Front gardens: How opening up your garden can boost community and reduce loneliness

One of the most striking gardening trends to emerge in our increasingly urbanised world relates to what is often the smallest part of our gardens. It’s the front that is becoming the focus. It’s getting more open and welcoming. It’s letting its guard down.

While backyards keep their privacy, front gardens are forging more connections with the street. Walk around the residential suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney and, increasingly, you find front gardens that look like vibrant social spaces rather than purely ornamental ones.

In this Northcote garden Emmaline Bowman encouraged interaction with the street by using widely spaced sleepers for a fence Credit: Marnie Hawson

As Melbourne landscape architect Emmaline Bowman puts it, these gardens don’t look like they are only for entering and