GI - Green Infrastructure Alignment
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Copy-Ready Wording
Use this paragraph in GI strategies, landscape reports or supporting planning documentation where long-term performance and resident use of private gardens are relevant.
The Self-Sustaining Garden programme is not a Green Infrastructure asset and does not create or enhance GI for planning purposes. It provides residents with clear, practical guidance that helps them manage private gardens in ways that support soil health, planting resilience and low-impact use of outdoor space. This reduces post-occupation behaviours that can compromise the functioning, continuity or quality of the wider Green Infrastructure network.
What GI Requires
Green Infrastructure (GI) describes the network of natural and semi-natural spaces that support:
- Ecological connectivity
- Infiltration, shading and cooling
- Microclimate regulation
- Landscape character
- Opportunities for recreation and wellbeing
- Contributions to habitat networks
To function effectively, GI relies on:
- Permeable, healthy soils
- Resilient and well-established vegetation
- Protection of wildlife movement routes
- Management that supports long-term functioning
- Behaviours that do not undermine adjacent GI features
Private gardens often sit within the wider GI context, even though they are not typically counted as formal GI assets.
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What the Programme Does Not Do
The SSG programme:
- Does not create GI assets
- Does not enhance GI for planning or policy compliance
- Does not meet GI policy requirements
- Does not replace strategic GI planning or management
- Must not be presented as contributing to GI quantity, quality or connectivity metrics
How the Programme Supports GI Delivery
Although not a GI intervention, the programme can support the functioning and resilience of the wider GI network by helping residents manage garden conditions that complement the intended landscape strategy.
It helps residents:
- Maintain permeable, living soils that support root growth and infiltration
- Retain vegetation that contributes to shading, cooling and ecological structure
- Avoid practices that fragment or disturb informal wildlife movement routes
- Support establishment and longevity of boundary planting where relevant to site design
- Reduce behaviours that degrade adjacent GI features, such as excessive hard surfacing or vegetation removal
These behaviours help protect the continuity and quality of GI at site level.
Where It Can Be Referenced
The programme may be referenced in the supporting narrative of:
- Green Infrastructure Strategies
- Landscape Strategies
- Landscape and Visual Impact documentation
- Ecological or Landscape Management Plans
- Design & Access Statements (GI sections only)
It should not be used to demonstrate provision, enhancement or connectivity of GI required by policy.
Doā€™s and Donā€™ts
Do:
- Reference the programme when describing measures that support long-term GI functioning
- Position it as complementary to landscape and ecological strategies
- Distinguish it clearly from formal GI creation or enhancement
Donā€™t:
- Imply that it provides GI assets or enhancements
- Suggest it fulfils GI requirements set out in planning policy
- Use it in GI quantity or connectivity assessments
- Present it as a substitute for strategic GI management
