Only 10% think front gardens are for plants

In a recent poll of 2,067 people, only 10% expressed an interest in growing plants in their front gardens.

The other 90% put their disinclination down to space needed for cars, the front garden being too small, lack of time and ‘too much hard work’. However, 73% said greener streets would make them feel happier while 59% said it would make them feel healthier.

The RHS has created a new Front Garden Guide in response to the findings, featuring smaller outside spaces and achievable planting ideas for novice gardeners. RHS Director General Sue Biggs says, “We want estate agents, garden centres, housing associations, councils and as many people as possible to access and share the Front Garden Guide. We must promote that you can have parking and plants. Greener front gardens don’t need to be complicated or time-consuming to help brighten our streets and make us all feel better.” But the RHS has an uphill task: 57% of people with grey driveways or front gardens said that they would not be encouraged to grow more greenery even if there were initiatives such as additional parking spaces on streets or more information about the benefits.

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The RHS Greening Grey Britain campaign aims to reverse this trend. Find out more, download the Front Garden Guide and make your pledge to green over the grey athttps://www.rhs.org.uk/science/gardening-in-a-changing-world/greening-grey-britain

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Steve Ott

Steve Ott is editor of Kitchen Garden magazine and started his career as a professional grower, producing everything from cut flowers to vegetables. He has been growing fruit and veg all his life and spends most of his spare time in his garden in the East Midlands. He loves to experiment with crops and varieties he has never grown before and when he isn’t gardening is to be found out in the countryside bird watching and walking his dog Ted.