Front garden ... a long way to go

In A Pattern Language Alexander writes (Pattern #140) that "The relationship of a house to a street is often confused: either the house open entirely to the street and there is no privacy; or the house turns its back on the street, and communion with the street life is lost." As a normative guideline he suggests: "Let the common rooms open onto a wide terrace or a porch which looks into the street. Raise the terrace slightly above street level and protect it with a low wall, which you can see over if you sit near it, but which prevents people on the street from looking into the common rooms." We have a long way to go. This summer we will probably be content if Angela's hard work in evening out the soil and transfering some ground cover will result in a completely green terrace. And if the peonies keep flowering.