Our neighbourhood parks could be so much more.
Let’s rethink how our urban green spaces can bring community, connection, and nature into our daily lives.
This is a proposal for a new type of urban green space:
a managed neighbourhood backyard
that combines nature, food, community, resilience, and education.
We can - and must - make better use of our shared land.
It's well established that frequent connection to nature is essential to our wellbeing.
In our modern world, for most of us urban dwellers who work full-time while juggling life's many responsibilities, urban green spaces provide our only regular interactions with nature.
In tightly packed concrete jungles, they are essentially our shared backyards.
BACKYARDS takes this concept to heart, rooted in the belief that our urban backyards should integrate our communities and environments.
We have the power to create biodiverse, inspiring, beautiful gardens;
that encourage people to be healthy, active, playful, and connected;
and ultimately foster meaningful relationships with each other and with our land.
Let's give our urban backyards the care they deserve. That we deserve.
Out of respect for each other, and for the world around us.
Here's the idea
Consider an under-utilised local park, surrendered to a mediocre patch of turf.
Consider an alternative use of that space.
What could we do with this strange inner-suburbs Melbourne park, beyond grass and a handful of disconnected trees?
Clearly, quite a bit. It's no longer a boring thoroughfare: it's a diverse, exciting space to enjoy, rest, play, interact. The vegetation is connected, creating habitat and shelter. There are different places to sit, different paths to explore. Provides a lot more for the community, no?
Core elements
Community facilities
Pond
Food gardens
Nature play
Ecological gardens
Composting hub
What's needed to make it work?
Community input
Caretakers
Council funding
What's the outcome?
For any hope of a better future, we need to invest in our communities and environments together.
The solution proposed by BACKYARDS is designed to integrate these benefits:
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Strengthen community relationships, resilience, and mutual support
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Increase public safety through mutual trust and respect for shared resources
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Increase local food resource stability
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Improve neighbourhood liveability and comfort by increasing natural amenity
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Improve community health through outdoor activity and access to fresh food
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Support child development through nature play, helping them develop social bonds and understanding of the natural world around them
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Empower people to care for their land through nature education
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Provide opportunities for people to start new ventures
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Create local jobs for dedicated Caretakers
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Boost local economies by encouraging people to linger and patronise businesses
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Encourage mutually supportive resource networks
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Increase urban climate resilience
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Increase biodiversity and support wildlife populations
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Connect green corridors
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Increase canopy cover
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Improve soil structure for deep water infiltration, erosion control, and increased carbon carrying capacity
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Improve vegetation health and resilience by cultivating self-supporting ecosystems through organic practices
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Promote ecological stewardship
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Teach people about alternatives to lawn, encouraging more biodiverse and ecologically valuable gardening practices
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Foster genuine connections between people and place
This proposal is a starting point, intended to get people talking, ideas brewing, and councils listening.
Each section of this website will explore these core aspects in more depth. We won't get too detailed: local specificity is core to a successful BACKYARD.
From this initial framework, communities and councils can develop detailed plans for their own BACKYARDS through a local lens, integrating nuanced environmental, governmental, and social considerations.
Let's get into it.