Planning The Small Back Yard

How do you provide for privacy, variation and color in the small garden? How do you plan for a small patio and living area, a kids play area, a place for garbage cans and space for a vegetable and cutting garden all in the small back yard? These are questions frequently asked by the small home owner.

In many sections of the country we find neat, attractive houses, set on small lots with many of the houses just alike. The problem is to give your own home individuality while providing adequate work and living space; and all with a degree of privacy so as to be entirely useful.

Privacy

Privacy is of first importance on all city lots. Where the lots are small, the problem is often acute. Where all houses are set the same distance from the street, windows of one house look directly into the windows of the adjoining houses. When one steps into the back yard one can see into a number of other lots.

Where space is limited, a fence is the most practical method of obtaining privacy. A simple wooden fence of vertical boards, pickets or grape stakes makes an ideal screen.

Several years ago I lived for a while in a small-homes development in California. When we first moved in it was necessary to keep the blinds drawn most of the time. A large dining room window of our house looked directly into a window of the adjoining house. We solved the problem by placing a six-foot picket fence on the property line and planting two slender evergreens at one side, with some flowers at their base and along the fence. Just beneath the window we planted a strip of hedge, clipped to windowsill height. Not only did we obtain complete privacy, but our dining room then looked out upon a gardened area. This beautiful, sunny composition was quite a change from the previous gloomy atmosphere caused by a half-closed venetian blind.

A six-foot fence is the best height for level lots. To give complete privacy to your property, the six-foot height should extend from the front of the house on one side, to the rear, across the back and up the opposite side to a point even with the front of the house. If the fence is extended to the front of the property, a height of two to four feet would be more desirable from the front of the house to the walk.

In farming communities there is an old saying – “Good fences make good neighbors.” Certainly it is even more true among small home owners. A fence is not unfriendly. It benefits your neighbor’s property as much as your own. Sometimes the cost is shared by adjoining property owners, but in general I would advise against it.

Planning

Once you have obtained privacy, you can begin to plan the back yard for different uses. You must first decide just what activities will be provided for. Your back yard should be tailored to the needs of your own family.

Do you need outdoor living, play, vegetable and cutting gardens?

Since an outdoor living area should be located as near the living portion of the house as possible, directly in back of the house on a patio or deck is where you find it mostly today. In this way you can easily take your guests from the living room to the outdoor living area. With the garbage cans screened from view by a wooden screen, supplemented by shrubs, the entire distance from the living room to the outdoor living space can be a pleasant walk. Another advantage of locating the outdoor living area near the house is to have it as near the kitchen as possible in the event of outdoor dining – what we call a BBQ or cook out!

The vegetable garden and cutting area should be located where the soil is good and where there is plenty of sunshine. Although it should not be too far from the kitchen, this is not really a factor on the small lot.

Play space should be located so that adults can keep an eye on the children. If small trees are used in the plans shown, the play area can be seen from the kitchen window or from the outdoor living area. The tall fence at the back of the property makes it necessary for children to pass the house in leaving the back yard.

Sometimes the pavement of the living area is also used by kids for bikes, toys and maybe a basketball hoop. If this is done, asphalt or smooth concrete may be used rather than brick or gravel. The play space should have shade. If this is provided by a tree, it should be located so as not to cast shade on the vegetable garden or flower beds.

by Herschel Weber

Related Articles Of Interest:

• The Small Back Yard – Careful Planning and Color
• Small Yard Landscaping
• Tale of Two Small Gardens
• Small Backyard Landscaping Ideas