There's no need to obliterate your front garden if you're looking for somewhere to park your car, writes Jane Powers
Ireland's changing landscape can deliver some rude shocks. Look out of your window one day and there's a car park where just the day before there was a front garden. Gone is the greenery, replaced by grey-, brown- or blackery - or even by a layer of rust-coloured, brick-like paving stones, a surface completely alien to our traditional built fabric.
Such is the unstoppable advance of the "concrete and cobble-lock juggernaut" - the scarily apt description that appeared in this paper's letters page last month. It is a force that flattens urban gardens without grace or taste, leaving behind a sterile and unsightly berth for one, two or more cars.
Before you turn the page in exasperation at these seemingly Luddite views, let me
assure you that I am not anti-car. I have
one myself. And I recognise that, often, gardens must be adapted to offer parking for a
vehicle or two. But front gardens and cars
may peacefully coexist: there is no need to
erase one to accommodate the other.
The problem with many of today's parking solutions is not just the loss of greenery (we'll get back to that) or the sheer ugliness of appearance, it is the fact that earth's surface is being sealed with an impermeable sheath of hard landscaping. Drainage: that is the issue.
In a normal garden, rain soaks harmlessly into the ground, with the soil acting as a giant sponge that is capable of holding a huge volume of water. But where the ground is encased in concrete, tarmac or another impenetrable material, the rain has nowhere to go except into municipal drains. In areas where lots of householders have locked away the soil in their front gardens, the extra volume of water may be considerable. Flooding, unnecessary pressure on sewage plants and pollution of watercourses and of the sea may all occur.
Unrelieved stretches of hard landscaping also act as giant storage heaters, absorbing warmth during the day and throwing it back at night, making conditions unpleasant in summer and adding to global warming.
Garden vegetation isn't just a pretty green frill around a house; it also functions as an air purifier. Dirt and dust are trapped by leaves and eventually washed into the soil. In areas where there is no greenery, the air quality suffers. And let's not forget wildlife: you won't see many birds, bees or butterflies if there's nowhere for them to feed or shelter.
The solution to the parking problem is simple, requiring just a little forethought. First, you need to look at the garden and decide the best place for parking. And that is not necessarily smack bang in front of the front door. If your garden is longer than your car, you could choose to park nearer the road, leaving room for a restful and car-free area of planting adjacent to the house. Put in a partial barrier, such as a hedge, trellis or clump of bamboos, to prevent your eye from landing on your rear bumper (unless you're so proud of your car that you can't bear to lose sight of it).
In many gardens there is no choice of a parking position, and the car will take up most of the space. But that doesn't mean the entire surface needs to be clad in a hard material. Only the tyres touch the ground, so you could lay a pair of tracks made from paving bricks or slabs. The beauty of this is that low-growing plants can grow in the space between the tracks (see list, right), as long as they are exposed to the light for a few hours every day - which they will be, when the car is out and about.
You can enliven expanses of hard landscaping by leaving gaps here and there, and planting into them. This will also help more rainwater drain into the soil. Make sure there are generous borders around the edges for plants, and remember that beds can swoop out into the areas where the car doesn't need to pass over or park. Even if you have space for only a narrow planting strip on the perimeter, you can still accommodate climbers. If there's no horizontal space, go vertical.
Landscaping materials can be artfully combined to break up an otherwise boring expanse. You can, for example, surround railway sleepers, stone flags or slabs made from textured concrete or aggregate with gravel. Just make sure that you use the materials in pleasing proportions, so that your sleepers or slabs don't look like sad little islands in a sea of gravel.
Gravel is an excellent material, as it is cheap and easy to use. It is water-permeable, so the ground can still soak up moisture. And, of course, you can plant right into it. Mediterranean-type species look best, and they will also enjoy the reflected heat. Consider plants such as bergenia, cistus, euphorbia, eryngium, Corsican and stinking hellebores (H. argutifolius and H. foetidus), California poppy, rosemary, thyme, verbascum, ornamental grasses and phormium.
If you want a really low-maintenance gravel patch, then lay a weed-suppressing landscape fabric over the soil (although this prevents self-seeding volunteers, which are half the fun of this kind of garden). Cut crosses into the material, peel back the triangular flaps and place the plants into the soil, carefully flattening the fabric back in place. Then cover with gravel - plenty of it, as nothing looks worse than unlovely lumps of fabric peeping through the stones.
Finally, if you own a house with a paved-over garden, there's nothing to stop you judiciously removing bits of the hard surface to unshackle the earth again - although you might want to consult a builder first. And if the paving can't be interfered with, for whatever reason, then plant some containers. We have the best climate in the world for growing things. Let's not live in a grey place. jpowers@irish-times.ie
The Royal Horticultural Society has published a brochure about incorporating parking spaces into front gardens. See: www.rhs.org.uk/gardeningmatters
LOW-GROWING PLANTS FOR UNDERNEATH CARS Check out an alpine nursery or a garden centre's alpines section for: •bugle (Ajuga reptans) •black mondo grass (actually a lily: Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') •low-growing grasses such as some miniature sedges (Carex) and fescues (Festuca) •small-leaved ivies (Hedera helix species) •lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor) •compact hardy geraniums, such as G. traversii, G. cinereum 'Ballerina' and the bronze-leaved G. sessiliflorum 'Nigricans' •creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) and Corsican mint (Mentha requienii) •deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) •miniature bulbs, such as crocus, small cyclamen, Iris reticulata and snowdrop •low-growing succulents such as some Echeveria and Sedum
DIARY DATE Next Saturday, March 4th, from 2pm to 5pm, there's a charity opening at the garden of Anna Nolan, well-known plantsperson, 12 Shanganagh Vale, Cabinteely, Dublin. Admission is €5, in aid of Pakistan earthquake relief