© 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
Description: 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.
If you wish to select this habitat on a habitat selection screen, it can be found under Urban (see guide).
Important - rules when drawing in the 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 draw in important features as individual habitat parcels separately. So make sure you also add in (for example) individual trees, hedgerows, and 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 ‘urban – vegetated gardens’ or ‘urban - unvegetated gardens’. You should not record the creation of any other new habitats within private gardens or record the 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
How to get a "moderate" rating
It is not possible to get a moderate rating for this habitat
How to get a "good" rating
It is not possible to get a good rating for this habitat
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.