# Big front yard or big back yard?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 13, 2018, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015 "2018-06-13T10:37:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/41 "2018-06-14T10:24:37Z")
Growing up I lived on a dead end road. The back yard was about the same as the front, but the back led to the neighbor’s very large side yard. We had a large side yard on one side and a wooded ravine on the other (the actual yard on that side was maybe 12 feet). The ravine led to wooded large side/back yards, abandoned railroad tracks and lots of adventures.
I now have a small yard which I’m OK with but I miss the mostly vacant area (though there is some not too far away)
Brian
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### Author:  [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/42 "2018-06-14T11:09:13Z")
Which way is north? I’d want the sunniest yard to be the biggest.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/43 "2018-06-14T12:26:17Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> I definitely do not like the row houses in the city where your front door opens to the public sidewalk.
This is _exactly_ what I want. As it is, the car length between my front door and the street is 4.5m too much.
> [@](#):
>
> Give me a little privacy barrier.
Mine is called “a front door”.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/44 "2018-06-14T14:09:12Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> It depends on how much traffic is on the road.
>
> Busy highway, I want a big front yard. Big Rigs make a lot of noise roaring by.
>
> Quiet country road. I want a big back yard.
Same here.
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### Author:  [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/45 "2018-06-14T14:21:34Z")
I like a bit of front yard, right now I’ve about 20 feet between sidewalk and front porch and that seems about right for me … a few flower beds, couple trees and bit of lawn … urban residential neighborhood … whatever’s left is for the backyard which isn’t all that much to be honest … it’s a big house, two bedrooms with two racketball courts … and I’m using the drawing room to sleep in and the parlor for a tool crib …
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/46 "2018-06-14T15:10:02Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> for the purpose of this exercise, the location of your neighbor’s houses don’t affect your decision.
Do I get to move their houses to suit?
Say my neighbors’ houses are set about halfway back in their lots, but I build my house as close to the street as possible. Then their houses overlook my back yard, which would make it less private than it would be if I had the same setback as they do.
So ISTM that unless I either get to decide on \*their \*setbacks, or there’s sufficient trees and undergrowth between our lots so that they can’t see into my yard except from the street, the neighbors’ setbacks affect my optimal setback.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/47 "2018-06-14T15:21:58Z")
Back yard.
All-grass front yards are useless at best, and complete environmental disasters at worst. I have neighbors who are watering their stupid front lawns for hours every day, dump commercial fertilizer on it every weekend, and don’t use it for anything besides servicing their own vanity.
I don’t really have a back yard, it’s entirely deck, so I’m growing a hedge around my front lawn, killing the grass, and planting a vegetable and pollinator garden.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/48 "2018-06-14T16:14:39Z")
I wouldn’t want my front door to be right on the sidewalk, but I don’t need much space there. Just enough to put in a low-maintenance decorative garden and maybe a tree or two.
When it comes to the back yard, though, the more the better.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/49 "2018-06-14T16:38:19Z")
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> Back yard.
>
> All-grass front yards are useless at best, and complete environmental disasters at worst. I have neighbors who are watering their stupid front lawns for hours every day, dump commercial fertilizer on it every weekend, and don’t use it for anything besides servicing their own vanity.
>
> I don’t really have a back yard, it’s entirely deck, so I’m growing a hedge around my front lawn, killing the grass, and planting a vegetable and pollinator garden.
Not to argue, but it could be a demand of their HOA, if they have one. YouTube on my phone has been posting a boatload of these kind of clips lately.
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### Author:  [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/50 "2018-06-14T18:35:03Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> It depends on how much traffic is on the road.
>
> Busy highway, I want a big front yard. Big Rigs make a lot of noise roaring by.
>
> Quiet country road. I want a big back yard.
Those quiet country roads, if they are gravel, also generate a HUGE amount of dust. You might want to be farther back.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/51 "2018-06-14T18:55:29Z")
Back yard. Percentages just about what we have now: 1/3 front (all in rock) and 2/3 back (lawn and garden and patio). Far enough back from the street that salesmen will bounce once before they hit the sidewalk.
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### Author:  [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/52 "2018-06-14T20:31:31Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> I’m giving you a rectangular lot where the short end fronts the road. You can place your house anywhere you like - for the purpose of this exercise, the location of your neighbor’s houses don’t affect your decision.
>
> Do you want your house closer to the road so you have a bigger back yard, or would you prefer to set it farther from the road, giving you a big front yard? Which better suits the lifestyle you prefer?
Really depends on the size of the lot and how busy the road is. My front yard is smaller than my back yard, but my front yard is still like 2 car lengths from the house to the road. It’s fine that way, and I also live on a quiet road.
So, I’d want a bigger back yard, unless it put the house quite close to the road, and the road was busy
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### Author:  [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/53 "2018-06-15T03:04:48Z")
I love the idea of no front yard and a big back yard with an 8-foot privacy fence around it. When shopping, the only house I saw like this was a historic row-house on a main street where the door is right off the sidewalk; someone living in the next one said the issue wasn’t traffic noise but rather people assuming it was some sort of business (despite the lack of signage) and trying the door to see what kind it was. Yeah, hearing people try to get in would get annoying.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2018, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-front-yard-or-big-back-yard/816015/54 "2018-06-15T08:35:43Z")
Back.
Enough space at front for a drive and a car port or garage, and as much of the remaining space at back - I want to grow fruit, herbs and vegetables, maybe keep chickens or quail
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