I’m going to start off by reminiscing about the past. It’s not because I am going senile, but rather because I have noticed that there is a strong correlation with the way that people use their properties and how neighborhoods change with that use.

In the latter part of the last century, people have moved from actively using their front yards in the 1960’s to more concealed uses of the backyard as the family living space. However, I am recently finding that many people are reclaiming the front yard for a variety of uses. In so doing, I feel that this re-emergence of the livable front yard has in some ways refocused eyes on the neighborhood that will potentially make the neighborhood a safer place to live.

	Front porches were once where neighbors met

In The Neighborly Way

When I was a child growing up in suburban Ontario in the 1960’s, my fondest memories are those of coming home from school and seeing my Baba (grandmother) sitting in her chair on the porch. And it wasn’t just she who did this, but all the older people on the street. While on that porch, everyone who passed by said hello. You automatically knew someone was home, and the street was overall a friendly place.

When she passed away, something changed in the neighborhood. People slowly stopped looking up at anyone on a porch or in a yard, let alone say hello. Soon even the activity of children playing moved solely to the backyard, which was originally reserved for the vegetable garden or the pool or larger family gatherings. Anyone could walk down the street and never be welcomed or even have any exchange of dialogue.

Then the 1990’s hit, and soon no one knew anyone who walked down the street. I could always see my mother looking out of the window suspiciously at anyone who seemed out of place in the neighborhood. And this seemed to persist throughout all the streets in the city. Even when I moved away and settled in Winnipeg, I noticed that there was something missing from my childhood memories. It wasn’t until recently, as I started teaching courses and had some individuals who had similar childhood experiences and others who emigrated from Europe to the Prairies, that it dawned on me what had been lost in such a very short time.

Set up a couple of welcoming chairs or a small bistro set

What I realized was that many of us have an “old country” heritage where community life included knowing your neighbors, and being out in front of your home was a way to commune with people. This sense of community spawned a variety of benefits including pride, knowledge, good social behavior, and more importantly a sense of security and safety. When we became more private and isolated our activities to the backyard, that whole notion of community was eroded and soon the very streets which had once provided a neighborhood evolved into conduits for illicit behavior. Now breaking and entering, vandalism and the like have taken hold.

With the ‘eyes in front’ redirected to the self and the back, we essentially handed the neighborhood to the very people we were trying to avoid. In the Home Landscape Workshops that I teach, as well as with some of the recently immigrated clients I have dealt with in the past, I am now finding a desire to regain the front yard, both as a means to be neighborly and to increase neighborhood security.

Taking Back The Neighborhood

In some situations, though the primary entertaining areas established in the 1990’s are still useful, I’m noticing that the daily casual “sitting in the yard” is being moved to the front yard. Some, like one of my clients who recently emigrated from Portugal, have reestablished a small sitting area, suitable for a tete-a-tete or even a small bistro set, where they can sit, sip coffee or an aperitif, read the morning paper, and more importantly converse with the neighbor down the street as they pass by, or even have a dialogue with the neighbor next door who has done the same.

In more elaborate concepts, I have found people who have moved they primary gardening activities to the front, relegating the backyard to the children’s activities. Many of these have totally revamped the concept of the front yard as we traditionally know it (turf) to a paradise of perennials, annuals, shrubs and seating areas. Here it’s not uncommon to find an herb garden or containers of vegetables. These yards are obviously those of the avid gardener, who would be found tending the property daily and likely knows everyone who lives on the block, and maybe another block over as well.

	A novel front yard deck and sitting area

But the act of setting up a sitting area or a garden in these front yards is not the most important thing that is happening here. The fact that these neighbors are out there in their yards is likely resulting in the lower crime on property rate on the street. Even in the 1980’s when we were moving our primary activities to the backyards of North American suburbia, planners were identifying that the most defensible public spaces are those where the space has ‘eyes’ on it. This is why many parks no longer have dense shrub plantings which would obstruct views into the space by passing police. It is also the reason mounted police have been reestablished in larger plazas or at large events - an officer on horseback has a greater view of the crowd than one in a cruiser or on foot.

This is also why building designs in commercial areas now include terraces with restaurants and cafes which are opened so that they can look down on the street or plaza below - this makes the would-be criminal anxious that someone may see his or her crime. By residents reestablishing their living spaces in the front yards of North America, we ourselves become the first line of defense for our personal space and property. If a would-be criminal knows that he or she can be described or identified by someone, they will think twice about committing the crime.

Time To Rethink Your Front Yard?

So if you suspect that the front yard of your home is not providing the necessary security that you feel you need in your neighborhood, let me suggest considering this alternative. Take control of your street by returning your ‘eyes in front’. Find a comfortable open area where a patio with a bistro set may easily be put up. Use your porch in the daytime to sit and read or drink your tea. Invite a neighbor over for coffee and cake and get to know each other. Take turns meeting at each other’s homes.

Turn the entire front yard into a garden!

And for the avid gardener, maybe look at the lawn and see if it needs to be ripped out by the roots and replaced with something a little more actively engaging. Create something with which you can showcase your talents to the neighbors. It will likely be a conversation piece in the neighborhood, and you can get to know just which of the people that pass by your home really live on your block, or if they are maybe up to no good.

Whatever your motivation, taking back the front yard for security reasons without building a formidable fence or wall is a positive way to bring back neighborliness into the neighborhood.

So until next time – Happy Gardening to you and the neighbors you’re about to meet!

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