Stewardship – Resident Behaviour & Long-Term Performance
Â
Copy-Ready Wording
Use this paragraph in planning, landscape, ecological or management documentation where resident behaviour, private gardens and long-term performance of Green Infrastructure are relevant.
The Self-Sustaining Garden programme is a resident-facing stewardship resource, not a statutory measure or technical standard. It provides clear, practical guidance that helps homeowners manage their private gardens in ways that support soil health, planting resilience, biodiversity and low-impact use of outdoor space. By reducing common post-occupation behaviours that undermine landscape and ecological intent, the programme supports the long-term performance of site-wide Green Infrastructure, SuDS and habitat design.
What Stewardship Means in This Context
In this toolkit, stewardship refers to the way residents use and manage their private gardens after handover, and how this behaviour affects:
- Soil structure, permeability and fertility
- Establishment and longevity of planting
- Biodiversity potential in domestic space
- The condition of adjacent Green Infrastructure, SuDS and habitat features
- Perceptions of quality, care and place within the development
The programme addresses the behaviour gap, not the design or metric gap. It supports what has already been designed and delivered, rather than adding new technical measures.
What the Programme Is – and Is Not
The Self-Sustaining Garden programme is:
- A digital, resident-facing guidance resource for private gardens
- Designed to complement landscape, SuDS, Green Infrastructure and ecological strategies
- A scalable way to support consistent, low-impact resident behaviour across a development
The Self-Sustaining Garden programme is not:
- A technical design measure or engineering solution
- A replacement for landscape, ecological or SuDS management plans
- A maintenance contractor or legally secured management obligation
- A substitute for professional advice or site-specific design decisions
How the Programme Supports Projects
Although it does not create new metrics or obligations, the programme can help protect the conditions that technical measures rely on once residents move in.
It helps residents:
- Avoid soil compaction, over-tidying and unnecessary hard surfacing
- Support establishment and long-term care of planting
- Adopt wildlife-friendly and water-sensitive garden practices
- Understand how their garden relates to wider site design, drainage and ecology
- Make better long-term decisions about garden changes and investments
In combination, these behaviours reduce post-occupation risks that commonly erode the performance of landscape, biodiversity and SuDS measures over time.
Where Stewardship Can Be Referenced
References to the Self-Sustaining Garden programme as a stewardship measure may be included in the narrative of:
- Landscape Strategies and Green Infrastructure Strategies
- Ecological or Landscape Management Plans
- SuDS Strategies and Drainage Statements (behaviour and maintenance sections)
- Design & Access Statements (long-term management or resident support)
- Stewardship, customer-care or resident engagement proposals
For frameworks with specific statutory or technical requirements (such as BNG, SuDS, GI, BwN or S106), consultants should refer to the relevant alignment page in this toolkit.
Do’s and Don’ts
Do:
- Describe the programme as a resident-facing stewardship resource for private gardens
- Explain how it supports long-term performance of landscape and ecological design
- Position it as complementary to, not instead of, technical measures and legal commitments
Don’t:
- State or imply that it fulfils statutory requirements, planning obligations or accreditation standards
- Present it as a technical design solution or engineered feature
- Use it as a substitute for management plans, maintenance contracts or monitoring duties
- Claim formal compliance, credits or units on the basis of programme delivery alone
