I like the London practice of having a small square of park in the center among the homes. Although it seems a practice of wealthier urban areas, the parks are gated, the home owners have a key and they pay for the upkeep. I don't know how common this is. NYC Central Park is beautiful and vast, but sometimes I wonder if cities need more smaller little parks. There's a lovely lawn behind Rodin's house in Paris where people go and stretch out, tall trees on the perimeter and open space, it's very beautiful and relaxing to view.
Parks and gardens seem an afterthoughts in American urban planning. The National and state parks are gems but not accessible near the cities.
Somebody mentioned Rome downstream, one more thing I love about Rome, all the public fountain water is potable. There's something so awesome about going to the fountain and getting water that you can drink. (Native Romans, don't crush my dreams by telling me I was a dumb tourist and who knows what I drank when I took my chances with the public fountains.)
As long as you can look into it from the street you'll have some benefit at least. Walking along other people's gardens can be quite relaxing too as long as high walls are not allowed.
There’s a mix - some are walled off, some internal to housing (interior of a block), some just fenced off.
The Eaton Square viewed on Google Maps shows a variety. The main square is shoulder-high iron fencing. But many blocks have walked or internal gardens.
The problem is those private gardens don't give you a chance to take a walk in them, and they don't connect together in any way to make them friendly for birds.
I live in a mid-sized city in the States, and all of our streets are tree-lined. Our fields too, which used to just be grass for sports, are getting more and more trees planted.
And the Roman water is potable, yes, and delicious because of the limestone it filters through. Although if you drink or fill a bottle from the bottom of the sprout, instead of putting your finger underneath and letting the water spurt up from the little hole, someone will tell you that's disgusting, because that's where the dogs lick. Nevermind that the water coming out the hole is still touching that bottom portion of the pipe.
Parks and gardens seem an afterthoughts in American urban planning. The National and state parks are gems but not accessible near the cities.
Edited to add, there's a very good Economist article about building miniature forests in cities, I can't find it right now but here's an article that was referenced: https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-...
Somebody mentioned Rome downstream, one more thing I love about Rome, all the public fountain water is potable. There's something so awesome about going to the fountain and getting water that you can drink. (Native Romans, don't crush my dreams by telling me I was a dumb tourist and who knows what I drank when I took my chances with the public fountains.)