Digging deep to protect our precious gardening space

More than half front gardens are paved over - new report

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More than half of Britain's front garden space and a third of back garden space is paved over, reducing the potential to help with flooding, wildlife and storing carbon, experts have said.

New AI-assisted mapping from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) also indicates 7.5 million square metres of domestic gardens are covered in artificial lawns.

The RHS's new State Of Gardening report also suggests the extent of Britain's love affair with gardening - and a certain reticence about claiming to be a "gardener" - and highlights disparities in the amount of green space available to people.

And it highlights the value of gardeningcontributing some £38 billion to the economy and boosting health and well-being, jobs, wildlife and carbon storage, as well as bringing people together in community gardens.

In light of the findings, the RHS is calling for a guaranteed "space to grow" in all housing and urban planning, with high-quality gardens a key part of not only the 1.5 million new homes pledged by the Government, but retrofitted into existing housing and communities.