Unpave the Way Garden
Where
The Unpave the Way Garden was showcased at the RHS Tatton Flower Show in July 2024 and gained a feature on BBC Gardeners World TV and BBC Northwest Tonight where it was reported that the buzz word of this year’s show was ‘SuDS’ (Sustainable Drainage Systems). Components of the garden were first displayed at the RHS Urban Show in April 2024 as part of a 'Rainwater Capture’ Content Cube. The Garden is part of a wider project named ‘Unpave the Way’ which is sponsored by the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
Unpave the Way seeks to address a growing national trend of impermeably paved front gardens/driveways. The surface water run off generated contributes to flooding and the activation of combined sewer overflows, which in turn reduces water quality in rivers.
The Unpave the Way Garden was created to encourage householders to rethink the amount of paving they require for accommodating parked vehicles and to choose permeable paving as a sustainable alternative. The garden aimed to inspire and influence householders to regreen their front gardens and use rainwater harvesting and SuDS.
Gold Medal Award Winning Garden Designer Leon Davis designed the garden with input from the Unpave the Way Project Team. The design criteria were:
- Low maintenance SuDS features for small domestic spaces
- Naturalistic climate resilient planting
- Both DIY SuDS components and ready-made SuDS products
- Functional driveway space
- Variety of permeable surfaces
The garden featured two differing front garden designs which both incorporated driveway space. Garden A was a SuDS retrofit DIY low-budget garden design which focused on using reclaimed paving materials and homemade SuDS features. Garden B was a new higher budget front garden design which utilised specialist ready-made SuDS products.