet. There are more than 50 million trees growing in gardens across the UK, forming vital infrastructure that cools cities, stores carbon and supports wildlife.
“We urgently need people of all ages to appreciate the UK’s gardens and garden plants, not only for their beauty, but also for how we can use them to help repair our fragile planet for future generations. »
