Make your garden permeable: remove paving and enable infiltration

Why should your garden be permeable?

Too many tiles cause flooding in your garden and neighbourhood. Rainwater cannot infiltrate, runs to the sewer, and your garden becomes waterlogged in summer. Plus: tiled gardens are the quickest to get weeds and the most boring. Biologically: zero food for birds, zero insects, zero living ecosystem.

Permeable gardens let water infiltrate (soak into the ground), meaning your soil stays moist without flooding. Your plants grow better, sewers are not overwhelmed, and wildlife flourishes.

The rule: the more green and loose soil, the better your garden works.

How much paving must go?

This depends on your municipality. Many require at least 30-50 percent unpaved (green) surface. Practically:

• Minimum: keep side paths and parking spots, front garden at least 50 percent green
• Ideal: only parking and front door step in stone, rest green and borders
• Dream: no paving at all, gravel paths, everything permeable

For most homes: front garden mostly green, side path in gravel or grass, parking spot possibly still stone but permeable pavers.

What do you do with all the paving?

Before you start: where do your tiles go?

Option 1: Recycling In many municipalities you can drop tiles free (tile shops, building material centres, recycling depots). Check your municipality first.

Option 2: Reuse Nice tiles can go to Marktplaats or Facebook. Bad tiles are hard to shift.

Option 3: In your own garden Tiles can be reused as border edging, stepping stones, or landscape borders. Many gardeners drag them away and stack them at the garden edge.

Removing and hauling costs approximately 50-150 euros per 10 square metres via a waste hauler.

What do you plant where tiles were?

Preparation: After tiles are gone, you probably have compacted hard soil. Usually a mix of sand, gravel, and old mortar. You must loosen and improve it.

Step 1: Loosen soil Dig or use a soil mill to loosen the top 20-30 cm. Heavy work - most gardeners rent a soil mill (50-100 euros per day).

Step 2: Mix compost Mix 20-30 percent mature compost through the loosened soil. This adds nutrition and better water retention.

Step 3: Firm carefully Firm well but not rock-hard. Water thoroughly after setting.

What you plant:

• Full sun: lawn, borders with lavender, rosemary, sedum
• Partial shade: grass, hosta, ferns, heuchera
• Full shade: lawn (yes, grass grows in dim light), ivies, hosta

Most gardeners choose lawn (quick, cheap) or borders (prettier, more wildlife food).

How do you keep your front door practical without paving?

This is the key issue: you want no mud indoors. Two solutions:

1. Gravel path A narrow gravel path (3-5 cm) from gate to front door. Use play sand or 8-16 mm gravel. This is permeable, practical, and feels rustic. Under gravel: use geotextile (weed cloth) to suppress weeds.

2. Permeable pavers Special tiles with holes where gravel sits. Water runs through, gravel is the base. Much pricier than regular tiles (3x cost) but looks neat. Brands: Geocell, Ecodeck.

3. Hybrid Front door step in stone (3-4 steps), rest of path in gravel or grass.

Most gardeners choose gravel: practical, affordable, permeable. Beauty downside: gravel spreads into lawn, so rake regularly.

Step-by-step

Step 1: Measure and plan

Measure which area you want to de-pave. Decide where your front door path and possibly parking must stay. Sketch where green and where stone/gravel.

Step 2: Remove paving

Professional: Hire a contractor to strip and haul tiles (200-400 euros).

DIY: Break tiles with chisel or pneumatic hammer. Heavy labour. Very slow.

Step 3: Prepare soil

Rent a soil mill or have contractor loosen it. Mix compost (20-30 percent) through loosened soil. Firm well.

Step 4: Lay paths

Gravel path: lay geotextile, spread gravel 5 cm. Or: lay permeable pavers per manual.

Step 5: Plant

Plant lawn or borders. Water well the first year.

Step 6: Check drainage

Verify water truly infiltrates. Turn garden hose to full: does water vanish in five seconds or stand still? Stands still: soil is too compact, you must loosen deeper.

Frequently asked questions

Is a permeable garden not always muddy?

No, if you prepare well. Water infiltrates in seconds to minutes (depending on soil type). After that soil feels dry. Only during extreme rainfall (48+ hours non-stop) might water stand briefly, then slowly infiltrates.

What if your neighbourhood has "paving rules"?

Many Dutch homes have covenants requiring at least 50 percent "maintained" (read: paved) gardens. But many municipalities now override this: permeability trumps HOA rules.

Check your municipality and deed. Many now offer subsidies or tax reductions for removing paving.

How much does de-paving cost?

Strip and haul tiles: 100-300 euros. Loosen soil and compost: 100-200 euros. Gravel or pavers: 100-400 euros. Lawn seed: 50 euros. Total: 350-1100 euros for small front garden (20-30 square metres).

This pays back in better-growing plants and less maintenance within 3 years.

Can you keep some paving?

Yes, absolutely. Many gardens have: parking all paved, front door path stone, rest borders and green. This feels balanced and practical.

What about neighbour roots causing damage?

This is practical issue. De-paving means your soil is moister, and neighbour tree roots grow into your garden more easily. Solution: plant your own small trees and shrubs against your border, so your soil is occupied.

Frequently asked questions

Is it true permeable gardens get more mosquitoes?

This is a myth. Mosquitoes come from standing water (ponds, buckets). Infiltrating water disappears into soil - no standing water, no mosquitoes. Paving that sheds water faster often gets stagnant water in gaps - that is where mosquitoes breed.

What does your garden look like when it rains, is everything flooded?

If soil is well-prepared (20-30 cm loosened) water infiltrates in seconds to minutes. Only extreme rainfall (>50 mm/hour) produces water faster than soil can absorb. In that case your garden briefly floods, but this is better than overwhelmed neighbour sewers (paving offloads directly to pipes).

Can you make gardens permeable without excavating everything?

Partially. Drill holes in tiles and insert woodchips or mulch helps. But real transformation: paving gone, soil loose, compost mixed in. No half measures.

Discover your garden design

On gardenworld.app you can upload your front garden and see how it looks without paving - with realistic plants and permeable paths. Plan and visualise before you break. gardenworld.app helps you choose: keep your parking in stone, and replace the rest with borders? Upload your yard to gardenworld.app today.