Why do so many people pave over their gardens?

If you see a house you like, in the location you like then I wouldn't let a bit of paving get in the way. I'm with the person who says you can have it removed.
After all, no house is perfect and there's always something you need to change.

Coolgran, you sound as though you had the same idea as we did. We have done away with the tyranny of a lawn and just have the fun bits. Our garden is south facing so very appealing for just sitting in! I love looking down on it too!

I am also guilty of the paved over area, mine's out back.

Our aim was to reduce essential routine labour but have something to potter with. We have two levels of flagged area, a surrounding wall which is taller at the back and only about 2' at the front and so it is doubled to make beds for flowers, hostas, pansies etc. The side at the garage takes climbing roses.
When doing the flagging we retained the two apple trees and the plum tree.
These trees give us shade when we want it, I can potter in my walled borders, it all gets power hosed in the Spring and fallen leaves get gathered up when we feel like it.
If feels very leafy and fresh - also to look down on it from an upstairs window it is so beautiful.

Out front we took away the grass and doubled our driveway entrance for extra parking as we live in a cul-de-sac. This left 3/4 of the original garden which is now in low growing shrubs, membrane and bark chippings. and really nice stepping stones .... where the dgc have adventures and make potions in the bird bath using flower petals.

House hunting is all about compromise. That's not meant as a dig at the op. Just saying that it's nigh on impossible to get everything you want when searching, if only

ladytina42- am totally with you on this one. And then we wonder why we have no birds left or hedgehogs, etc makes me very sad too.

Thanks all, I can see for some it is a necessity, but it does make me so sad to see so many, I really would rather find a house with a lovely garden than one in which we would have to pull up paving slabs. Thanks all for your input x

When we moved here four years ago the front garden was (badly) gravelled over. It was so the previous owners had somewhere to park off-road. We turned it back to lawn and flower beds and, even though I say so myself, it looked lovely this summer! It does mean that my DD's car has to park on the road. This is no bad thing as it slows down the school-run mums who use our road as a rat-run.

We are not allowed to here where I live. Not that I would want to.
So I've got quite an expanse of grass all round and it's lovely (hard work in summer though). We are allowed chippings on driveways and pathways etc. Apparently this is all to do with preventing flooding.

I have just googled and apparently planning permission is needed to pave over a certain measurement of garden. It leads to flooding, water pollution and other environmental issues.

When we moved we deliberately bought a house with a much smaller garden and we are guilty of paving it! Previously, the garden had been a school playground and the tarmac had not been properly removed or broken up and there was a slope from one end to the other meaning that one end of the garden was bone dry and the other a soggy mess.

We now have a largish paved area immediately outside the back of the house with wide borders and a water feature that attracts lots of birds. We have 3 tiered beds each about 2'6" deep separating the lower patio from the brick paved, more secluded one on a higher level. We are totally enclosed by walls, fences and climbers, have good deep borders full of plants and have plenty of time to sit in our lovely garden as we don't have grass to cut.

I am not certain annsixty but I think that may be the front and not the rear.

I thought it was no longer allowed to pave over gardens as rainwater runs off and is lost instead of going into the ground to fill up Aquifers.

Mine was paved last year because I could no longer cope. It was also raised to allow me to get out of the French doors more easily. I would prefer grass and flower borders but as said, I could no longer look after them.

Roses not rises..

I suppose a lot of people don't like gardening or are unable to do it. We just had a square of lawn when we moved in but DH and I planted flower beds and rises around the edges to attract bees and butterflies . It's so much nicer to look at. I can't abide paved or gravelled gardens.

Buy the house you want and rip the paving up.