Backyard

It is typically a 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. In Britain there are over 10 million back gardens. 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.

Australia

In Australia, until the mid-20th century, the back yard of a property would traditionally contain a fowl run, outhouse ("dunny"), vegetable patch, and woodheap. More recently, these have been replaced by outdoor entertainments such as a barbecue and swimming pool. 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.

In higher latitudes, it is economical in low land value regions to use open land surrounding a house for vegetable gardening during summers and allow sunlight to enter house windows from a low horizon angle during winters. As land value increases, houses are built nearer to each other. In order to preserve some of the open land, house owners may choose to allow construction on the side land of their houses, but not build in front of or behind their house in order to preserve some remnants of open surrounding land. The back area is known as the backyard or back garden.

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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, and so can be put to more purposes.

If the housing is terraced, then no side path is possible and access may be provided by an alley which runs behind the rear of the terrace. While buildings opening directly onto a street may not have a front garden, most will have some space at the back, however small; the exception being 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 Bonfire Night, 5 November. Similarly, daytime usage is more common than nighttime.

Functionally, it may be used for:

Growing food
Playing games
Relaxing and sunbathing
Raising plants
Housing pets
Drying clothes
Making a compost heap
Hobbies
Locating a greenhouse, conservatory, shed, workshop, outhouse, or garage (if access to a road is possible)
Partying
Wildlife refuge
Safe area for children
Location of an air raid shelter such as the Anderson shelter of World War II

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.

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

Barbecue
Buildings such as: barn, chicken coop, doghouse, garage, gazebo, accessory dwelling unit, outhouse, playhouse, sauna, shed, smokehouse, workshop, etc.
Compost bin
Decking
Fencing
Garden
Garden furniture (bench, patio table and chairs, umbrella, etc.)
Landscaping with or without a lawn or just dirt
Playground equipment (sandbox, slide, swing set, etc.)
Renewable energy generator (solar panels, windmills, etc.)
Sandpit also known as a sandbox (US and Canada)
Storage tank
Swimming pool and/or hot tub
Swing_(seat)
Hammock
Vehicle
Waste container
Landscape lighting