Planting parking spaces is a dismal affair.

When you water them, the water just drains away.

The rich soil underneath is capped.

Parking spaces don’t flower; don’t make nectar, don’t produce fruit that we can eat.

Insects stay away; birds fly over.

Never do they grow, rise up from the ground, spread their branches to oxygenate the air.

No one returns in 30 years time and says I planted that parking space.

No generation thanked the last for planting more.

A study by Knight Frank conducted for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government found that in England there are 103,000 car parks covering 20,000 hectares of land. The city of Bristol has a 2030 net zero carbon target. More and more cities will follow suit as we feel the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crisis. Instead of planting parking spaces why don’t we covert these to spaces for trees?

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