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A '''back yard''' or '''backyard''' is the area behind a home; this article also covers the '''front yard''' in front of the home, with special emphasis on home gardens.
==United States==
===Slavery===
Slaves were generally allowed to keep their own gardens behind the slave cabins and in recent years historians and archaeologists have explored them to understand black culture under slavery, as well as food habits and types of recreation.<ref> Barbara J. Heath, and Amber Bennett, "'The Little Spots Allow'd Them': The Archaeological Study of African-American Yards." ''Historical Archaeology'' 2000 34(2): 38-55. 0440-9213 </ref>
===19th century===
By the 1850s the move to cities (urbanization) and use of sore-bough goods (the [[Market Revolution]]) led middle-class Americans to abandon the world of cottage industry and separate the workplace from the home. In the suburbs, however, women were cut off from paid employment. Gardening made the suburban home a productive unit. While Americans generally had no need to garden, they were beginning to understand that the economy's periodic downturns could translate into financial ruin and that gardens could always be depended on for profit. Gardening and horticultural societies also offered a sense of belonging and identity, which offset the anonymity of city life in industrial America. Gardening enabled women to participate in commerce, in this case local exchange systems. Novels and advice manuals encouraged middle-class women to exhibit at horticultural societies and sell what they had grown and asserted the acceptability of this income-producing option, an option that hardly rivaled the opportunities available to men.<ref>Glenn Moore, "'A Very Housewifely Ambition': Women Gardeners in Industrialising America." ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'' 2001 20(1): 18-30. 0705-7113 </ref>
From his base in Northampton, Massachusetts, in the late 19th century, George Washington Cable worked to improve the lives of immigrants and the working class through a number of programs, including a gardening contest. The competition, funded by [[Andrew Carnegie]], was intended to encourage the creation of modest personal gardens as a means to promote civic and personal pride among working-class immigrants. Under Cable's close supervision, the contest served to promote the idea of a distinctly American garden as an alternative to Colonial Revival style from 1899 to 1925.
===World War I===
Liberty Gardens were planted in back yards and empty lots in World War I (1917-20)
===World War II===
The emergence of food rationing in World War II encouraged the formation of "Victory Gardens" in back yards and designated empty lots. By 1943, 20 million gardens produced 8 million tons of food, including 40% of all the vegetable produce that was consumed by families. Victory Gardens, also called "war gardens" or "food gardens for defense", reduced the pressure on the public food supply brought on by large shipments of food to soldiers and Allies. Even more important, these gardens were morale boosters for civilians who demanded a chance to participate in the war effort. Similar victory gardens were planted in World War I.
===Ethnic groups=======Italians====Italians lived in cities and often built decorative front yard, and used their backyard to grow fruits and vegetables.====Japanese====All 100,000 members of the Japanese-American community on the West Coast were placed in ten inland internment camps in 1942. The internees reappropriated their limited space by simulating traditional Japanese gardens with bridges and stone lanterns, using white paper covering in their homes, building altars, and engaging in other traditional Japanese arts and crafts. In this way the Japanese Americans were able to assert their native and personal identities and achieve a sense of ownership and freedom during their incarceration. ====Latino Southwest====
Barrio gardens are important in [[Latino]] culture. Flowers, herbs, trees, and other plants enhance the enclosed patios of Mexican American homes. Within the traditional, patriarchal Latino society, women could make the garden their own private space, providing for and enriching the family table and using herbs for folk medicine. As opportunities for women developed and urban renewal removed courtyard-style houses, barrio gardens evolved to become the yard art of the Southwest.<ref> Suzanne Waldenberger, "Barrio Gardens: The Arrangement of a Woman's Space" ''Western Folklore'' 2000 59(3-4): 232-245. 0043-373x, focused on Tucson, Arizona </ref>
==Australia==
* [http://www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au/ Australian Garden History Society]
==Further reading==
* Earle, Alice Morse. ''Old Time Gardens'' (1901), on colonial America
* Lawson, Laura. ''City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America''
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