Backyard

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Back garden
)
For other uses, see Backyard (disambiguation).
Look up backyard or back yard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A back yard in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in 1929
The back garden of Iford Manor was designed by Harold Peto.

A backyard, or back yard (known in the United Kingdom as a back garden or just garden), is a yard at the back of a house, common in suburban developments in the Western world.[1]

It is typically

residential garden located at the rear of a property, on the other side of the house from the front yard. While Western gardens are almost universally based on plants, the "garden" (which etymologically may imply a shorthand of botanical garden
) may use plants sparsely or not at all. Hence, the terms yard and garden are for the context of this article interchangeable in most cases.

History

United Kingdom

In English

suburban and gardening culture, back gardens have a special place.[2] In Britain there are over 10 million back gardens.[3] British planning require minimum distances between the rear faces of adjacent dwellings and so there is usually space for a back garden of some sort. In other countries, such as Australia, this does not apply and preference for buildings with a large footprint has tended to squeeze out the space at the rear.[4]

Australia

In Australia, until the mid-20th century, the back yard of a property would traditionally contain a

woodheap. More recently, these have been replaced by outdoor entertainments such as a barbecue and swimming pool.[5] But, since the 1990s, the trend in Australian suburban development has been for back yards to disappear as the dwellings now occupy almost all of the building plot.[1]

In higher latitudes, it is economical in low

back garden
.

Overview

A back garden arises when the main building divides the surrounding gardens into two. This happens especially in the high density housing of British cities and towns. A

semi-detached house typical of the British suburbs of the 20th century will have front gardens which face the road and provide access. The back gardens in such cases will be more secluded and access will typically be via the dwelling or by a path around the side. A front garden is a formal and semi-public space and so subject to the constraints of convention and law. However, the back garden is more private and casual,[6]
and so can be put to more purposes.

If the housing is

back-to-back houses found in northern industrial towns in England such as Leeds, but now mostly demolished. A private back yard with a "privy" (toilet) was a defining feature of the byelaw terraced house, a type of dwelling built to comply with the Public Health Act 1875
.

Usage

Because of weather constraints, it is usual to use a garden more in the summer than in the winter, although some usages are traditional, such as for a bonfire on

daytime
usage is more common than nighttime.

mulberry which is said to have been planted by Erasmus
.

Functionally, it may be used for:

In fact, its functional and

recreational
use is so varied, that it cannot be easily categorised. Many of the freedoms of the use of the back garden come from the restrictions, social or legal of what are not done in the front.

Usually, clothes are not dried, vegetables are not grown, and sunbathing is not carried out in a front garden. All these can happen in the privacy of the back garden.

Traditionally, people treat a back garden as private to themselves, and not those they are neighbours to. The social etiquette of how one can greet and interact one's neighbours may be complex and defined by many informal social rules.

In some areas, talking to one's neighbours over the back wall (the side wall following the property boundary line) is usual, and is a welcome form of neighbourliness, while in other places it is not.

Contents

A backyard of house in Tampere, Finland

Depending on the size of the backyard, it may have any number of items (or none), such as:

Gallery

  • Back yard of a house in Harvey, Louisiana, United States
    Back yard of a house in Harvey, Louisiana, United States
  • A playground being built for a homeowner's backyard as part of a handyman project
    A playground being built for a homeowner's backyard as part of a handyman project
  • People posing at a backyard party in Canada
    People posing at a backyard party in Canada
  • The backyard of Dunraven House, Wales, 1776
    The backyard of Dunraven House, Wales, 1776
  • Backyard with pool in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
    Backyard with pool in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780643098169
    .
  2. ISBN 0-226-52601-1
    . Every resident ... has a private garden divided into two areas, the front and the back garden whose social role is ...
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84407-432-7
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0-643-09816-9
  5. ISBN 9780521777339
    .
  6. ISBN 1-56718-793-5
    . The back garden is usually more private and casual
  7. ISBN 978-0-419-17980-1
  8. ^
    ISBN 0806942169
    .

External links

  • Media related to Backyards at Wikimedia Commons
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