Problem
If a garden is too close to the street, people won’t use it because it isn’t private enough. But if it is too far from the street, then it won’t be used either, because it is too isolated.
Solution
Do not place the garden fully in front of the house, nor fully to the back. Instead, place it in some kind of halfway position, side-by-side with the house, in a position which is half-hidden from the street, and half-exposed.
Related Patterns
… this pattern helps to form the fundamental layout of House Cluster (37), Row Houses (38), Work Community (41), Your Own Home (79), and Building Complex (95), because it influences the relative position of the buildings and their gardens. Since it affects the position of the buildings, and the shape and position of the gardens, it can also be used to help create South Facing Outdoors (105) and to help the general process of Site Repair (104).
If possible, use this pattern to influence the shape of house lots too, and make them as near double squares along the street as possible; build a partial wall around the garden, and locate the entrance to the house between the house and the garden, so that people in the garden can be private, yet still aware of the street, and aware of anybody coming up to the house - Main Entrance (110), Garden Wall (173); allow the garden to grow wild Garden Growing Wild (172), and make the passage through, or alongside it, a major part of the transition between street and house - Entrance Transition (112). Half-hidden gardens may be Courtyards Which Live (115), Roof Garden (118), or a Private Terrace on the Street (140) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 545.