Locals, Juliet and Neal, show us their ultimate front garden transformation. The local wildlife, passers-by and an electric car are energised and refuelled by this driveway transformation!
A fascinating category of the recently launched Biodiverse Front Gardens and Balconies Competition, is the Driveway Transformation category. This aims to celebrate and showcase home owners choosing flowers and greenery over concrete and tarmac.
With more and more Ealing home-owners considering this green transformation, there is nothing like some local advice to inspire an idea into reality. Lets hear from Juliet and Neal on how they transformed their driveway:
“It was a difficult decision to replace our garden with a driveway. We hated the idea of hard-surfacing. Not only is paving harmful for the environment and increases the risk of flooding, it is dispiriting for humans and starves wildlife of much-needed habitat. However, as much as we wanted a flower-filled front garden, we needed a practical space to charge our electric car.
We gave a lot of thought as to how to add greenery and minimise impermeable materials. We searched the internet for ideas and took inspiration from the Environment Agency’s Guidance on the Permeable Surfacing of Front Gardens. After a lot of planning and thought, we created something that is really easy to replicate in similar urban front gardens.
The crucial point for any eco-driveway is make sure you that the area in your garden is properly designed to take the weight of an electric vehicle. (The battery makes these cars much heavier than combustion engine cars.) To do this we designed the space around two 600mm-wide strips for wheels – a small percentage of the overall space – but enough to park a car. We gave over the remainder to growing new plants and flowers as well as retaining the existing shrubs and hedges.
To create the ‘driveway’ section, we had to remove a dozen mature roses with established root systems. This was a lot of hard work, which we undertook ourselves, but was ultimately very rewarding because we were able to re-home these shrubs elsewhere.
To create the foundations to support the weight of the car, we handed the heavy digging work over to a landscaping contractor. A large amount of soil had to be removed before it was filled in with Type 1 crushed stone, compacted and overlaid with strong plastic mesh, then edged with mortar. Once this cement mix had set, pea shingles were poured over to create a natural, permeable surface.
After this, we stepped back in and took over the planting phase. Succulents, mostly sedums, were used to fill in the middle section between the tyre tracks. For a pop of spring colour, we planted muscari and crocuses. We’re now experimenting with low-growing perennials; ajuga and anemones are our favourites. “
The birds, bees, and insects love our eco-driveway and it gives us great pleasure, too.”
If you’re thinking of transforming your front-of-house space to be greener and more biodiverse, we’d love to hear about your plans. With cash prizes and awards to be won, enter your Driveway Transformation into the Biodiverse Front Gardens and Balconies Competition. (Deadline for entries is 23:59 14 July 2024.)