I have found the perfect way to keep warm on a cold winter’s day – take up a pickaxe and smash up the concrete in your garden! Our gardens are continually disappearing under a sea of concrete and creating floods where there never used to be a problem.
Two years ago, when we moved to our present house, we inherited countless square metres of concrete in our back garden and whenever it rained, an extremely fast-flowing torrent ran from the back of our garden, past the front door and then flowed down the street.
Since then, we have managed to fill four maxi skips to the full with chunks of concrete and have enough for three more. Already, we have noticed the improvement.
However, if you find that do have to lay a slab of concrete for a shed like we have done, create a green roof to counteract the negative impact. We have almost finished our shed apart from the plants on the roof. I am waiting for warmer weather to plant out my pots of Stipa tenuissima, a wonderful silky grass that will waft beautifully in the wind.
creative garden design 