Don’t pave the way for future flooding, turn your parking space into a garden

may think they are going with the flow by paving over their front lawns to create off-street parking spaces.

But horticulturalists have warned that the growing trend to concrete over gardens to make patios is putting neighbourhoods at risk from flooding, as rainfall is prevented from seeping away into the ground.

With climate change expected to bring stronger and more frequent storms in years to come, gardeners are being urged to shun such popular home improvements in favour of cultivating ‘rain gardens’ with plants and shrubs which thrive in wet conditions.

In Britain, almost half of all homes in towns and cities have paving in their front or back garden, with people extending their homes or creating parking for their cars.

But replacing a lawn, which lets rainwater soak into the soil, with impermeable Tarmac and concrete can increase the amount of water that runs off by 50 per cent.

This water flows into street drains, which cannot always cope with thousands of extra gallons in a storm. The excess then floods back up people’s drives to their homes, where it can cause devastation.

Experts at the Royal Botanic Garden EdinHOMEOWNERS burgh (RBGE) believe it is vital to start mitigating the effects of global warming now to lessen the devastating impact of the storms likely to lash the country in future.

The RBGE has set up an experimental rain garden to find the plants, shrubs and trees that are best-suited to dramatic swings in the weather, from extreme wet to drought.

Kirsty Wilson, a garden designer at the RBGE, told the Sunday Times: ‘We should not be fighting against nature – we should be living in harmony with it. So don’t Tarmac your garden. We can do so much to mitigate the effects of climate change with native and non-native plants.’