© Geographer CC BY-SA 2.0. Note that it meets all the criteria of a unvegetated garden as set out below.
The following is a short summary of the habitat type and how to create/enhance it to a "good" condition. For an informed position, please refer to official up-to-date UKHAB documentation or the UK Government's Condition Assessment Sheet.
Synonyms: paving, decking
An unvegetated Garden is characterised by its lack of significant vegetation. This type of garden is principally unvegetated, for example, it may contain large areas of paving or decking instead of traditional garden elements like grass or flower beds.
Important - rules when drawing in unvegetated garden
There are different rules for drawing baseline and post-development:
If you are drawing the baseline, you should make sure that you only draw in the parts of the garden that are clearly unvegetated. The LPA will want you to separately draw in important features as individual habitat parcels. So make sure you also add in (for example) individual trees; hedgerows; distinct other habitats (such as ponds).
The post-development private garden has no public access, and biodiversity net gains cannot be legally secured. As these gains cannot be secured, you should only record created private gardens as either: ‘urban – vegetated garden’; or ‘urban - unvegetated garden’. You should not: record the creation of any other new habitats within private gardens or record enhancement of any habitat within private gardens
Assessment Questions:
- Is the habitat a private garden?
- Is there a noticeable absence or minimal presence of vegetation such as grass, flowers, shrubs, or trees?
- Are the majority of the surfaces covered with non-vegetative materials like paving, concrete, decking, gravel, or stones?
If YES, then it is likely 'Urban - Unvegetated garden'
How to Create / Enhance to a "Good" condition
Please refer to this guide for creation.
It is not possible to enhance this habitat. You may wish to create a new habitat or buy off-site units.
Please note that this is a simple guide to help identify the habitat. For a definitive description, please refer to UKHab documentation. Joe's Blooms takes no responsibility for the content of external links.