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Backyards Are Health Infrastructure – Saanich Should Treat Them That Way

By M. Rose Munro
June 10, 2026

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Private green spaces – backyards, gardens, and small personal outdoor refuges, play a far more significant role in human well‑being than we often acknowledge. Over the past two decades, research across public health, psychology, and urban planning has shown that domestic green space measurably improves mental health, reduces stress, increases physical activity, and strengthens social resilience. In a community like Saanich, where the mild climate and long gardening tradition make outdoor domestic life part of everyday culture, these findings carry particular weight. Backyards function as decentralized public‑health infrastructure.

Mental Health and Stress Reduction

People with access to private gardens consistently report higher life satisfaction, lower stress, and greater emotional stability. Large cohort studies across Canada, Europe, and the UK show the same pattern: those with a yard or garden spend more time outdoors, experience more positive emotions, and describe their private green space as a place of “freedom,” “retreat,” and “joy.” These seemingly simple sentiments reflect the psychological mechanisms that make private nature restorative.

Physiological research reinforces this. Exposure to green environments is associated with lower cortisol levels, reduced blood pressure, and improved self‑rated mental health. While public parks also provide these benefits, private yards offer something parks cannot: immediacy, privacy, and control. Being able to step outside one’s door into a quiet, personal natural space without crowds, noise, or limited hours creates a reliable refuge that supports daily emotional regulation.

The pandemic made this distinction unmistakable. Residents with private gardens described them as lifelines during lockdowns, while those without them often found public spaces crowded or inaccessible. The lesson extends beyond COVID: private green space acts as a pressure valve during any period of stress or disruption.

Physical Health Benefits

Private green spaces also support physical health. People with yards are more likely to meet recommended activity levels, in part because gardening itself is a moderate‑intensity exercise that improves strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular health. Regular gardening has been linked to better functional ability, healthier body mass index, and reduced chronic pain.

Neighborhoods with more domestic gardens also show lower rates of chronic conditions such as type II diabetes and heart disease. In some analyses, areas with smaller or fewer gardens exhibit worse self‑reported health and greater health inequalities. These patterns suggest that private green space is not just a personal amenity, it is a community‑level health asset.

In Saanich, where roughly half of multi‑person households live in single‑detached homes with yards, these benefits are woven into daily life. Children play outside, seniors garden year‑round, and families use their yards for recreation and food growing. The region’s mild coastal climate amplifies these advantages, allowing outdoor activity and gardening through much of the year.

Backyards as Wildlife Corridors

Private yards also serve an ecological function that is often overlooked. They form continuous, small‑scale wildlife corridors that support local flora and fauna. In municipalities like Saanich where fragmented ecosystems, urban tree loss, and habitat pressure are growing concerns, domestic gardens collectively create a patchwork of micro‑habitats.

Native plantings, hedgerows, compost piles, and even simple shrubs provide food, shelter, and movement pathways for birds, pollinators, amphibians, and small mammals. Research in urban ecology shows that these distributed green patches significantly increase biodiversity, improve pollinator abundance, and help maintain genetic flow between fragmented natural areas.

In effect, backyards operate as the connective tissue between parks, creeks, and remnant forests. When preserved at scale, they support ecological resilience – something densification often erodes.

Social Well‑Being and Community Cohesion

Backyards also support social well‑being in ways that public spaces cannot fully replicate. They provide safe, comfortable environments for family interaction, children’s play, and intergenerational bonding. Many households use their yards as gathering spaces for friends or as places to practice culturally meaningful activities such as gardening, outdoor cooking, hobbies, or small celebrations.

At the neighbourhood scale, private gardens foster casual social ties – sharing produce, chatting over fences – while still respecting privacy. This balance strengthens community cohesion without forcing interaction. In Saanich, where the “garden city” character is part of local identity, private green spaces contribute to neighbourhood pride, security, and a sense of belonging.

Why Private Green Space Works

Several mechanisms explain why private green spaces have such strong effects:

• Daily contact with nature provides spontaneous, frequent exposure to greenery and wildlife – micro‑restorative moments that accumulate into meaningful mental‑health benefits.
• Autonomy and control allow people to design and use their yard as they wish, enhancing feelings of agency and comfort.
• Safety and accessibility make backyards ideal for children, elders, and those with mobility limitations.
• Multifunctionality allows one space to support gardening, play, relaxation, exercise, and habitat creation, serving multiple dimensions of well‑being simultaneously.
  
  

Implications for Saanich’s Planning

Here is where the research meets the uncomfortable reality: Saanich is densifying at a pace and scale that far outstrips its investment in the infrastructure required to support it. This evidence becomes especially relevant when considering how Saanich is reshaping its built environment. Roads, drainage, parks, mobility networks, and ecological corridors are aging or absent, yet the municipality continues to approve density as though the supporting systems already exist.

At the same time, Saanich’s public messaging leans heavily on phrases like “sustainable growth,” “vibrant communities,” and “complete neighbourhoods.” These are all admirable goals, but without the infrastructure to make them real, they function more as branding than thoughtful planning.

In this gap between rhetoric and reality, private green space becomes even more important.

As Saanich absorbs rapid, provincially mandated densification, the evidence is clear: private green space is not interchangeable with public parks. Both are essential, but they serve different functions. Domestic gardens provide immediacy, autonomy, and restorative privacy that public spaces cannot replicate.

Without intentional design, densification risks creating a two‑tier system in which some residents retain daily access to nature while others lose it entirely – a predictable outcome when growth is accelerated but infrastructure is not.

Private green spaces are not ornamental. They are everyday therapeutic environments that support mental stability, physical activity, ecological health, and social resilience. For Saanich, they are part of the municipality’s health infrastructure.

If Saanich is serious about “sustainable growth,” then preserving meaningful access to private green spaces must be part of the plan. Otherwise, the municipality is simply densifying first and hoping the infrastructure, flora and fauna will catch up later.

The evidence is unequivocal: when people can step directly into nature at home, they thrive. Planning that ignores this is not sustainable. It is merely expedient.

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References:

·         Siân de Bell, Mathew White, Alistair Griffiths, Alison Darlow, Timothy Taylor, Benedict Wheeler, Rebecca Lovell. “Spending time in the garden is positively associated with health and wellbeing: Results from a national survey in England.” J of Landscape and Urban Planning, 2020.

·         Brindley, Paul, Anna Jorgensen, and Ravi Maheswaran. “Domestic Gardens and Self-Reported Health: A National Population Study.” International Journal of Health Geographics, vol. 17, no. 1, 2018, article 31. PMC, doi:10.1186/s12942-018-0148-6.

·         de Bell, Siân, et al. “Spending Time in the Garden Is Positively Associated with Health and Wellbeing: Results from a National Survey in England.” Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 200, 2020, p. 103836. ScienceDirect, doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103836.

·         Howarth, Michelle, et al. “What Is the Evidence for the Impact of Gardens and Gardening on Health and Well-Being? A Scoping Review and Evidence-Based Logic Model.” BMJ Open, vol. 10, no. 7, 2020, e036923. BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-036923.

·         Houlden, Victoria, et al. “The Relationship between Greenspace and the Mental Wellbeing of Adults: A Systematic Review.” PLOS ONE, vol. 13, no. 9, 2018, e0203000. Public Library of Science, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203000.

·         Lehberger, Mira, Anne-Katrin Kleih, and Kai Sparke. “Self-Reported Well-Being and the Importance of Green Spaces – A Comparison of Garden Owners and Non-Garden Owners in Times of COVID-19.” Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 212, 2021, p. 104108. PMC, doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104108.

·         Twohig-Bennett, Caoimhe, and Andy Jones. “The Health Benefits of the Great Outdoors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Greenspace Exposure and Health Outcomes.” Environmental Research, vol. 166, 2018, pp. 628–637. ScienceDirect, doi:10.1016/j.envres.2018.06.030.

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See also:

Index of CRD Watch articles concerning the environment/ecology. – CRD Watch Homepage

Why Setbacks Matter: Protecting the Green Heart of Saanich, by M. Rose Munro – CRD Watch Homepage

The Lorax Speaks for the Trees. Saanich Council Speaks for the Chainsaws, by M. Rose Munro – CRD Watch Homepage

The Fate of one of the Last Surviving Garry Oak Groves in Cadboro Bay Hangs in the Balance: The District of Saanich Doesn’t Appear to Know What Will Happen to it. – CRD Watch Homepage

Targets Without Terrain: How the Province’s Mandated Housing Model Doesn’t Fit Saanich, by M. Rose Munro – CRD Watch Homepage

Christine, We Need to Talk About What Happened to Bill 44, by M. Rose Munro – CRD Watch Homepage

The NIMBY Smokescreen: How Bill 44 Protects Speculation, Not Communities, by M. Rose Munro – CRD Watch Homepage