Reduce garden paving

What you can do right now:

• Good

  Reduce the amount of paving

  Even a slight reduction in the amount of garden paving can help reduce water runoff.

  Replacing paving with plants, trees, and hedges can help moderate heat in summer and even provide better protection against the cold in winter.

• Better

  Switch to a permeable paving option

  Replacing your current paving with a more permeable option allows rainwater to drain more naturally and helps prevent runoff that can lead to local flooding.

  This article from the RHS has some great advice on more permeable options like matrix pavements.

• Best

  Remove all unnecessary paving

  Any paving, even permeable options, is space that isn't being used for plants - reducing all unnecessary paving and replacing it with plants can help increase biodiversity and can even help regulate air temperature.

  Car parking space is often the cause of excessive paving, if you need to park your car in the front garden: have a look at the minimum amount of paving you need to park the car on. The space between car wheels can be used to plant low growing plants instead.