Backyard Neighborhoods

  • Communities

About the Communities

Founding year

  • 2011

What we do

The founders of this group live in San Francisco, but we also want to help create backyard neighborhoods in other areas. Some people may just want to share portions of their backyards and nothing else. Others may want to share a few more things, such as tools and outdoor toys, and perhaps share occasional meals outdoors. And some may want to develop into retrofitting cohousing communities with some shared indoor facilities like N Street Cohousing in Davis, California, where fences have gradually been removed from the backyards of 19 houses. Those that focus on permaculture and sustainability might even become urban ecovillages.
Families who practice home and community education might be especially interested in sharing backyards and some indoor facilities. Some families may want to pool resources to set up a laboratory or music room, for example, or share other educational resources.
And people who don’t have children might want to share their backyards, at certain times, with homeschooling or unschooling co-ops that could use the space. They may also be able to share some indoor space, such as the back of a garage, so that the co-ops could store equipment there and have a place to go to when it rains.
If you think you might like to live in a backyard neighborhood or help with beginning or enlarging one, please visit BackyardNeighborhoods.org.

Our Mission

The goal of this group is to connect people in any city or town who want to share all or parts of their backyards to create large, shared spaces, where children can play and learn together spontaneously and neighbors can easily get to know each other, share things, and do things together.

  • Purpose
  • Social
  • Sustainability practices
  • Permaculture design

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2011
  • Started planning
  • 2 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Not open to visitors
Total
2

How to join

Our online community doesn’t have a formal membership process. What we need most is publicity, so if you like our mission, please consider doing these actions:
* Link to BackyardNeighborhoods.org at your website, blog, Facebook page, etc.
* Add a link to BackyardNeighborhoods.org as part of the automatic signature on your email messages.
* Post comments about Backyard Neighborhoods on relevant websites and blogs.
* Send letters about Backyard Neighborhoods to online and paper newspapers, newsletters, magazines, etc.
* Keep a few pieces of paper with “BackyardNeighborhoods.org” in your wallet to give to people you meet who have backyards, especially those who have children. They may have an unexpressed craving for an old-fashioned neighborhood where their kids can run out the back door to play with friends in a big meadow or garden with trees and other flowering and fruiting plants, and the adults can watch the children playing while they chat with neighbors on a garden bench.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Backyard Neighborhoods is an online community created to help people create various physical communities.

Decision-making process

  • Others

Governance structure

  • Undefined/Evolving

Still developing or unclear governance approach.

Conflict resolution approach

Backyard Neighborhoods is an online community created to help people create various physical communities.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Backyard Neighborhoods is an online community created to help people create various physical communities.

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • California, United States

Backyard Neighborhoods

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
  • Events
3 weeks ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
  • Promoted
Offer
Need
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Events
6 days ago

Womens Tiny Mud House Workshop

I’m Na, a regenerative designer, earthen builder and educator with the Global Ecovillage Network. I’m passionate about helping people step into action, however big or small. A women’s build I joined back in 2015 was a much needed transformational experience that set me on this path. Offering this workshop is a way of coming full circle and passing that same spark on. Sat 16 to Fri 22 January 2027 This is a hands-on workshop where you’ll learn earthen building techniques and build a tiny house from the earth up, with your own hands. Why tiny? A tiny house requires careful, creative design and asks – what space do we actually need to live? It uses far less material and takes less time to build, so it’s practical and economical. This also allows us to experience all stages of a house build, from design and brick-making to building and finishing. You’ll get your hands into every part of the build. We’ll work with mud brick (adobe), cob and bamboo, then earth plasters and finishes. This workshop is open to women of all ages and abilities are welcome. Come if you’re new and curious, if you want more practice on specific parts of a build, or simply to play in the mud with wonderful people. It’s genuinely good fun. We’ll be in my little forest, a small house on the edge of a village and national park, 20 km south of Chiang Mai, Thailand. You can stay on site in simple earthen dorms or tents, and we’ll share home-cooked Thai food in the cool, bright days of Thai winter. Read more and register here 
January 16, 2027 00:00 – January 22, 2027 23:59

Update to a Public Profile

  • Log in
  • Go to your profile page
  • Toggle on the "Add my profile to the directory"
  • Save your profile

Information

Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

Plus Community Membership

  • Find people with Profile Match
  • Access to your community listing statistics
  • Create Discussion Groups
  • Access to our affiliate program
  • Member badge on your community profile
I am an official member of this community
Disclaimer
I affirm that my information is accurate and I am authorized to manage this listing
Foundation for Intentional Community FIC Member badge logo.

Free Plan

Free Membership
Free

Intentional Advertising

  • Subtotal

    {{ currencyFormat( pricing_summary.total_amount ) }}

Icon representing community connections and collaboration for intentional communities.

Plus Membership

  • Find communities with Profile Match
  • View detailed reviews about communities
  • Create free listings in Needs & Offers
  • Plus Member resources in CommUniversity
  • View communities detailed reviews
  • Plus Member badge on your profile