Forum Topic

Flood Warnings

There are a lot of flood warnings for areas around the River Thames today.  There are some areas already flooded.  I hope we don't get another month's rain in an hour or whatever it was with the last big thunderstorm!https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/warnings?stationid=7267

Philippa Bond ● 1421d26 Comments

https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/plan-ahead-for-flooding

Philippa Bond ● 1417d

I don't think anything can live underneath plastic lawns :(so no worms for the blackbirds and no dandelions for the bees..

Philippa Bond ● 1418d

Good point, Judy; gasping worms  This reminds me of when I was in the Green Man last year after it reopened its garden with the cabins and new artificial grass surface - a dog belonging to one of the other patrons decided to test the permeability of the new surface; unfortunately I missed a photo op as it was rapidly discouraged by its owner who declined to facilitate an action replay 🙂 I'm sure pubs find artificial grass is lower maintenance but one disadvantage a producer does admit is that they don't convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Michael Ixer ● 1419d

There is the safety thing, but don't they need to come up for air?

Judy Allen ● 1419d

I sometimes think about that, Judy. Will worms evolve to have little drills for boring through plastic? Or do they like the safety of being shielded from hungry birds?

Michael Ixer ● 1419d

Glad you read worms!

Philippa Bond ● 1419d

Agree about blackbirds - also worry about worms banging their heads trying to emerge through plastic.

Judy Allen ● 1419d

I'd miss the blackbirds scouting the grass and scrabbling  around the fallen leaves especially just after the rain when the works have come up to the surface.The talk I went to by Gay Search was about filling pots and window boxes.  I don't think she wrote a book on that which is a shame - it was before we all had computers and she gave us a sheet of instructions which I think I lent... If you get the compost mix and plants right for the amount of time and attention you can give it can work with living plants. I have a neighbour who is a hard taskmistress and reckons that if the plants can't live on their own in the flowerpot without intervention then they have no right to be there!  I have to admit that very occasionally I've felt sorry for them and leant over with a plastic milk container of water.  She had geraniums recently and they are pretty hardy.  If you want them to keep on flowering like with most plants you have to eep on dead-heading.

Philippa Bond ● 1419d

fair enough! I didnt mean to come across lecturing etc, apologies for that.All I'm saying is i think its a bit ridiculous for people to have plastic lawns

Matt Palmer ● 1419d

Our back gatden suffices in that respect quite abundantly.  Window boxes are not taking anything from nature.

Freddie Francis ● 1419d

The bees might.

Matt Palmer ● 1419d

We’ve got plastic plants in our flower box because the real ones always die. I don’t care either.

Freddie Francis ● 1419d

I dont care, it's a slippery slope, how long before we start replacing bushes with plastic too? Oh wait! that's already happening as well!Give nature a chance ffs.

Matt Palmer ● 1419d

Synthetic lawns - they are porous. You could possibly also add that they require no energy to maintain, electricity or petrol. No pesticides or chemicals required either. No weeding. Fewer back injuries for the elderly. Plastic use may negate some of that but if your premise is concerned with water run-off you might find that a sun-baked soil substrate has much more propensity for water to run off in a deluge.

Freddie Francis ● 1419d

https://www.nationalparkcity.london/frontgardens

Philippa Bond ● 1419d

i grind my teeth every time i walk passed a house near me that has a fake plastic grass lawn...

Matt Palmer ● 1420d

Philippa all the more reason to make sure maintenance is carried out on drains:)

Ed Robinson ● 1420d

Phew!  It seems to be totally random who gets the enormous amount of rainfall from them.

Philippa Bond ● 1420d

Well all I can say is that I did notice the drain closest to my house was very blocked. I noticed as I was opening the car door and being a tad concerned at the prospect of dropping the keys in it. I needn't have worried then as I could have fished them out with a piece of wire,  they would only have been a couple of inches down.A combination of poor maintenance and the increase in paving over front gardens, not helped by the cost of parking on the street, and public areas probably adds to the lack of anywhere for the water to go.

Freddie Francis ● 1420d

It isn't just the routine maintenance by public authorities though that can obviously add to the problem.  It is too easy to blame everyone else.  If we are going to slow the amount of run off water down as it hits the sewers we have to do more to reduce the amount of hard surfacing around us and work out where the water on our properties runs to.People have been busy concreting and tarmacking over gardens for years to make easy parking and patios despite any planning and building regulation restrictions.  There have even been rules that you can't replace non-porous with non-porous and we ignore these at our peril.It is also easy to think that paving and pots will make the maintenance of gardens easier but it isn't always the case.  The amount of energy, effort and water that gets used with high pressure hoses cleaning patios and damaging pointing must be enormous - not to mention all the effort made and chemicals used to try and remove any spotting on paving becomes extreme.  I suspect raised beds that you can sit or lean on the side of are probably better.  It is so sad to see front gardens completely paved over when there could easily be some easy to maintain shrubs or climbers as well.Pots and window-boxes - well you often see those with dead plants in them. They are absolutely wonderful and can be a joy for those who pass by as well as for those who succeed but if you don't want to give them a lot of time and attention watering you really need to get the type and size of container, type of compost and planting just right.There are various sources of help online including the Royal Horticultural Society.  There have been and are good TV programmes too.  I remember going to a talk some years ago by Gay Search who wrote some books specifically on small front gardens and that was inspirational.     

Philippa Bond ● 1420d

Thank you Freddie.Could it be that climate change is being used as an excuse for the failure to carry out routine maintenance?The same examples of poor maintenance appears not just in the UK but also other countries.The odd thing is that with climate change routine maintenance is even more important.Let's not let those in charge off the hook that easily.

Ed Robinson ● 1420d

No problems at all as far as I’m aware.

Freddie Francis ● 1420d

Philippa,regarding the parking the old road tax answer used to apply but no longer. 50g/km CO2 or less is tax free so that argument is lost.We do need a real conversation around taxation and emissions. Road tax is based on CO2 but local ULEZ is based on Euro standards and theoretical NoX.Regarding floods we need to make sure that the maintenance of infrastructure is carried out. There seems to be evidence that this is not the case. Possibly due to austerity cutbacks going back over the last decade.It be interesting to know how Freddie's street coped with the rainful following the clearing. 

Ed Robinson ● 1420d

With so much on street car parking and not a lot of space to park elsewhere it can be a big inconvenience to have to move your car.  Also cars parked in a street often don't belong to the people in the street or move very often.  When it does flood it makes you realise how important it is to take it seriously!  The sewers can't cope with all the water so worth taking measures to slow it down before it gets to them. At last we are talking here about reorganising some downpipes and separating off some rainwater.  There's nothing like a crisis!

Philippa Bond ● 1420d

They cleared ours about a month or two ago. We had parking suspensions.

Freddie Francis ● 1421d

There's already a lot on social media about flash floods in London and elsewhere.It's not just the volume of rainwater it is also a real problem that our street gutters and drains are not being maintained.  When did you last see one of those drain-clearing vehicles unblocking and cleaning street drains?

Jonathan Callaway ● 1421d